Something tells me your instructor was selling something other than W&N, or she had no direct experience with it. I have used the W&N batting on all my quilts, but decided to try pre-washing for the first time recently. I followed the directions on the wrapper, even cheated by doing the washing in the washing machine, and had no problems whatsoever. The batt came out of the dryer looking great.

Here are some instructions I found about squaring up your quilt. The first part is about squaring up the blocks but the squaring up the quilt part is towards the bottom. Good luck.
http://www.quiltuniversity.com/squaring_up.htm

I think that after blocking it like Patrice suggested, that if you stipple the quilt so that it won't happen again. I know that it will change the look of the quilt, but the person receiving the quilt, will never know how you originally planned for the quilt to look.

Oh No!!!! That is so disheartening after all that work!!! I have never used that batting and now I'll be sure not to ever get any!!!
I don't even have any suggestions except chalk it up to experience and go on from there. I'm soooo sorry!!! :-(

Ditter

This sounds like the best plan to me too. Block, quilt more heavily, wash again, and hope for the best. It really is a pretty quilt. Be sure to let us know what happens.

Thanks again everyone, you are very kind. I will block it, but since this is my first quilt I made alone, I just managed Stitch in the ditch and straight lines. Not sure I want to attempt stippling quite yet.
Although if it all goes terribly wrong again I can use it as a practice quilt.

She was definately pushing Dream Cotton and Dream Cotton Wool which I think is extremely overpriced. She also really had alot of bad things to say about 100% cotton thread.

I was amazed. The quilt in my picture was made with Warm and Natural and I washed it after I got it home from the Long Arm Quilter, I love the puffy look and old fashioned look.

I think that most of the products this woman was pushing were all what the particular quilt store sold. She loves to quilt very very heavy and to me it was not realistic looking for a bed quilt but I did learn some good techniques. Next week we go back for one more class, wonder what tips she will give next week!

Patrice is right on the money. Making sure it is pinned securely while drying so it doesn't move is key. It should work out and be a whole lot better. Patience and a little work and I'm sure it will be fine.

I use only Warm & Natural batting. Have never had a problem.

But you know the little one this is intended will love it. AND won't care if there is a wrinkle or two. Do give it and let this child use and love it.

First I would block the quilt. For this amount of distortion, I'm not sure dampening will be enough. I would probably rinse it and spin it out in the washing machine. There may be a demo of how to block a quilt on Youtube.

Before blocking, I would probably spray starch both sides a few times (maybe outside, where overspray won't hurt anything).

Once the quilt is blocked and dry, I would add more machine quilting. Machine quilting stabilizes the sandwich so it doesn't distort. Looking at your photos, I'm pretty sure close quilting would have helped prevent this problem. Even though the package says you can quilt inches apart, closer is better. FMQ stippling, especially in the large blocks (but actually everywhere), would help a lot. It takes some practice to master FMQ, though.

I would probably never use wool in a baby quilt just because so many people are allergic to wool, and babies have such delicate skin. Hobbs wool batting is supposed to not shrink; I think they have a patent on a special bonding process for their wool. It's the only kind of wool batting I would ever buy, and then probably only for wall hangings. (It is supposed to puff up very nicely with fine machine quilting, resembling trapunto work.)

Edit: You know, I went back and looked at the photos again. That is really a cute top and backing. Rather than doing all that work to try to "fix" the batting, I myself would just set this quilt next to my favorite tv spot and take out the machine quilting while watching tv. I'd take the entire sandwich apart and re-layer it with a good batting. I'd be a lot more satisfied with the results, I think. Hobbs 80/20 would be a good choice for the new batting; I'm sure you'd be happy with the results from that one.