New Ohio Star Quilt

Wow! You go, guy!

--Heidi

A lovely, soft look for this one, John! I'm sure your recipients will love it. :) One question about the wool batting: did you machine wash and dry this? Or did you let it air dry? Oops -- I guess that's really two questions!

I was very concerned about the wool batting and did not want to ship it off to them and then have it shrivel up into an unrecognized mass the first time they tried to clean it. Nor did I want to insist that it be dry cleaned. (too expensive), and of questionable value. I did some checking with the vendor, and they assured me as long as I didn't exceed 2" it would be fine to cold wash and air dry. So that is what I did. I think it is called "Washable Bonded Wool Batting", so it must have something that will hold it together through cold water washes. I did use delicate cycle for the wash, and I used a large drying rack to support the quilt while drying. It is now (finish drying), hanging from the display clip strip in a warm area of the living quarters of the house, to make sure it is completely dry, before I put it away until the second one is done. I feel that if you can do 2" or less, stitching profiles, you can get away with cold water washing and air drying, and achieve the old timey look without fear of creating a colorful shop cloth or painting drop cloth. That, at least is how I am going to do it from here on in. It better work because I have about 18 yarss of king size batting and I would hate to think it was suspect for most uses.

John

Gorgeous! What a lucky recipient.

Happy quilting,

Lenore

Really like this one, John. (not that I don't the others, but something really appeals to me here). . In message , John writes

Thanks for the reply, John. I know the wool batts are supposed to be washable, but I was really most concerned with the drying. I have a small house and no good spot to get things dry unless they can go in the dryer. I really love wool batting, but I guess I'll have to rethink whether I can actually use it for anything other than very small pieces. :S

You might try a pole or rod suspended by a rope in the garage as an alternative. The water will drip on the floor and not be a problem to clean up on a concrete floor. Actually, the spin cycle of my washer got enough of the water out of the quilt, that it didn't drip when I placed it on the drying rack, in the basement. If your garage is like a lot of the garages I see, (Stuffed to the gills with every extra that the people that own the house have), then all bets are off.

When did you see my garage??? We have a small house -- emphasis on the "small" -- so storage in the garage is our only option. :S

Sandy, I know people who have washed and dried wool batts by machine. I have done some. Will try to get a picture up of a small piece I hand quilted with wool, but neither the fabric nor batting had been prewashed (prestamped mini quilt, marking come out with water. ) It did get "crinkly" and old looking, but that is sort of what I was going for. I think that if you were really concerned you could soak/ spin the batting, then dry it in the dryer to pre shrink. (I did that with some small pieces..... the cats had found them, and I decided that it couldn't hurt at that point. They did shrink some. But I dried them on the permanent press cycle of the dryer. )

Pati, >

I am hoping this goes through - i am having trouble posting but no trouble reading on this group - go figure.

I have 3 quilts made with wool batting. One is white, green and red and is on my bed all the time. I have a black dog that although he doesn't shed does fluff (he is part doodle of some kind) and is always filthy dirty and must admit he does jump on the the bed and lie beside me. As well I have an orange cat who does shed.

So that quilt is washed in an ordinary washing machine at least once a month and has been for 3 years at least. No special soap - just whatever I use at home that month that has no bleach. I then throw it in the dryer. It is fairly closely quilted - within about 3" I would say.

It has the lovely lightly antiquey look I like but it is by no means shrunk! No major wrinkles, no lumps in the batting whatsoever. It is Hobbs Harriet wool batting. I love it.

So I really find no difference in it than in any of my other quilts - yes I do wash and dry all of them.

I did once have some running of a prewashed fabric and took the quilt to a specialty drycleaner. He said never to dryclean today's cotton quilting fabrics as they are meant to be washed and in some cases the drycleaning fluids can eventually wash out the colours. Not sure if that is true but since I don't dryclean my quilts anyhow....

Just my experience.

Thanks, Pati! That's good to know. :)

Thanks for this, Kelly! This is very good news, indeed! :)

Good to see you're expanding into QST! the colors are lovely! what a lucky recipient, indeed.

great job!

amy in CNY

John, your friend is going to love it. :-) Lovely quilt. All I can say is that once again, I'm totally impressed by your precision.

Michelle in NV