Anniedeb

Absolutely wash ahead of time! Wash each piece separately, with color catchers until they don't run/bleed anymore. I have had to give up on some black fabric, as I've washed it 10+ times, and the fabric still bleeds, and is no longer a crisp black, but more of a dark gray. As a rule of thumb I always wash everything ahead of time. Better to be safe than sorry.

QuiltnLady1

I definitely wash black, red and blue fabrics since I know they are the most likely to bleed. However after making a quilt where I did not prewash ALL the fabrics in the quilt I had some of the unwashed fabrics shrink and I had to ditch the quilt. Now I wash all the fabrics in a quilt the way it will be washed when assembled, then I dry the fabrics on high to make sure any shrinking lingering there happens.

If my fabrics have high contrast, I may also do the test where you wet small pieces of the high contrast and put a paper towel down and then stack the pieces and put a weight on them for a couple of hours. Some fabrics may sluf a little color at the seams and some light colors will grab any color near by and the wet and weight will let me know if that is an issue. I hate when there is no real color release tut the white or cream grabs the color at the seams.

Claire123

I have gone back and forth on the prewashing debate for several years. I always use a color catcher with my regular laundry, but there's also the issue that some fabrics shrink, so it's best to get that over with. Most quilt shops tell you not to. I think it partly depends what you're going to do with your project afterwards, hang it on a wall, take it on a picnic, etc.

gax000

I never prewash and haven’t had problems with shrinking or bleeding. That said, I typically use quality batik fabric - which is washed in boiling water as part of the finishing process during production.

Iceblossom

There are traditional batiks that use more wax and other "batiks" that aren't really. My friends give me fabrics they aren't willing to work with because I will boil them and I've gotten two commercially produced green batiks that remained bleeders. I've had most problems myself with dark blue batiks and some purples.

I bought a back of hand-dyed fabrics from the thrift store, beautiful things and they had been starched but never color set. I've gotten pretty good at setting colors at this point!

My own ruined quilt story came from a quilt shop quality maroon fabric that I had prewashed but that was before color catchers. When I washed the finished quilt, the sophisticated silver grey, blue, and maroon top with sparkles of white had turned into a network of baby pink squares.... That fabric never stopped releasing dye. I found another piece from the line, it's the darker one. I washed it once myself, I assume whoever got rid of it washed it as well so it is already lighter than at purchased. The other piece has been washed 7-8 times now, still releases dye in a color catcher.

RedGarnet222

I do. It is easier to put in something to stop the bleeding than to be disappointed later. Also, like someone else said, shrinkage can occur unexpectedly. Heartbreak can be avoided.

mac

I am sure you have had a lot of replies by now, but here is my two cents worth...

I would definitely wash both the black AND the white fabric, separately, of course. I would do this because of the difference in the shrinkage. Sewing preshrunk fabric with non-preshrunk fabric could cause a distortion in the quilt when it is washed. After all that work, you wouldn't want to take the chance that this could happen. In my world, I preshrink everything or nothing. That is the rule I stand by.

juliasb

Absolutely wash your black fabric. Blacks and reds love to run off the excess color from the manufacturer I don't prewash everything but black is one that I always wash. I wouldn't the black to bleed into the white.

mmunchkins

I wash for several reasons. The first is to get rid of any chemicals they use in the manufacturing process. Then there are the germs from anyone who touched the fabric before me (pretty important in this time). I also wash because of potential bleeding and shrinkage. I do the same thing for any clothes or other fabric items that come into our house, both new and recycled.

bohobee

So many responses! Thanks so much guys!
I ended up washing all the solid blacks together. I had about 3 yards total of it. I was going to use a solid black to make something else and decided to wash them all together.
I will wash the light greys and the whites I plan to use to make the quilt together. Just to make sure everything is washed.
I like the wash all or don't wash any rule. BUT I am mostly a scrap quilter so a lot doesn't end up getting washed! Is this bad??

Thanks again guys!