Lori S

Do you have any of the batting left? If so make a small sandwich and throw it in the wash and dryer.

quiltsRfun

Do you have any scraps of batting? Make a small sample and quilt at about the same density. I'd say about 12 inches square woul do it. Measure before and after washing & drying to see what happens. If the sample turns out badly you'll have your answer.

Jan in VA

Along with the other experienced quilters who've answered you here, I agree with their advice; I also wash and dry my wool batted quilts. Regularly, with no problems.

Jan in VA

Kimarene

UPDATE: well, I went ahead and washed the quilt in an effort to reduce the stiffness caused by over-quilting. The good news is that the quilt is a little softer and more flexible after washing. The quilted borders, however, went all wavy on me. The rest of the quilt is okay, although the wool is tufting through the fabric, bearding I guess it's called. I took it into my LQS and the experts there all said they had never seen a quilt where the border turned wavy after binding and washing. Everyone agreed that it was probably due to the over-quilting. Come to think of it, after the binding was sewn on is when the waviness became apparent, and it got much worse after washing. (All the fabric was pre-washed but the batting was not.)

I'm not sure whether I will use wool batting in the future, unless I can figure out how to avoid these problems. My LA quilter offered to not charge me a quilting fee next time. I almost wish I had accepted her offer. Not feeling good about this quilt that I spent so many hours and so much money on. It's for my daughter and I'm going to give it to her anyway, but I'm not proud of how it turned out. Thanks for reading.

pocoellie

I can't help on your question with the wool batting, but, whichever method you chose, I don't believe that the quilt will "soften" up very much, because of the dense quilting, this is the main reason that I don't like dense quilting.

hcarpanini

I can't help now that the quilt is quilted, but in the past I have washed and dried the wool prior to quilting.