I don't quilt yet, I just piece. But I want to say I am sorry this happened to you. You must have worked hard on this quilt and to have this happen must have been so devastating to you. But think of it as a lesson learned. It will never happen again, I bet. My heart goes out to you.

I was wondering the same thing. I would think pulling that sopping wet, heavy quilt out of the washer and hanging it on a line would be very hard on the quilt - harder than spinning it dry.

When I quilt a project I bring threads to the front at the start places and tie them three time and thread a needle and bury the threads in the batting with the tail being the length of the needle I use. In a lot of cases that tail will be crossed with stitching with the next line of quilting. When the quilting line ends up at the edge and will fall in the binding I back-stitch and go right off the edge to save time. I know that it is secure and not unsightly.

ditto - I do the opposite - wash by hand in the tub, then spin in the washer. I think the agitation would loosen things more than the spinning.

What kind of thread are you using? What kind of knot? I knot off with a surgeon's knot, like in hand quilting, then bury it within sandwich. Maybe your machine stitches were too large and became toe catchers........ In any case hope you can repair.

I can imagine that pulling a sopping wet quilt out of a washer has to be hard on fabric and stitches. Would definetly spin first.

I have not quilted many quilts but thank you for asking about this. It gives me something to remember when I do quilt my tops.

" But I would like to know how you washed the quilt, particularly since it had wool batting. " My favorite quilt has wool batting. I throw it into the washing machine and the dryer just as though it was a cotton batt. It comes out nice and fluffy. I love it, so I don't think the batt is the problem

I agree with this, especially if your washer is the tub kind with the center spindle that twists back and forth. I believe that kind of agitation is the worst for quilts.

I've seen top-loader tubs with no center spindle in stores, can someone tell me how those machines agitate?

I am working on some grid quilting inside a quilt and here is what I do:

I pull the bobbin thread to the top and sew about 5 stitches at stitch length .4 mm.
Then I change the stitch length to 3 mm and finish the line.
JUST before the end of the line I change the stitch length back to .4 mm and do another 5 stitches. Trim threads - finished.

My machine has a memory function for stitches, so instead of changing the straight stitch all the time (that was a drag), I select the zigzag stitch for the start and end, set it to STITCH WIDTH = 0 and STITCH LENGTH = .4.
Now I only have to toggle between the zigzag and the straight stitch. I think I read that on this board somewhere.