Jane Quilter

Prewash does not mean heavy agitation or beating on river rocks....just a gentle swish to remove chemicals and expose the bleeders. Last dip in a touch of starchy water, lay flat to dry, press and I am ready to cut. I buy pre cuts to get a piece of the whole collection like layer cakes and fat quarter bundles. 5" charm packs are not useful to me because I have to use them for something smaller than 5" and it doesn't give me many options without a lot of waste.

Yooper32

If your pattern calls for 2 1/2" strips and you buy a jelly roll and wash them first, you more than likely are going to have shrinkage. Now if the whole quilt is all "jelly roll pieces, then that is fine, but if other parts of the quilt have larger pieces and you have pre-washed those pieces then cut your sections, they are going to be cut the exact right size, which is not going to mesh with your shrunken 2 1/2" pieces.

Garden Gnome

Years ago, like 40 or so years ago, the smells at a fabric store would instantly make my throat, head and chest hurt. Formaldehyde or something equally offensive. Pre-washing would be sensible in that case. But although new fabric still has an odor, it doesn't hurt me physically like it used to. For some folks, pre-washing may be a hold-over from days when the chemicals were stronger. If it caused you an asthma attack back then, it makes sense to try to avoid that.
I don't think I would ever buy pre-cuts if I had to wash them.
And, to me, it doesn't make sense to wash the big pieces and not wash the small ones. So I don't prewash.

karate lady

I just wash the whole quilt when done and that's it. Use several color catchers if colors in quilt may run. Used to preewash and it just made more work. have only been quilting for 6 yrs and at 82 with a bunch of quilts i want to make yet I don't have time to waste. LOL....

117becca

I am not a prewasher - mainly because I don't have the time to wash, dry, THEN IRON the yardage out in order to use them for my quilt. There is the raveling - and i really don't have the time to serge or zig zag the edges to prevent/lessen the raveling.

The only exception would be using red and white...but then I take a piece of the red, soak it in some water to see if it bleeds before washing. Then I also use some color catchers when i wash.

Mitty

I think how much the fabric unravels depends a lot on the washing machine. I used to have a traditional top-loader with agitator, and I didn't prewash because it destroyed too much of the fabric. My current machine is a front-loader and most fabric only frays a tiny bit. Not sure how well it would do with pre-cuts as I don't buy those. My minimum size is generally a yard.

I only have experience with the two washing machines, and I don't know if that's generally true or if that's just the way my particular machines were. That's something I would like to know since it would be a factor in my next purchase. Hmm, maybe I should start a thread on this.

bearisgray

For those that choose to not wash any of their fabrics before using them, not washing precuts makes as much sense to me as not washing large pieces of fabric before using them.