Dang. I cringe at the thought of pre-washing all of my fabric, but y'all are making me feel guilty.

:-(

I like the stiff crispness that comes in the fabric for cutting and piecing. It was always such a pain to pre-wash yardage for my home ec class a bazillion years ago. Now I'm thinking I may need to spend my summer systematically going through my entire stash of fabric to prewash it.

Ugh

I agree I have to wash for embroidery and hate it can't imagine doing it for quilting

Here's a tip for those who do wash their fabric: Fan fold or wrap fold the fabric in 36" lengths or whatever you find easy and use safety pins in each corner and maybe more along the edges before you toss them in the washer or sink and long yardages won't tangle or be diffcult to smooth out or iron. Has saved me much frustration since I 've tried this. I tend to buy many yards when fabric is on sale for backing. I don't normally wash fabric before cuttong and piecing. Maybe, because I think it is an extra step. Now, I do... usuually wash a quilt before gifting it so I will not be embarrassed should something happen untoward. Especially the quilts for nursing home residents as these will posibly get harsher treatments than in my home.

I understand prewashing for people who have allergies. However, prewashing involves more than 90 seconds to throw fabric into a washer and transfer to a dryer. Once washed, fabric requires ironing before it can be cut accurately. Plus, if you want the fabric to have the stability it has coming right off the bolt, prewashed fabric needs to be starched.

But we don't know that in advance, right? Nonetheless, we get to do what we think is best, and that's ok.

You're right, pre-washed fabric requires pressing before it can be cut for a quilt,as does unwashed fabric.

Luckily, there are no rules in quilting except the individual ones we set for ourselves because they work for us.

The Piece-o-Cake lady has some nice reasoning for pre-washing:

http://pieceocake.typepad.com/piece-o-cake-blog/2013/01/yes-you-really-do-need-to-wash-your-fabric.html

One point from the article is that when you wash the sizing out, it makes piecing easier because the fabric doesn't slide around. You don't have to pin as much. And I'm with her. I don't use any sizing on the fabric while piecing. I do sometimes starch before quilting because I find that over the course of a day or so the crease from ironing goes away and my borders start to flap around.

I don't prewash. I just finished a quilt for my daughter. Tested a piece of the red for fastness after it was done. Yep. It bled. Put 2 color catchers in the washing machine with it. Quilt came out beautiful. So I still won't prewash.

I pre-wash because my hands break out when I handle unwashed fabric. I have also had fabric shrink and bleed when used unwashed whether it came from the LQS or fabric store chain. Because of these experiences, I find it best to pre-wash. Just my decision...just my choice! Do what works for you.

I don't pre-wash unless it's fabric that has been recycled.

Any "new" fabric i get will be starched and ironed anyway so it's not a lazy thing. It wouldn't be any more work to wash it before i starch and iron. I love the look when fabric is unwashed and then crinkles and shrinks. Now that i think of it, i could probably just starch it in the washer, spin it and iron them that way. Could even save a step???

Because i'm wetting it and applying heat, any bleed will begin to show right at the ironing stage. I've only ever had one fabric bleed enough that it worried me so i set it aside for a project with all dark fabrics.

Every time i buy something that is previously used i will wash it. I have no idea where it has been or what has been done to it. I worked in a thrift store years ago and people would literally donate bags of garbage. It was a terrible thing.