I just got back from a delightful trip home to see my family for Easter. One of the highlights was stopping in at Metaphor Yarns and A Notion to Quilt in Shelburne, Mass. And look what I got! I was partway into cutting the pieces for my Bento Box Quilt when I realized I'd be needing more acid-bright and black-and-white fabric to cut the roughly eleventy million pieces required to make it. So I indulged in four yards of the loveliest prints I could find. Now I just need to wash and dry it to get it ready for cutting. I admit I'm lazy about prewashing. Most good-quality quilting cottons are colour-fast these days, so I've dispensed with testing them to make sure they don't run. I usually just dump them all in the washer, crank on the regular cycle and watch them go. But I do believe in washing quilting fabric to make sure it's preshrunk. It would be terrible to make a beautiful quilt and have it twist, shrink and distort after you wash it for the first time. I'm curious, though. Am I overly cautious? Do you prewash your fabric? Do you follow the rules or make up your own?