What is the first step to any quilting project? Washing your fabric!

There are many reasons to wash a piece of fabric before you sew it in to a project. You might want to make sure the color doesn't run, pre-shrink the fabric so the final size of the piece isn't a surprise, or you might want to rid your fabric of excess chemicals. It is especially important to do when quilting since you may be using various fabrics and you don't want them to become different sizes after the first wash. It's a really easy step that can prevent a lot of heartache later.