unbleached muslin question
 

with regrets I am admitting to using unbleached muslin for my quilt without pre washing it. my top is done, decided to use unbleached muslin for the backing but is was bought later and I washed it immediately.
my question is, should or could I wash the top before quilting it or should I wait till I am done quilting and then wash.

I do not like the look or the feel of that muslin that much but I am too far done with the quilt to change anything.
thanks for your input.

I would on wash a pieced quilt top before finishing... There are lots of risks... A big one being all thou seams raveling. Also, shrinkage is dependent on more than just one unwashed fabric in a quilt. The batting, backing and send it by of the quilting all play a role. I would sandwich, quilt, bind the quilt then launder it.

I love muslin quilts. If it were me.....I would use cotton batting, quilt it, then wash it. I love the crinkled look.

I also think it is very risky to wash an I quilted top due to unraveling. If you feel you really need to do so, I would just soak it in a large sink or tub. Do not agitate then Just lay flat to dry.

I'd wait till it's done.

I also would wait until the quilt is finished to wash due to the unraveling of the seams.

I would not wash now not only to avoid the raveling of the seam allowances but also the quilting will stabilize the muslin to some degree and you won't get as much shrinkage with it quilted. It also depends on the quality of your muslin. Some higher quality muslin really don't shrink that much. The cheap gauzy ones do.

Someone correct me please if I'm wrong but I think the more quilting you have the less shrinkage you'll have because the fabric is secured in more places so you might want to consider that in your quilting design.

i wouldn't wash until done, either. i think the cotton batting is a good idea

Your best bet is to wait to wash until the quilt is completed and bound. To control any tendencies of the different fabrics to shrink differently, I strongly recommend doing a moderate amount of quilting -- no matter what batting you use. Once quilted, the batting controls shrinkage -- which means that even if the unwashed muslin wants to shrink dramatically, it will not be able to. This does not work for a tied quilt or if the quilting lines are too far apart -- say 10". If your lines are 4" apart or so, you should be fine.

This is correct. The more quilting you have, the more fabric shrinkage is limited to only as much as the batting shrinks.

The problem comes in if quilting lines are far apart. In this case, a fabric with a huge need to shrink can pull away from the batting (between the quilting lines), allowing the fabric to shrink more than the batting. When the quilting lines are close together, the small expanses of fabric between quilting lines can shrink only as much as the batting underneath them shrinks.