Tessb

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?

bearisgray

If it is a washable batting - I wash it.

If not, I do not.

Read the instructions.

Tartan

I have never washed a batting but I like the texture washing the whole quilt gets.

Tessb

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

Tessb

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

bearisgray

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

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

dluvs2quilt

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.

bkay

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

sewingpup

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.

Tessb

Thank you, that is an excellent idea.