A baby quilt finished

I know a large group of people are tired of meandering/stippling as a style of quilting, but it is still the best all over pattern for quilts that are going to be washed and look crinkly and old fashioned. I made the 9 patches that are in this quilt back in the mid 1990's and finally put them together with some plain squares to make a baby quilt. I really liked this soft large flower print for the border. This first picture is before washing.

The next picture is after washing, all crinkly.

I still think meandering is the best pattern for people to learn when just starting out in machine quilting. I don't think anyone should feel intimidated to do it (I know several that are) because a certain group of people have said it is "old hat".

I have been asked by a couple readers whether I prewash my fabrics. I only prewash my batiks, which don't have any sizing or finish on them anyway. When the first ones came out they smelled so waxy and sometimes even had little pieces of wax still on them. I got into the habit of washing them to get the smell out. They don't smell anymore but I am still in the habit of washing them.

I don't wash any of my regular quilting fabrics unless I am going to use a fusible web (Wonder Under, etc.) on them. If you leave the sizing in them, it repels the fusible eventually and it will start peeling away. Shrinkage on good quality fabric is 2% or less, that is 2" per 100".

I make most of my large quilts about 4" bigger than I need them to be so even if there is some shrinkage in the final product, it will still be large enough. Drying a quilt until it is totally dry in the dryer is the easiest way to shrink a quilt if that is what you want to do. Drying them for about 10 minutes in a dryer then laying them flat to dry and smoothing them with your hand while damp is the best way to retain the original size.