To wash or not to wash is a question debated by quilters everywhere. I am a prewasher. I like how the fabric feels after washing and I have had fabrics run...not often but enough. I also like prewashed fabric more for handquilting and I almost never know what I'll use the fabric for when I buy it.
I recently bought a couple of fat quarter packs to make the Farmers Wife Quilt. It's a lot of fat quarters and more than I usually buy at one time.
Then I wondered about prewashing them all. I normally just throw them in with my yardage and I usually only have a couple fat quarters to wash at a time.
I divided them into lights, mediums and darks.
I pinked the edges of the lights using my pinking rotary cutter.
The mediums I left as they were and for the darks I had read a tip somewhere to sew 2 edges together to form a tube. It was supposed to keep them from tangling.
To the washing machine I went. I used a shortened regular cycle with a warm wash and cool rinse.
And now for the results!
The lights...
The mediums...
The darks...
The strings of thread I cut off...
And the winner is the lights with the pinked edges. I was really surprised with the results. It was a very noticable difference. The lights didn't even tangle up while the mediums and darks both had to be cut apart.
From now on I'll be pinking those edges!
Now I can start that Farmers Wife quilt!
Ann; I can't tell you how many times I have contemplated washing or not washing and I usually stick with the "not washing" decision as I want to get started on my quilt right away. Personally I love working with the fabric when it is "new". This was a very informative blog post for me, thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for showing us this experiment, its amazing! I will have to be pinking my edges too!
ReplyDeleteI love the fabrics that you chose..I love samplers!
ReplyDeleteMicki
Thank you for posting this! Mine always end up like your mediums did.
ReplyDelete