I have never made a quilt, but since I bought my Viking Diamond, I have purchased several designs for quilts. I bought 3 yards of good quality cotton. Do I wash this before cutting it into the squares for my designs? I will be using polyester thread for the embroidery. Please let me know about this.
Sandra

I would recommend washing first. I tend to react to some of the chemicals that they leave in fabric.

Most prewash, but either prewash it all, or prewash none... you don't want 1/2 of your fabric to shrink and not the rest :D:D:D

Sandra,
You are going to find so many different opinions on this subject!
Even the quilting Diva's with tv shows have different opinions.
I do not prewash unless it is a dark fabric. As Alex said on her show, fabrics are so much more colorfast than they were years ago.
I have never had a quilt 'bleed' when washing it, but, I do use the color catcher sheets just in case. I did have a dark blue fabric that after 4 washes in vinegar then soaking in salt would not stop bleeding so I was afraid to use it.
You can soak a corner of the fabric in a small amount of water and check it the next morning or lay it wet on a white cloth.

I never wash my fabric, but that's just my choice.

So you're planning to machine embroider your blocks? I don't normally prewash, but for that I would because you don't want any shrinkage underneath the embroidery. After washing, I would also starch the fabric before cutting (to stabilize the fabric), and cut the squares larger than the finished size (because embroidery may pull up the edges unevenly). Cut to size after embroidery is finished on a block.

Thank you all for these tips. My fabric is off white 100% cotton. So, I think I will cut it into three sizes for 10" blocks and wash them all. Then I can iron and size them. This way I know they won't pucker as much after they are stitched. I am making 8" squares, so I am cutting 10" squares to fit over my hoop with room to spare.
I have Nancy Z's quilting video. I hope I can put it all together after I get the squares done. I plan to use iron on stabilizer with stitching it out.
Sandra

I don't prewash unless it is for a swap or round robin. It works for me.

I prewash and then iron with starch since I like the feel of working with starched material.

If you're going to wash it you should wash BEFORE you cut or you'll end up with a stringy mess. :)