Oh, what a beautiful quilt!

I always pre wash fabric. Typically use Hobbs 80/20 batting and when I wash the quilt, it is very krinkly.

I have used Hobbs 80/20 and my quilts have crinkled more. (I really like it.) You can get it at a lot of different places(JoAnn Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, Connecting Threads.com). I just wash and dry normally. I also use Heirloom batting 100% cotton from JoAnn Fabrics and it lays a lot flatter.

Love how bright and cheery your first quilt is. Great prints!!

Does the SO to a fair share of laundry?! How about defining "fair" as "I'll wash and you dry"!

Your quilt is lovely. Very nice arrangement of colors and patterns. I agree that the heat of the dryer will crinkle it better than anything else I can think of, but even without that, it will develop that look over time. They didn't have clothes dryers in the early days when quilts apparently got crinkly with use. Hotter water and more agitation will do it, but might cause problems. I would worry that a radiator could possible scorch it, unless it stays at a level that you can tolerate holding your hand on.

The trouble with using flannel that isn't preshrunk is that it sometimes shrinks a different amount across the grain vs. lengthwise.

I usually prewash unless I'm using pre-cut fabric. I have had the Color Catcher turn very deep pink with the dark red and maroon Kona cotton, but have not seen bleeding on a quilt. Without prewashing I'd probably worry. My quilts all seem to crinkle in spite of the prewashing. I usually use Warm and Natural. As long as the batting will shrink, the quilt will crinkle, and I suspect that the less shrinking the top and backing do relative to the batting, the more crinkles you'll get. If you think about what happens if you stretch elastic while sewing it down, you can picture the effect of the batting getting smaller while the other layers do not, though of course elastic would be an extreme example.

Welcome to QB!

Love your quilt. Cotton will shrink, so your best bet to get that crinkled look is to not prewash fabric and use cotton batting(doesn't have to be 100% even and 80% will do fine). Denser quilting will make the fabric pucker more. Washing it and putting it through the dryer will also help. I love the crinkled look on quilts. Keep up on your quilting and can't wait to see what you make next.

Hi,
Welcome to the board! I love your quilt-- great new line of quilting fabrics!

My quilts get pretty crinkly. I use Warm and Natural batting and 100% cotton fabrics and thread. Then I wash warm and machine dry. That's my only formula!

If you want to see how they turn out, you can look at my album in my profile. Plenty of crinkles, especially the Bento Box....
http://www.quiltingboard.com/members...albums951.html

Well, he does occasionally, but is met with rebuke from me! He tends to mix all his colours. I don't mind him doing his own laundry, but I have a go at him if he does mine or my son's. I like our whites to stay white! The few times he did do the laundry, he complained about the lack of drying space and each time we talk about buying a tumbler I remind him of that. I think I'm just going to go and buy one and he'll just have to deal with it!

Thanks everyone who's written in with their opinions and for welcoming me on the board. And you're all too kind about my quilt - it's far from perfect!

Oh! They're all so lovely!

I agree with KTBB. Many times material shrinkage will cause crinkles.