I wash in warm water, Arm & Hammer powdered detergent, regular cycle with fabric softener. Then I put it in the dryer until it's completely dry. As others have said, I imagine this is how the recipient will treat the quilt. I'm also a pre-washer so I usually don't have a problem with fabric bleeding. I have had one that wouldn't stop and ended up washing that thing about 6-8 times with color catchers and it still didn't stop. Gave the quilt with a box of color catchers and told them to never wash it without them. I use W&N batting so the whole quilt is 100% cotton. All the materials can take a normal washing.