Paula Reid Video

[Margo]

Am I correct in understanding that Paula does not pre-wash her fabrics before she sews her quilts? It sounded like she makes the quilts,quilts them and then washes.
I would appreciate any input.

[Margo]

I have not re-watched Paula's video, but can tell you that a lot of us do not prewash all our fabrics.
However....I always pre TEST my fabrics for color fastness if there is any chance of them bleeding.

I do that by cutting about a 4" square and putting it in a white bowl with HOT water. If the fabric bleeds, it's easy to see the color in the water against the white bowl.

Also...I personally like the soft, puckery look of old-fashioned quilts. I get that look with new quilts by using unwashed fabrics and a cotton batting that will shrink up about 5% when washed. Hobb's Heirloom Cotton, an 80/20 blend, is my favorite. Because the fabrics and the batting will both shrink in a hot wash and in a hot dryer, I get the soft puckery look I'm after.

If you don't like that look, prewash your fabrics, preshrink your batting (read the label to see if your batting recommends preshrinking) and do not wash in hot water or dry in a machine. You will want to block your quilt with cold water to keep it flat and pristine looking.

[Margo]

I don't prewash my fabric and I do not consider a quilt done until I was it to make sure it is not going to fall apart. Like Margo--i like the puckery look!

[rehak]

I guess I just want to point out that prewashing your fabrics doesn't keep your quilts from getting the puckery look. As Margo points out, it's the shrinking of the batting that causes the puckery look. If you want to get picky, then actually prewashing your fabric and not prewashing your batting will give you the maximum puckering because there will be the maximum difference in the shrinking of the fabric compared to the shrinking of the batting. But commercial fabrics shrink so little that this difference is really negligible. (Sorry, I'm just really detail oriented...)