Originally Posted by Steady Stiching
I've never used wool batting, afraid of shrinkage and felting in the wash. How do you care for a quilt that has wool batting? i've heard it hand quilts beautifully, and would love to give it a try...just chicken I guess.
It's a huge risk using an off-brand of wool batting. The only two brands I would trust for wool are Hobbs and Quilter's Dream. Care of these battings are the same as if they were cotton. Shrinkage is about the same. Shrinkage of up to 3% is pretty much the standard for all of the good cotton and wool battings. (Polyester battings do not shrink at all.)
Wool used to be a very risky batting to use, largely because of bearding. In the past you would have to enclose a wool batting in cheesecloth to prevent bearding. Hobbs and QD have eliminated that problem and have also created very stable wool battings. (Maybe by needlepunching? I don't know for sure if their wool battings are needlepunched.)