Sorry if this is a silly question, but I have only ever made one quilt and that was so long ago I can't remember what I did. When I have cut my squares and other shapes for the quilt, do I need to tidy up the edges of all pieces to keep them from fraying (ie. zig zag stitch, fray check, ?), or do I sew the seams with small zig zag stitches or just leave it and hope for the best?
I am a bit paranoid about the quilt unravelling, as I am making a nursery quilt and assume it will be washed often.
I have prewashed the fabric but not starched it (I have actually never starched anything).

Your 1/4" seam should hold just fine using a regular straight stitch :D:D:D
On quilts that get washed a lot, I like to do a little extra quilting along the seam lines.
I starch all of my fabrics as they seem to sew nicer for me...but that is just my way, many don't ever starch :D:D:D

Ok, thanks for the quick reply! I can't really imagine fray-checking all the edges of all the tiny pieces I may cut:)

they will be fine, I make lots of baby quilts, and they all hold up

I have never used fray check and my DGDs quilts are washed often. No problem there.