thanks for the first laugh of the day. The mental image of people lined to the wipe their faces on a bolt of fabric and sticking the bolt under their armpits?

I agree with you. I do only a pretest if I am suspicious of the fabric. Not enough time or money to pre-wash since I live in an apt complex.

Most of the time I do not pre-wash. If my fabric is an intense batik or a red, black, dark blue, etc. then I will pre-wash but it is very rare.

That just make me gag. How disgusting!

Why hot water?

I buy my batiks at quit shops, but all have had dye issues. Basically, I don't want to make a quilt that may have that issue. Color catchers are great, but in my experience, it's just easier to buy non-batik and rinse in hot water once or twice (if there's a dye problem). I'm on the fifth rinse with color catchers and a turquoise batik! I soaked it 5 times before that. The resultant color is okay,but way not what I bought. So I'm off batiks.

Edited to add: hot water because it will do the job quicker...gets out the most dye and shrinks the most.IMHO

Previously I prewashed but now just soak a bit and rinse in hot water. This seems to take care of chemicals my daughter and myself are quite sensitive to when sewing pieces together. Actually batiks go through so much in the dying process that they cannot be hurt by prewash or rinse and almost always release some color. Granted some of the newer batiks are looser weave than the first ones in my stash. They do NOT seem to tighten in a wash or rinse.

Anyone else do hotwater prewash? I always did cold as that is what I wash the finished quilts with.

Raising my hand... I prewash in hot water with a warm rinse and then dry on high heat because I want maximum shrinking before I start to cut out a quilt. Besides, there's no guarantee at all that the finished quilt will be washed in cold water by a new owner even if you (strongly) suggest that's how they should care for it.

If my batiks are still losing dye after two (gentle) cycles, I add Retayne to set any remaining loose dyes. It's never failed me. There's no way I would ever stop using batiks. :)

I only pre-wash if I find ANY color rubbing off when rubbed with white paper--what I was told to do by a LQS owner. So far it has worked fine. And since I test all fabric, I'm always amazed what fabric bleeds and which don't! Think we all expect the dark reds/purples/etc to bleed, but always blown away when a neutral with just a little red or blue bleeds!