Cedar

The way did a tied patchwork quilt with my grandma was 6" squares an then a 2" border. We enveloped the quilt, sewed a straight stitch seam a half inch in from the edge and another on the edge of the border and patch to give it stability before tying at the corner of each patch. It worked out well. My grandma says she doesn't prewash and we haven't had any problems with any of the quilts I've had over the years. She said she occasionally finds a fabric that shrinks during ironing.

So knowing that and hearing what everyone had suggested I'd say if you're worried about it getting it wet to check for bleeding and give your pieces a good iron and you should be OK.

Im still a newbie though so if anyone knows better speak up!

bearisgray

Measure your pieces after washing and ironing them and then proceed from there.

Skylark53

It sounds like the majority is for washing them in some manner - because I'd rather be safe than sorry, I'm going to go ahead and stick them in a pillowcase, then lay them out flat to dry, and iron them while still a bit damp. One last thing - I wash pretty much everything in cold water to prevent color bleeding as much as possible...I'm guessing cold is the way to go for these?

Thanks again for all the prompt and useful replies!

bearisgray

Some of use hot water for the soaking/ washing part of the process.

I "assume" that the recipient of whatever I make may be unaware of the " proper " way to take care of the item, and I want to know that the fabrics will tolerate being tossed in the washer and will come out okay without having to use color catchers or synthrapol in the wasihng process.

Skylark53

Alright, after a lot of careful consideration, I decided I'd hate to spend so much time on a quilt only to have it shrink/bleed and I'd only spend the whole time making it worrying that something bad would happen when I did wash it, so I might as well wash the fabric. I put some of the same color family in a pillowcase on the delicate fabric cycle and to be extra safe used cold water (I don't have any color catcher on hand). There was some fraying, nothing horrible, but as to be expected. I then kept them in the pillowcase, stuck them in the dryer on perm. press for a few minutes, then took them out and ironed them while still damp on the cotton setting. I hope this should take care of any shrinkage!

When I measured them again afterwards, though, they seemed about the same size (these quarters are about 19 x 22.5 or so). Oddly enough, they seemed to shrink more at the selvedge end (?)

Was really tempted to cut them at 6" unfinished because I took some scrap fabrics and looked at sizing, but if my math is correct I could get the most out of the fabric using 5.5" cuts? (allowing some room for cutting off selvedge and frayed ends).

Prism99

According to my calculations, from fabric 19 x 22.5 you will get 9 pieces if you cut 6" square; 12 pieces if you cut 5.5" square. However, you may still want to cut at 6" as there will be fewer seam allowances with the bigger sized pieces. If your purpose is to use up as much of the fabric as possible, in order to determine optimal cutting size you would need to figure out area of quilt top of "finished" size of pieces you could cut.

LadyElisabeth

I, too, wash all my fabrics before using them in a quilt.

GrannieAnnie

If you soak precuts in a tub or bucket, then slosh them a round a bit, you will not have a problem with fraying.

Skylark53

It's been a while, but I finally got around to working on this quilt again. I did end up washing everything, and lucked out with the FQ's - I cut 6" squares and only had about 1/4 to 1/2 scrap strip on them so I think I did pretty good there.

Now I'm deciding size. I'm not planning on doing much of a border or sashing. I'm guess the edge will be about .5 inch? I want the quilt to fit a full/queen bed (will be used on a full size for now, but would like it to be able to be used on a queen in the future). I also want a bit of drape, and room to spare for a person or persons under it.
Jane mentioned a size of 60.5x82.5 with my 5.5" finished squares, which I think is a good start but I'm guessing I might want to make it a bit bigger? Googling, I've come across many different recommended sizes for a double, such as 84x89 and for a queen, 90x94, just for one example.

I'm thinking maybe 77x88? That would be 14x16 finished squares. Or 82.5x88 for 15x16 finished squares. I'm just having a tough time visualizing this...Ideally I would like the quilt to drape about a foot down the mattress on all sides.

Thanks again for all the insightful replies...I wouldn't have even attempted this project without your help!

Prism99

If you use a cotton or wool batting, you need to add in about 5% shrinkage. If you use polyester batting, there will be no shrinkage caused by the batting.

To cover a queen size mattress, I would use the mattress top measurement, then add the amount of "drop" you want on each side. You also need to decide if you want to be able to tuck the quilt under the pillows -- this requires extra.

You may also want to calculate about 1% shrinkage for the quilting thread.