Wall Art Quilting - Do you need to prewash the fabrics?
 

Just starting to art quilt and have several wall pieces to cut. Do I need to prewash all the fabrics if it is going to be wall art? Thanks, kiki

Hi Kiki! Welcome to the Quilt Board! :wave:

The whole don't wash or prewash is simply a personal preference, and you'll hear lot's of pro's & con's. The nice thing is it's your quilt, you can do it however you want, no quilt police here! That being said, since it's going on the wall you shouldn't have to worry about shrinkage, I don't think you have to prewash.

I completely agree with SuziSew. The sizing in the fabric might make it easier to handle too. Oh and welcome to the board.

At the very least I would test the fabric you plan to use for bleeding. Looking forward to when you quilt, you may want the option of marking and if you use a water soluble marker you will need to wet it to get the marks out. it is pretty distressing when you are all the way done and you spray your quilt with water to remove the markings and having your fabric bleed.

Also if your wall hanging will use fusible web for raw edge fusible applique, many factory applied sizings will impair the fusible from fusing properly. This is especially true of Mistyfuse brand fusible. The fusible will not fuse properly. The only way to remove the factory sizing is to prewash.

For quilts that are intended just to hang on the wall and not actually be "used", I never prewash. When the quilt gets dusty I just use the brush attachment of my vacuum.

If it will never be washed - no.

This is very interesting to me. I seldom use fusible anything b/c I can't make it work right, but I also almost never prewash (though I almost always check for bleeding). Next time I try a fusible I will prewash and see if that makes any difference.

If using batiks I would set the dye with Retayne or Synthrapol. Otherwise I do not wash.

I just keep things simple -- I never prewash!

When I started quilting in 1992 I knew nothing and did not feel the need to wash something which was not dirty. So, I sort of fell into the not pre-washing group. I have made many wall hangings in machine applique and they came out just fine. This is one I gave Jim for Christmas a few years ago.