Yesterday, I finished my first quilt, a patchwork pattern called "Vintage Ties" that I downloaded for free from MSQC and executed using Woolies II flannel 10" squares and yardage from the same family. I starched the flannel before cutting it because I'd been told that was necessary to work with flannel to help keep it from shredding. When I cut out my 5" square blocks and my 5"X10" blocks, I ran into trouble because I discovered the 10" flannel precut fabric wasn't always 10" or even always square, and when it was, in many cases plaid patterns were off-kilter. I ended up having to cut things down a bit to make them all square and my resulting 10" squares became 9" squares after sewing the blocks together with new 50-wt cotton thread. When the quilt top was done, I placed the backing and the batting on and pinned it with quilting safety pins, then tied each square with yarn and finished up binding the quilt. It looked pretty good. This morning I took it to the laundromat and washed it in their oversized washing machine with a commercial color grabber to prevent the dyes from running and ruining the quilt. So far, so good. But when the quilt finally came out of the dryer, a good 25% of the squares had shredded at the seams. I've just spent nearly 7 hours hand-stitching the shredded seams together and wondering why this happened. Any ideas?