With 2 cats and 3 permanent dogs and who knows what fosters in the house, I always wash before I give.

I don't watch my quilts . this is every one choice.
shirleyt

Up until this year, I would have to say no I did not. However, the one that I made for Jim's youngest brother, I did wash as I had allowed the cats to nap on it and I used chalk to mark the lines and wanted to make sure that it all came off.

I'm another of those who want to make sure the thing doesn't fall apart on the first wash! It also reassures the giftee that she can wash and dry it without problems if I've already done it once.

It depends. I just finished a queen size for my grandson. It's made entirely of batiks. I'll be washing it before I give it to him because when I prewashed all the batiks, a couple pf them ran. I was careful to rinse and rinse again with vinegar until they no longer ran, but I want to wash the whole quilt with a "Color Catcher" sheet just in case. If the sheet turns very dark, I'll know the quilt needs to be rinsed again. Although I doubt it will, one can't be too careful.
Other than that, I usually don't wash because like others on this thread, I like the new, crisp look. 8-)

[/quote] I wasn't happy with a SITD on one of my quilts and a friend told me to wash it. That made all the difference in the world to me as far as my quilting was.[/quote]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is an SITD?
I thought I knew all the abreviations but this one stumps me.

:?: :?:

SITD means "Stitch in the ditch."

That's so funny because I did a quilt with SITD and when I turned it over, there was an obvious crease where my backing must have bunched up. I too went ahead an washed it and I couldn't even find the mistake afterwards.

Thank you for starting this topic. I'm to the point that I was about to ask the same question. I'm ready to give a baby quilt as a gift and was questioning if I should wash it as well.

Does anyone put anything in the wash to set the colors? Retayne, vinegar etc. Would someone explain what they put for washing instructions? One more question-my color grabber has already turned dark, how do I know it is working?

Thanks I should have known that one! :oops: