twinkie

I have done many many rag quilts and have always done them in my home washer. It is 20 years old and I have never had a problem washing any of them.

Bubbie

When I do my rag quilts, I try to make a couple at a time. The reason being the trip to the local laundromat. The people who own it know me (I take backing fabric, etc... down and wash before I ever bring it home), and know that I will load up the large commercial washer and wash once or sometimes twice to make my quilts ravel. That's me, but it has saved my machine at home. Good luck

katesnanna

Bang the quilt against a wooden fence or brick wall. Works for me. You'd be surprised how much comes away.

Onebyone

I remembered how John Flynn finished his rag quilts.

After all the seams have been clipped, it is time to whack. You can tack the quilt down to a sheet of plywood or tape it to a clean concrete surface. Unless you have a big open work area like we do, you’ll want to do this outside.
Use an electric “Weed Eater”, not the more powerful gasoline model. Just angle the head of the tool so the plastic cord whips the quilt’s edges to fray them. You can see how well you are doing as you go. Keep after the edges until they are all fluffy.

Wash the finished quilt and dry in the dryer.

mengler

That's my technique as well. Never had a problem. Denim doesn't shed nearly as much as a fleece or minky. I've done many though - washed all at home. Keeping up with the dryer filter is key.

Snooze2978

I made a couple rag quilts back in the early 2000's and took it to a laundry mat to wash and dry them. Since they are bulky their machines are commerical and can take the abuse of all the thread clumps going down their drains plus their dryers are larger so more air flow to get the quilt dry completely.

sparkys_mom

I've only made one rag quilt. On advice from members of this board, I took it to the laundromat.

mycatsmom

I am on a septic and have laundry issues. I have a large hose from an above ground pool. It is several inches across and probably 12 foot long. My laundry room is right by the back door and when I wash something with a lot of threads or lint. I remove the drain hose from the wall. I tie a string around the faucet by the place where the hose goes into the wall. I tie this string around the big hose, holding it up near the faucet and put the end of the drain hose in it. The other end of the hose goes out the back door away from the house. All of the water and lint runs out of the house onto the ground. This only takes me a minute to set up and has saved major plumbing bills. When I have felted wool, there is a huge pile of fibers at the end.

FabStripper

This is such a smart idea. Thank you.

paoberle

yes, you will have lots of threads and a wet rag quilt is very heavy. I took mine to a laundromat the first time and probably will every time I wash it.