:thumbup: great quilt.

That is great to know!!! I love that quilt. It's beautiful.

Many home decor fabrics say dry clean only because they have a special coating on them of some kind or shrink when washed. If you prewash you take care of shrinkage problems, dye bleeding, and sometimes the special coating. Then I use them for projects. Sometimes the wrinkling, crunching etc. caused by washing adds to the texture. Depends on what you want.
For example, some satins get wrinkles that don't iron out, but it might be a look that you like for your project.
The home decor fabrics with a kind of rubbery backing is used by a friend to make quilts for the homeless. They are durable and sometimes waterproof, and very warm. She uses them for the backing of the quilt.

What I love about decorator fabric is that a lot times the weight is not that far off from really good quality quilting cotton. I look for cotton and I look at the weave. Sizing usually comes out in the wash, I've only had a couple of pieces where the sizing didn't come out.
I also love the fact that the fabric is usually wide enough to do a back on most of your smaller quilts and there is no piecing required.

Carole

I've made rag quilts out of cotton, home dec fabric.

Yes, you do have to pre test it. My sil made a large lap quilt out of it and when she washed it it fell apart

I have used to make living room quilts. Only cotton, but I used old design sample books, so all the weights are similar. They soften more and more as they are washed.

I also use old barkcloth. Again, if all of the fabrics are a similar weight, it's easier, but not necessary. Have fun. There are no rules.

my first quilt was made from leftover home decor fabrics (it was a self-designed Chevron pattern so it was all strips cut by hand - didn't know anything about quilt making at that time. and I pressed the seams open.) but my now 6 year old quilt has held up just fine. I will say I do prefer the cotton fabrics over the home decor fabrics as far as cutting and sewing but yes, you can use home decor fabrics in quilts.

Early this summer I found that a neighbor was throwing out two vintage fabric sample books. Of course I couldn't let the garbage man get them, so I snipped off all the cardboard, washed it all and left it out to air well in the sun and wind for two days and then made a crazy DP9 with it. It was perfect for my front porch for cool evenings by the sea, but my dogs loved it so much that it is now in their dog bed.

I do. I especially like using it as a backing fabric as it gives a lot of stability to the quilt.