No washing before quilting. Unless you prewash the fabrics before they are cut. After that, it's a bit late. Just use a Color Catcher after the quilting/binding are done.

I've never washed a quilt top and wouldn't take a chance on doing it. If I felt I really had to wash it I would try just soaking it in warm water,towel dryng and laying to dry. I've never tried this either but I think it would be more gentle then washing. You'd probably have to do a lot of pressing.

I took a top to my grandaughter's baby shower. I needed to quilt it so took it back but spilled juice from the pan the ham was cooked in all over the top. Duh...was really upset. Had to wash it...what a mess! I had to repair many little seams and it was a buggar to iron. So...no...don't wash until quilted!!

I was given 4 quilt tops that were from goodwill, they smelled bad, I soaked them in cold soap water and spun on gentle, then dried, there were some strings but in all not to bad. I would never have quilted them if I could not have
wash them. the ones I make ,I wait until they are quilted before washing.

I would not wash it until it is finished and then throw in some colorcatchers. I made a quilt top with batik layer cakes and sashed it with plain black fabric. I became afraid it would bleed on the cherry backing so I washed it and the batik and cotton fabric did not lay straight afterwards. They must have shrunk some. I had to really iron it smooth again but I learned a good lesson from this.

I did it once to try to save some tops my DGM made. Long story short - sewer line backed up into basement where tops were stored. Fortunately Grandma used wide seams because they did fray badly. I spent hours cutting balls of knots and loose threads and more hours trying to iron them flat. I will never again wash a top before it is quilted.

And most experienced quilters said, "Amen!"

I prewash all my fabric before I do anything else. You never know. But, I do not wash again before finishing.

Well... Tonight I just learned this lesson the hard way and I'm having to start over and build the quilt top again from scratch. I might stop crying by the end of the week....lol

In my early days, I washed some 80/20 batting. What a mess, totally unusable. I learned a good lesson what not to do.