Warm Woolen Quilts

By controlling the shrinkage process, old woolen clothing or new woolen fabric can be made into fulled wool—a plush fabric that does not fray or stretch. This fulled wool in turn can be used to make a very sturdy, warm quilt.

Preparation:
When wool is put into boiling water, a lot of dye gets released. For this reason you should full wool in small batches one color at a time. Bear in mind if the wool you are fulling is very thin, it will take longer to shrink up and you will loose more length and width in the fulling process. Most washing machines can only handle about two yards of wool at a time, so cut pieces accordingly.

Steps:
Fulling Wool
1. Woolen yardage - Cut off the selvedges from yardage. Recycled woolen clothing - Remove all buttons, cut open all seams and darts, remove all hem tape, and cut around all buttonholes. Try to remove all interfacing. If you can't remove some of it, it may loosen up or come off in the boiling water. The wool will ripple around any stabilization point.

2. Fill sink with warm water, adding one tablespoon of Orvis or Ivory Soap Flakes. Soak the woolen yardage or clothing pieces in this water for about 30 minutes. You won't need to rinse out the wool before putting it in the washer machine.

3. Bring a large canner full of water to a boil.

4. Transfer the wet wool to the washing machine. CAREFULLY pour enough boiling water over the wool to cover it, plus a few inches. You want the wool to agitate in as little water as possible.

5. Set machine to agitate for 10 minutes. When the timer goes off, check the wool. Don't be surprised if you have some soap-sudsing.

6. Using long-handled tongs pull an EDGE of the wool out to check it. If you can pull a thread from the edge, the fabric is not fulled yet. Set the timer for five additional minutes and start the agitation again.

7. Continue checking the wool at five-minute intervals until you can no longer pull a thread from the edge. When fabric is properly processed the edges of the wool will not fray and you can no longer see the woven structure of the wool.

8. Using long-handled tongs, transfer the hot wet wool to a plastic bin. Using the small strainer, scoop through the hot soapy water and try to remove as much wool lint as you can. This lint shouldn't go through water pipes or septic system, and it can be used later in woolen pincushions. Just rinse the soap out of it and set it aside.

9. Return the wet wool to the washing machine and set the machine for a COLD water rinse. You may need to rinse the wool twice. There will be a little more shrinkage during the cold water rinse cycle. Check for and remove wool lint after the rinse cycle also (save this lint for pincushions later).

10. Examine the wool. At this point, it should be about 1/4 inch thick. If you want thicker, go through the process again, but once the wool has been dried in the dryer it is done. Bear in mind that fuller wool is less flexible.

11. Put the wet wool in the dryer and dry but don't fry it! Check after 30 minutes.

12. When the wool is dry you will need to press it slightly. Use a pressing cloth (a piece of muslin works fine), spritz the pressing cloth with water and iron it dry. Don't be dismayed if a piece of wool is a different shape. Shrunken wool will no longer have a grainline. You can fit the pattern pieces all over the wool.

Stovetop Wool Dyeing
Dyeing wool on your stovetop is easy to do. You can overdye used wool from clothing or you can dye white wool to get a spectrum of colors.

1. Bring a canner kettle filled with water to a boil.

3. Add vinegar according to the dyeing package directions; don't be surprised when this mixtures fizzes and bubbles up!

5. Transfer the wet wool in the hot dye water to the washing machine for the fulling process.

Gradation Dyeing: The easiest way to produce a gradated series of fulled wool pieces is to vary the amount of dye. In other words use the same amount of boiling water and the same amount of wool fabric. Start with 1/4 teaspoon of dissolved dye powder. After 10 minutes check the color; if it is too pale, you can add another 1/4 teaspoon of dissolved dye powder. Succeeding batches would use 3/4 teaspoon, 1 teaspoon, 1 1/4 teaspoon dye, etc. to get darker shades.

Fulled Wool Quilt Block
Because fulled wool is very thick you cannot use the normal, right-sides-together, 1/4-inch-seam-allowance style of construction. Here is the basic construction sequence:

1. Cut pieces without seam allowances—cut to finished shape and size.

2. Position two pieces next to each other, edge to edge. Check that these edges match and are clean cut. Flip both pieces over.

4. Continue fusing pieces of the block together until the whole block is done

6. Try to plan the order of stitching your seams so the end of one line of stitching will be later covered by another line of stitching. If you use the zigzag stitch with invisible thread, it will sink down into the nap of the fulled wool and become almost invisible.

8. Use strips of interfacing to join the blocks and rows together.

Finishing
Obviously you do not need a batt with a fulled wool quilt. For backings on my wool quilts, I tend to use slightly heavier cottons than quilters' cottons. I use 100-percent cotton lightweight upholstery fabrics in the 60-inch widths or nine-ounce heavy flannel sheets.

Fulled wool quilts can be machine quilted either on a home sewing machine or long arm sewing machine, or you can invisibly hand tack them. You cannot quilt in the ditch because there are no seam allowances. Pinbasting is hard to do on a fulled wool quilt but the tack basting gun works fine. Binding can be either a double layered cotton binding or a single layer of unfulled wool.

1. Sort lint and leftover wool pieces by color.

3. Put 1/2 cup of minced wool into your blender and fill with water.

4. Chop the wool for about 30 seconds until you no longer see minced pieces. You will see clouds of colored wool fibers floating in the water. Pour the water/fiber mix through a strainer and set the wet colored wool on a plate.

5. Continue processing different colors until you have done about three cups of dry wool minced pieces.

7. Flip the cup over so the ball of wet wool is in your hand. If it is sticking in the custard cup use a spoon to help get it out.

8. Cover the wet ball of wool with a square of muslin, twisting the muslin around the bottom of the ball and securing with a rubber band.

9. Throw the ball in your dryer with a load of laundry. After one cycle squeeze the ball to see if still damp. If yes, throw back in the dryer.

10. When totally dry carefully peel off the muslin and you have a shrunken ball of wool to decorate with beads, silk flowers, tassels, buttons, etc.