sewbizgirl

Now that they are cut, DONT wash anything... You don't want them to ravel or change shape or size. Just sew them all up together and quilt your quilt. The difference between the washed and not washed will not be significant.

Another DONT is to wash a quilt top before it's been quilted. The seam allowances can ravel totally away. Ask me how I know...

peaceandjoy

Bonnie Hunter is a very popular scrap quilter (http://quiltville.blogspot.com). She doesn't wash new fabrics, but recycles lots of shirts from thrift stores - thus mixes washed and unwashed. There is a scad of information available through her website, including her scrap system and several free patterns. She does a HUGE mystery every year; the first clue (colors she will use, but you can of course use whatever you'd like) will come out soon. Her quilts have lot of small pieces - I'd guess 3,000-ish for her quilts - but are doable as she gives such detailed information with lots and lots of photos and tips.

I have purchased shirts from thrift stores and am much more likely to wash them before stripping them than I am to wash new fabrics. Have never had a problem.

Jane Quilter

I would dip the 5" unwashed squares in warm soapy water, then rinse in cold water, and then dip in room temperature starch water. Then lay the squares on towels and let dry. Press, re-square, and re-measure. Any square that shrunk and is unusable, toss into the "less than 5" square scrap" box and mush on. That is what I would do.

marge954

I have been mixing washed and unwashed fabric for several years with no problem.

Wonnie

I, too, mix both washed and prewashed fabric together in some of my quilts with no problems.

Dina

I only prewash red fabric. I don't prewash anything else. I have never had any problems mixing pre washed and not-prewashed fabric. I think you will be fine.

Dina

Jan in VA

When I started quilting nearly 35 years ago, I washed everything and required my students to do so, too, because the finishes bothered me so much. As the years went by I bought too much fabric to keep up! I didn't want to waste time pressing all that stuff, so I started taking an anti-histamine almost every day on doctor's advice, and gave up "sweating the small stuff".

I still have some of that 30+ year old, pre-washed fabric in my stash -- used some of it just yesterday -- and have never given a thought to whether it would play nice with the 'dirty" stuff. Guess my fabrics have been well trained over the years, they behave 90% of the time.

Jan in VA

bearisgray

While washing fabrics - or not washing them - before cutting them is usually not a matter of life or death -

I liken not washing them to not using seat belts. Most of the time most of us get to and from our destination without incident.

As with fabrics - most of the time most of the people don't have problems using unwashed fabrics. But there are enough "how do I get the bleed out?" posts to make it worth the effort to me to wash EVERYTHING that is washable before putting it into a finished product.

bearisgray

I also have a fairly large stack of unwashed fabric that I dread dealing with. But I dread sewing with it lunwashed more.

ckcowl

I tend to mix washed & unwashed fabrics in every quilt I make. No one knows but me.