As always, there's at least one episode of Simply Quilts that talkes about this subject:
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_qlt/article/0,1805,HGTV_3876_3190091,00.html
The expert uses a pretty labor/supply intensive process to prepare the wool, though.
A lot of pure wool fabrics on the market now are supposed to be machine washable. Wool blends are usually washable now, too. If you're starting with something you've purchased within the past few years, prewash a small piece to see what happens to it. You might be able to use it like any other heavy fabric without a lot of complicated pretreatment.