I ALWAYS prewash...no surprises. When I wash the fabric I clip the corners so when I go in my stash I know that it's been washed. When I first started sewing I made a blouse and it was beautiful.....until I washed it. So when I started quilting I always washed because I hand dye a lot of fabric and don't want to cry after I do all that work and it bleeds anyway. Even if I used retayne.

Ever since the appearance of bedbugs at reputable hotels, I have been washing all my fabric. If bedbugs can infest linens, who knows what creatures might lurk in the fabric warehouses...

I am a prewasher, all fabric gets washed before it goes in my sewing room. I want all the chemicals and
excess dyes removed before I handle the fabric.

That controversy will never be solved. You do what you like, as long as you are using quality fabric. "Cheaper" fabric should be prewashed. And your quilt should be made with either all prewashed, or all not prewashed.

No washing for me unless I know it is a color to bleed. Take snips of fabrics and snips of white and place in warm water. If it runs, tosss it, if not you have saved tons of time and I hate ironing

My feelings exactly.

For me it's either - or. All of it has to be washed or all of it has to be unwashed and that only if there are no questionable fabrics (bleeders) in the mix. Since I do not keep track of what is and what isn't washed in my stash - most of the time, I wash. As for the handling - spraying the fabric with sizing gives you that crispness and handling.

The only thing I have ever worried about bleeding is Batiks , so those got prewashed ,otherwise unless a swap says to prewash I don't - so far I have been lucky :)

There never seems to be enough time in the day to prewash. I might be lucky that I have never had a problem before. I do also lightly starch.

Was wondering when the subject would come up again - it's been - what - over a week?