craftgrrl | Quilting Question (Yay for alliteration!)

I apologize in advance for the text only post...

I'm home sick today and thought I'd try to be productive and pre-wash some fabric for a quilt I'm planning to make soon. My question is about the temperatures for washing and drying the fabric. It's all basic quilting cotton, so I know there's a pretty good chance it will shrink some. Should I wash it and dry it on hot so I can get all the shrinkage out of the way?

I've only made one quilt before, and at the time I wasn't that worried about the technical aspects like the pre-washing because the quilt was for myself, but because this quilt is going to be a graduation gift for a dear friend of mine, I really don't want to screw it up. Thanks for any help you lovely people can give me. =)