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I only prewash the fabrics that are dark or very intensely colored. Usually I then put some spray starch on them and iron the fabric. I read somewhere that diagonnaly cutting a small piece off each corner of the fabric before washing keeps down the stringing and fraying.
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I don't wash....I'm with the group that likes the crinkly look after the quilt's first wash. My grandmother mades lots and lots of quilts and all of hers had that homey crinkly look. I loved them then and I love them now! Also I have a friend who owns a quilt shop, and she tells me that if you are uing quilt shop quality fabric in quilts they may shrink a little, but you are not going to have a lot of color bleeding. So far I've found that to be true. But even if there is one that bleeds, I wouldn't stress over it.
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Wow!!! What an eye opener. I have washed and ironed (no starch) all my fabric. Thought it was a necessary part of quilting. You have just made my life a lot easier. I really love this site.
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I always wash my fabric before I use it. We had a guest quilter speak at one of my Guild's meetings. She is a fabric designer and she said when she toured one of the fabric mills she couldn't believe how dirty it was. She said since then she will never use unwashed fabric. She wants to be sure to get the grime and chemicals out especially if she is making a quilt for children.
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As soon as I'm in the door after buying fabic, it's into the machine and then pressing and blocking.
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I wash all fabric immediately, including batting.
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I only pre-wash batiks and hand-dyes. As a long-arm quilter, however, I do prefer that backings that are cheaper quality fabric are prewashed...just seem to quilt better.
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I always prewash. I don't want to take that chance of having my fabrics bleed into each other. I tend to buy a lot of reds and blacks so I believe prewashing is a must. At least once a month somebody on here posts their personal quilting horror story of how they worked so hard on a quilt only to have the reds bleed into the whites, which turned the white fabric pink, because they didn't prewash their fabrics. Then half the people who post either remind them to prewash to take out the excess dye or use Retayne to color lock their fabrics. If prewashing helps avoid ruining whatever I worked so hard then I'll take that extra step.
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I don't pre-wash because I like the stiffness of the new fabric when I am sewing it together. In the past when I use to prewash the fabric seemed too soft. I don't have problems with shrinkage and usually let the new owner of the quilt wash it. It looks so different after it's all put together and washed.
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I never prewash! The fabric is easier to work with when it is not washed, plus your finished quilt gets that wrinkly soft feeling after washing.
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