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-   -   Old wool batting (https://www.quiltingboard.com/introduce-yourself-f3/old-wool-batting-t129410.html)

Rose_P 06-10-2011 11:12 PM

Welcome from Texas!

I don't know beans about batting, but it's interesting to know that something like that in earlier times was considered worth conserving. These days the postage to send it back to be re-carded would outweigh the value, possibly. I have a wild hunch that some quilting history museum might be interested in it. I never knew about this process of maintaining wool batting, and it seems like information that should be noted, especially because the process of getting it out of the quilt and then back in and retying it later involved quite a lot of labor - more woman's work that I never even knew about.

ckcowl 06-11-2011 02:19 AM

i would use them- if you really have no interest using wool batts- maybe stop by a lqs and talk to them there- maybe they have a bulletin board or newsletter and would let you (advertise) them-
i would not think anyone would pay alot for them- maybe 1/2 or what a new wool batt would run....

i love working with wool batts-they are my favorite- i pick up old wool blankets at yardsales-thrift stores just to recycle wool fibers..wool is so very nice to work with.

miriam 06-11-2011 03:26 AM

Don't know much about value. I grew up in Northern Wisconsin with those kind of tied together 'quilts' WARM!!! We had a 2 story house with gravity heat so my sister and I used to roll up in the quilt and keep toasty warm. Years later, Mom had two batts combed together and decided they were too warm so she threw them out... I'm glad you still have yours. I've never had a quilt as warm since.

Abby'smom 06-11-2011 03:59 AM

welcome from se TX

sik1010 06-11-2011 04:14 AM

Hello, and welcome from Michigan!

RuthCars 06-11-2011 04:25 AM

That was my feeling, too. Thanks for taking the time to respond, Lori.

Barbshobbies 06-11-2011 05:11 AM

I sort-of inherited a quilt made with wool batting. A person gave it to me to wash for him. I took it apart and saw it was wool, knowing a man would not know how to take care of it, I made him an all new quilt that could be washed. And made our family a new quilt with the wool in. Every household should have one wool quilt here in northern Wisconsin. When the furnace goes out, a cold wet nasty day, like to-day, or when some one is ill. There is NO warmth like a wool quilt.

JCquilts 06-11-2011 05:37 AM


Originally Posted by RuthCars
My mother saved two wool batts from the 1940s that were in the tied quilts we had on our beds as kids. I, in turn, saved them all these years but never used them. They're about 87x62 inches. I believe they were purchased from the St. Peter (MN) woolen mill, at least that's where my mother would send them to be recarded occasionally.

I'm hoping that someone on this message board will advise me about their value. Besides their sentimental value to me, do these batts have any commercial value if I were to try to sell them?

Im thinking that there is little commercial value as you can buy a new wool batting for about $40 - 50. It costs about $6 per lb to recard plus $15 per lb. for any new wool required during the recarding. Add the shipping charges, you are about at the price of the new one if I were to buy your used ones and have them recarded.

However, if they were mine, I would send them to St. Peter Woolen Mill and have them recarded and sewn into a duvee.
You would get years of service from them.

chickadeee55 06-11-2011 05:44 AM

This is an interesting thread, my grandmother only used wool batting and I remember helping to take the quilts apart every year for cleaning and then retieing them.
Last year I talked to a wool shop and they told me you can use a wool bat in a quilt, and just wash it in the quilt. The friction of the fabric and wool will cause it to felt, and you will still end up with a warm quilt. I never have tried this, but I want to with a crib size quilt, just to see what will happen. It would shirley be warm. Has anyone tried this?

QKO 06-11-2011 05:57 AM

Hello and welcome to QB, from western Nevada!


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