Washing & Drying
 

What do you presas your fabrics with? Then once washed at what temp do you set your dryer? I'm always worried about not having that "new" look to fabric or color loss since I don't necessarily care for the wrinkly look when I quilt, but completely respect the process. Thank you for your guidance

I don't prewash, never have.

With the questions you have asked,
you may find the following thread an interesting one to follow .....
http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...g-t285648.html

If I prewash, I just run the fabric through the quick wash cycle with a little laundry detergent. I dry on hot then press on hot. As soon as you wash, the "new shiny" look and feel goes out the window. You can recover some of it by reintroducing spray sizing. The wrinkly look depends on the batting you use, how tightly/loosely it's quilted, and if all parts have been prewashed or not.

My washer has an express cycle. I use little soap, but if I have some lightly soiled regular laundry, I throw that in too. I wash in warm and just do the default dryer setting. If you pay attention and take the fabric out as soon as it's dry, very little ironing is needed.
I know people say that the quilting will stabilize fabric that's not been pre shrunk, I'm still very uncomfortable with that. Do an experiment. Take a piece of quilting cotton. Measure both its length and width. Wash & dry. Now re-measure. You will probably find that it has shrunk an inch or two selvedge to selvedge.
Batiks will not shrink, but they sure can bleed!

I wash on a full permanent press cycle with detergent. Dry on a permanent press cycle. My dryer has a 'humidistat' so only dries until 'dry' not 'hot'. I iron with my iron set on the hottest setting (linen/wool) and use starch.

I do exactly what NJ Quilter does, though I don't use starch as often as I used to. Haven't had a problem so far.

I do not have problems with fabrics getting duller with washing. I have found that with Moda Bella fabrics, that the fabric does look quite different after it's washed the first time. This is due to removing the chemical treatment that gives the fabric a bright, shiny look in the store. I now mostly stick to RK Kona solids. I haven't had any issues with LQS quality prints or batiks fading. Batiks, hand-dyed fabrics & some solids will occasionally bleed -- but that doesn't change the color.

I wash everything in Cold water, on the gentlest cycle available, with a small amount of Tide Free (or another dye-free, fragrance-free detergent; dyes & fragrances can negatively impact the fabric dye and/or fiber strength). No bleach, no fabric softener (same reason as the detergent). I usually will dry most of the way on Low heat in the dryer. Then I will either block flat or sometimes if it's just a family quilt, I'll hang over the shower rod to finish drying, repositioning frequently.

For ironing (top only), I iron on Cotton setting, with lots of steam & starch.

As for the crinkling, there are ways to reduce how much that happens, but anytime you get a quilt wet & then "de-wet" (whether tumble dried or air dried), the cotton will crinkle. It's a bit of work, but you can un-crinkle it by blocking it dry. You can either wet block or steam block. I prefer wet-blocking. It's easier & cheaper.

You can reduce how much it will crinkle by quilting farther apart & limiting curvy lines. For example, a 2" spaced crosshatch pattern will crinkle less than a 1.5" meander. You will also get very little crinkling if you add synthetic fibers or wool. These might include synthetic/wool batting, poly thread, interfacing (except Bosal 100% cotton), or even your fabrics.

I wash on cold (to reduce bleeding), and dry on hot to get maximum shrinkage. Then, depending on the sized of the pieces in the quilt , I starch. In other words, if the pieces are cut small and stitched together, I starch heavy. If the pieces are large in the quilt, I lightly size or just iron.

I pre-wash my fabrics in a Quick cycle, warm water, and white vinegar as a natural fabric softener. Dry on normal. I use Magic brand spray Sizing.