Materials have a memory

We're always being told to roll, not fold, our quilts ...  or if they must be folded, to refold them regularly, and never in the exact middle or the same place twice. Better to fold them diagonally; the crease is more likely to come out.

But what of fabric itself, even before it gets to be used in a quilt? Fat quarters are filed away for years, still folded. The centre-fold in stockpiled yardage stubbornly refuses to let itself be ironed out.  Most likely to suffer are the fabrics we're keeping "for best" - when we come to use them, will they be permanently pressed, simply from benign neglect?