I clip most of the ones I find especially those nest balls underneath. Always afraid they will catch in my needle when machine qulting.

You asked why your mother put the clothes in the fridge after they were starched. Back in the olden days when I was young, we would dry the clothes then before ironing we would "sprinkle" them with water, roll them all up in a towel and place in the fridge for awhile before ironing so the dampness would migrate throughout. It was much easier to iron starched clothes when they were damp. Boy, I'm glad they invented steam irons.

That's what my mother did too!! And so did I .......for awhile.

My DGM also kept her starched laundry in the fridge. She made her starch and sprinkled it on the clothes the night before ironing day and then kept it in the fridge to keep it from souring overnight. I think she did it ahead of time for the moisture (containing the starch) to spread to dry parts of fabric.

As for putting the sprinkled clothes in the fridge. It also keeps them from mildewing before you iron them. One way to avoid fraying is to overcast your seams. If you press seams open this is a lot of work but it you press to one side it isn't too bad. Just run a medium zigzag up the edge with one side of the stitch just a hair or two over the edge.

I also clip each block once it is complete, then all the seams when blocks are sewn together, but I don't prewash so the problem is not as major as you have.

I don't get to picky over threads if the material is frayed a little. I only remove long threads and other loose threads that cling to the fabric. If there isn't a lot of contrast in the material, or very light material, it shouldn't matter to much. Don't over work or worry yourself to distraction over threads showing through. enjoy!
peace

We used to put the sprinkled (damp) unironed "ironing" in the freezer. Sometimes it stayed there for months.

Some fabrics fray just from being handled - doesn't matter if they are washed or not. Doesn't matter if they were expensive or not, either.

starch all my fabric and put it in the fridge overnight. It helps distribute the starch evenly. :thumbup: Starching also prevents fraying.