Tale of a 20 year old quilt that needed a good bath!
I washed a quilt this week in my bathtub. My washer is not big enough to wash the queen quilt. This quilt that was a wedding gift to my son and DIL from one of her elderly family members. It did not look soiled but it smelled disgustingly like human sweat. It was hand quilted but because of age of the quilter, the workmanship was poor on the whole quilt.It seemed fragile. Anyway. lots of seams have burst but the smell was so bad I could not work on it without washing it.
I put it into my bath tub with cool water, soap and just mushed it about with my hands, let sit for an hour. Drained the yucky, dirty water and repeat. More dirty water. Rinsed in cool but not cold water and added about two cups of distilled white vinegar to get out any soap residue with more hand mushing, drained and squeezed out the water but did not wring it. I did get it in my washer but just to spin out the water about 3 minutes. It weighed a TON wet! Hung over a drying rack for a day and a half. Now I can start on the repairs. Perfect? No but it smells better and the repairs are non the worse for wear without the agitation of the washer. Now I hope I can do the repairs to leave the quilt as a memento of this woman's gift and efforts.