I have never understood the idea of washing quilts in a bath tub. Quilts are very heavy when wet. How can the "delicate" seams handle being lifted from the water....drained or not....squished/wrung/wrapped in towels/squished again, etc. etc., better than they can handle the soft agitation and spin of a delicates/gentle cycle of a washing machine? Spinning gets much more water out of a quilt in a machine, making it lighter and easier to remove.
With the exception of *one 1860s quilt* which I foolishly washed before testing well, I've NEVER had one 'behave badly' when laundered in a machine with care, whether antique or vintage or recent.
Jan in VA
*2 of the fabrics in this quilt were more fragile than I knew and shattered a bit.
Last edited by Jan in VA; 01-15-2012 at 10:45 AM.