Hi and welcome to this board, lots of friendly, helpful people on here. I always wash and dry my fabric as soon as I get it home. I fold it and roll it on my ruler and store it. When I am ready to use it I iron it with steam, on the lengthwise grain and use it. I recently started pressing my piced blocks on the wrong side, I use steam on the right side, seems to make it sharper. Pressing is only moving the iron Up and down, not moving any other direction.

I never wash my fabrics before I use them and I never had a problem with shrinkage, and I have washed my quilts many times. When I get my purchased fabric home, I steam press it all and organize it until it's ready to use. Plus I always use steam to press open my seams., the trick to useing steam is to NOT slide your iron back and fourth, (that is what stretches your cut pieces), especially triangles. When they say PRESS open they mean just that. (To hold your iron down and press),
but not slide it back and fourth across the fabric

I always wash fabric...don't know why. I steam press, too, but do not slide my iron back and forth like I do when 'ironing'.

Call me lazy but I don't pre-wash my fabrics unless there's white/light colors and a deep color that might run (black, red, etc.) in the pattern. When put together, I wash the quilt using one of those color fast sheets. Works for me.

I love how the ads at the bottom of each page relate to the topic being discussed. "Swash" is the ad right now. Says it's a fresh way to get out odors and wrinkles, available only online from Target.com.

I dont iron until ready to use. Then I iron with a regular steam iron. For piece work I use a small steam travel iron that is not heavy and dosnt stretch the block. I have found it is the weight of the iron that stretchs the block. I do try to just press the seams but that does not always work out so the small iron I can iron with.

I LOVE my steam. I also love purple stuff--it's Mary Ellen's BEST PRESS starch alternative. It's available at Hancock Fabrics and also most fabric stores. It comes in a pump spray bottle like 409, is light lavender and is the best stuff I've ever used. It never clogs like regular spray starch, has just enough "hold" for bais stitching and relaxes wrinkles better than anything else.

I did a BOM at a local quilt shop. They gave us precut pieces, red was one of them. And of course the other pieces were white and a print. They obviously did not wash their fabrics...I used my Best Press (no flake starch) while piecing and the red bled all over the white. So I am glad you are washing your fabrics. I also use a dye grabber in the wash, sometimes use Retayne and now after joining wonderful groups like this, I found I could use Epson Salts in the wash. I don't dry my fabric all the way, I take it out and press and use Best Press where I need to.I always PRESS during piecing..no steam since I use BP..result is the same.If the fabric is damp from the washing or using BP, you are still steaming if using a dry iron. Never iron, only press while piecing.After pressing all of your blocks, don't forget to square them up. I learned the hard way, thinking that my quarter inch was perfect on all I had sewn...first quilt was not perfection. Live and learn.
Welcome and enjoy your new found art.
D in TX

I fan-fold my fabric for washing and pin together the folded edges. Then it goes folded into the dryer. Not much wrinkling.

I also use downy wrinkle release spray on really bad wrinkles like on the fat quarters that have been folded for eons. It really works.