RST, you should be able to machine quilt it -- just loosen the tension on your presser foot a bit to accommodate the thicker batting. My guess is that, like most farmers I know, they have a sheep shearer come around each Spring to shear the sheep & clean the wool. It's an enormous endeavor in itself and to be trying to do that at the same time as Spring planting would be a huge challenge.
There's not reason you can't do a modern/contemporary design with the wool batt. Honestly, I think it would be much easier to do it on the machine. One you layer your quilt together, trying to push a tiny quilting needle through cheesecloth & hand carded wool will be a challenge & there's no way to tell where the spaces in the cheesecloth's weave are after you've sandwiched everything together. My guess is that's why hand tying was so popular with it since people could use a heavier needle with yarn or pearl cotton.
Since you have 2 batts, you might even try one of each. Make one in the contemporary style you are so skilled at; then make a second one using more traditional fibers -- perhaps even with all woolen fabrics like the Australian Waggas, or some of the "primitive" applique quilts (
https://www.primitivegatherings.us/s...-projects.html). I love Primitive Gatherings. Their wool & felt fabrics are top-notch & they even have some wool fabrics that they hand dye. It might be fun to do an all wool primitive quilt using the wool batt, woolen fabric & Valdani 100% wool thread in size 15. Wool applique is fairly quick & easy. You just need some Heat & Bond to help it adhere a bit and then it's mostly just a quick buttonhole stitch. You could blog about the process & time that goes into each one, as well as comment on the properties of each and why they were popular in different time periods... but that's just my thoughts. I'm sure with such high quality batting, no matter what you do it will be really beautiful.