Question about wool batting
 

For a while now I have wanted to try hand quilting with wool batting. The one thing that holds me back is: The instructions say it can be machine washed but flat dry. The quilting needs to be 3 to 4 inches apart - not a problem but flat drying - I am not going to do that since I have no place to lay a full sized quilt flat.
Do you folks do this?

What brand of wool batting do you have? My Hobbs Heirloom wool batting does not say it needs to be dried flat, and quilting lines can be 4" apart. Here is a link: http://www.hobbsbatting.com/products/heirloom/

Before I use it in a quilt, I dampen the wool batting and then dry it in the dryer to shrink it. I don't know if that's what you're supposed to do, but it works for me.

I don't machine dry any of my quilts regardless of batting but drape them over something that's not necessarily flat like the back of the couch or a table (neither of which is big enough for the whole quilt). I think the "dry flat" is just so the quilt doesn't get stretched, since the weight of a wet quilt could cause stretching if you hung it from a line. If you can put it on a table (that won't get damaged from having a damp quilt on it) and the edges hang over a little, it'll probably be okay. Depends on how big the quilt is and how big the table is.

I'm guessing the quilts could be dried in the dryer and would shrink some, but maybe if you take them out before they were completely dry wouldn't be too much? Manufacturers are sometimes conservative with their washing instructions. I confess to hand washing a lot of "dry clean only" items.

Hobbs Heirloom wool shrinks about the same amount as most cotton battings -- about 3%. I agree with Mitty that you could dampen the batting and dry it in the dryer to preshrink a little. Just make sure it is a dryer big enough to allow the batting to tumble. Packing it into a small domestic dryer would be bad. I got burn marks on a comforter I stuffed into our home dryer, so learned that the hard way.

Thank you for the responses.

The place I read about needing to flat dry was the Heirloom Washable Wool batting on the Connecting Threads website. I was getting ready to order it and that stopped me.

I have QD wool in the quilt on my bed. I wash warm/cold and dry low and it's just fine.

I use Hobbs and Quilters Dream wool battings. They wash and dry ( in the dryer) beautifully. I love those quilts right out of the dryer- soft, lofty, Fabulous!

I have never had a problem machine washing and drying my wool batting quilts. I do dry them on low and give them lots of room but they always come out looking great.

Okay - you folks talked me into it - just ordered 2 queen size Hobbs Heirloom Washable Wool batting from Connecting Threads. It's on sale and shipping is free over $50 so how can I resist? :-)

We recommend starting the drying process in the dryer (low or no heat for 10 minutes max), then air drying the quilt.

This is our recommendation for all quilts as they’ll hold up better over time.

Steph from Hobbs