Originally Posted by Baren*eh*ked_canadian
.
One of the ladies at work today was telling my mother to never put cotton batting in the dryer because it will come apart and bunch up and pucker and look awful after. I know she quilts by hand, and her quilting is not very close together, so maybe that's why she was saying that? ...
Melanie, I suspect this ladie is using an old fasioned cotton batting that most likely does not have a finish on it to help hold it together or isn't needle finished like W&N. I am sure there are still ones like that on the market. I haven't seen batting like that in ages but it does need to be very closely quilted or it will fall apart or bunch up like this woman describes. But if it is quilted closely it does not look awful with machine washing and drying.
You will be fine with the W&N and should get beautiful old fasioned quilt shrinkage between this and your non prewashed fabrics. It would be great if you could post before and after pictures.