Washing batting
 

I have finished a t-shirt quilt and the backing is a pieced quilt with pre washed fabric. Should I wash the batting to preshrink or will it be ok to quilt as is?

If it is a washable batting - I wash it.

If not, I do not.

Read the instructions.

Thank you, I am
just worried that it might shrink and mess up the quilt.

I do like that look as well, but was a little worried it might mess up the quilt. Thank you for replying.

I prefer a flatter look - but that's my preference.

It gets a bit of "puckering" no matter what.

It depends upon what kind of batting you are using. If you use polyester you shouldn't need to wash it but if you use a cotton batting It will shrink a little bit. I think on a cotton batting I use it says it will shrink 3%, so you should look on the package and see what it says and it also depends upon how far apart your quilting is going to be.
You can also try making a little sampler up and see what happens when you wash it.

If it's an "important" quilt, I wet it and dry it. I don't actually wash it. I use an 80/20 batting. I don't care for the "puckered" look. As someone already said, the quilt will still pucker a little bit after washing, but not as much.
bk

I look at the batting package to see how much it will shrink. I choose a batting that does not shrink much when I am doing a quilt that I do not want the puckered look which I think would be most likely for a tea shirt quilt as you do want to be able to see the detail in the tea shirts.

Thank you, that is an excellent idea.