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To Wash or Not To Wash?

Bear with me, please, this isn't your usual wash-or-not question.

First, I always wash fabric first. But I participated in a "Block of the Month" at LQS in which the lady pre-cut the fabric into very small blocks for piece cutting. Too small to wash, I thought. So I put the thing together unwashed.

Now here's the problem. I bought the backing, and the fabric is a tone- on-tone ivory. It's very stiff. That's going to be a problem hand-quilting. I can wash it and it'll soften up, no biggie. BUT. I've always heard the mantra..."Pre-wash all, or pre-wash none." What'll happen if I wash the backing but don't wash the quilt top?

I kind of want to wash the quilt top anyway. So, would that be a problem? Any potential for disaster I'm just not seeing? The only thing I thought is that the raw edges might fray a lot. Can't I just sew around the edge and prevent that?

Thanks!

Sherry

Reply to
Sherry
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Sewing around the edge won't do it as every raw edge on every seam allowance will ravel as well. You could put it into a king sized pillow case and wash very gently and air dry.

The backing you chose is not a good idea for hand quilting. Many of those tone-on-tones are made by stamping a rubbery-paint stuff on the fabric. I'd suggest making a small quilt sandwich with the t-on-t fabric and doing some practice hand quilting. I do not think you'll want to hand quilt an entire quilt going thru that stuff. Save that backing for another quilt that will be machine quilted and buy a nicer, softer fabric for hand quilting.

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Reply to
Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Thanks, Leslie!

The good thing is, it's not too late to change my mind, and I'm about to do that. This backing is going to look absolutely perfect on this quilt. You know when you see something, and you know it's perfect? I'm wavering on the hand-quilting part now. I've finally found a longarm quilter who does absolutely beautiful work IMO very, very reasonably priced. I did the test patch. I think I'd be pulling my hair out before it was half done. Sherry

Reply to
Sherry

can you wash the finished top, maybe put it in the washing machine, but in a pillow case tied closed or something. Maybe that is too much for a quilt top, so wash it by hand if you prefer (I guess you could test the washing machine method by washing a single block). Then wash the backing by the same method.

Cheers Anne

Reply to
Anne Rogers

Having recently hand appliqued onto tone on tone I can confirm that this is a bad idea!

Anne

Reply to
Anne Rogers

Reply to
Taria

If it's uneven shrinkage you're worried about you could wash the backing but air dry it. It might shrink a little but the main portion of shrinkage happens with the heat of the dryer.

Reply to
Jeri

I'll go out on a limb here and say it won't do the finished piece any harm if the backing is washed and the top isn't. If you use cotton batting, the entire quilt will shrink up a little bit anyway when the finished piece is washed. A little bit of shrink in the backing won't matter. But the general rule is correct, I wouldn't want to mix washed and unwashed in the piecing, even though most good quality cottons don't really shrink much these days. Roberta in D

"Sherry" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@m36g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

Reply to
Roberta Zollner

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