Aquarius

Hello all you fine quilters out there. I was just wondering if any of you have ever tried real wool for batting in quilts. I was just carding up some wool and thought that I would take the carded wool and just use that in a block, quilt and when it is washed, it would automatically felt. I don't see why it would be any different than the warm and natural or polyester batting in a quilt. I have about 7 bags of wool ready to be washed, carded and spun, but instead of spinning it, just use it in a block, do lots of quilting on it and then just do quilt as you go. I was just wondering if any of you quilters out there have ever tried it.

Tartan

The new wool batts don't shrink as much as regular wool batt used to. I don't know how carded wool would re-act to washing and drying. I would try a 12 inch sandwich square. Quilt it and wash and dry it as you would your quilt and re-measure the square.

Aquarius

Yeah, I was thinking of just trying it on one square doing that. I wouldn`t want to ruin a whole.

PaperPrincess

Hmm. How thickly does it felt? I've felted with roving and it seemed to felt thickly, and sort of hard. I guess I would try a small sample piece, like a placemat, before doing anything very large. I would quilt it on the dense side, maybe 1" apart(?) as all other battings have been needled or have a scrim to keep them even and the batting from coming apart and bunching up. Curious to see if anyone has tried this before. There are several hits on google about this but they are all from custom wool processers who take your fleece & prepare the batts.

stillclock

from someone who loves handwork and wishes quilting was a more localized, hand produced hobby, i am so excited to hear how this works out for you!

aileen

Prism99

One of the problems historically with wool for batting is that it tends to "beard". It used to be that quilters needed to encase a wool batt in cheesecloth before layering. Wool batts also used to shrink a lot. Modern wool batts from Hobbs and Quilter's Dream are treated to prevent bearding and to minimize shrinkage (they shrink only about 3% now, perfect for quilts).

Petalpatsy

When I very first starting quilting I hit Ebay for wool batting, and wound up buying actual wool batts of Corriedale, a few pounds worth. They were a great deal, as the lady was selling her little group of hobby sheep and sold them just for the price of processing she herself was charged. They are just fabulous. Except of course for how I've never used them for anything because of all the fear of shrinking, shifting, bearding! I've read that bit about enclosing them in cheesecloth before, and I think, man, how would that help? It doesn't seem to me that cheesecloth would enclose anything with less diameter than a stick.

AngeliaNR

I bought some Hobb's wool batting today--I'll be interested to read this conversation.

BellaBoo

Does fresh wool contain lots of lanolin? I would think that would eventually stain the quilt but honestly I have no idea about wool ready to card. I grow a few cotton plants to use for stuffing for small projects!

ghostrider

I have two vintage quilts that were made with wool. They're from the 50's and were originally store-bought, covered in a solid green fabric, front and back, stitched in a box pattern much like a down comforter except wool. They were recovered in the 80's but have never been actually quilted. The wool is quite thick, maybe 2", and the quilts have always been dry cleaned, not washed. They are quite heavy, still soft, and wonderful to sleep under if you like the heat way down at night as I do.