Why you should always pre-wash...

Now, I know that some of you swear that you never pre-wash fabrics. In various quilting forums, I have heard that pre-washing is a "waste of time," "unnecessary," and just plain "silly." I have always questioned this wisdom, and have always pre-washed my fabrics, especially solid colors. I was just too worried that the dye would run later and ruin all my hard work. As you may remember, Mattie's quilt featured some of Patapri's lovely hand-printed fabric. In pulling out my accent colors, I knew that I wanted to use the bright, lively, chartreuse. I embarked on my usual thorough search for a quilting solid in such a color. All local fabric stores were visited, and alas, no chartreuse... really nothing even close. Kona samples were ordered... the greens were a bland disappointment. But then, out of the corner of my eye, in the red-dot clearance section of Jo-Ann's (gasp!), I saw the perfect color. Eye-poppingly bright and vivacious-- CHARTREUSE!!!! I quickly checked the fiber content-- yes!!! 100% Cotton. My one concern was that the fabric was dip-dyed, so I was worried about color consistency. I decided that I would only use strips from the end, which would ensure that all strips were the exact same shade. Now, as I explained above, I ALWAYS pre-wash. Suspicious of the dip-dyed fabric of uknown origin, I prewashed it not just once, but TWICE!!! Apparently, twice was not enough. Although it is hard to see in this picture, the greenish-yellow fabric in Tilda's quilt has bled (twice now), turning the white sashing to more of a yellow. It's not too bad, but it is disappointing none the less to have something that I worked so hard on turn out to be less than perfect. The moral of the story... always pre-wash. Although maybe the true moral is not to trust Jo-Ann's clearance offerings, no matter how perfect the color!