Using wool blankets in quilt making

I have inherited many old fashioned wool blankets from my MIL and Mum. However I don't like the colours and one is stained despite extensive washing. They are too good to throw away or not re-use in some fashion but the idea dawned on me to use them as the wool inner when making a quilt. They are thinnish (sp? is it even a word?) and not dis-similar to purchased wool sheeting for quilt making.

So for the quilters out there, can you think of any problems with the idea?

I'm not a quilter exactly ( i've made a whole one ) but I think its an excellent idea. The only thing I can think of is, when washed the wool part might shrink at a different rate to the rest of the quilt and distort the panels. But that shouldn't be an issue as these have already been well washed.

Wool will continue to shrink if washed incorrectly, so as long as the owner of the finished article knows to only soak and spin, all would be well.

Awesome, thank you both. I plan on keeping them or giving some to my daughter as she goes flatting in coming years, so they hopefully should stay in the family and be used.

There is a person in the Catlins called Gina Gardner who makes beautiful jackets and coats from old blankets. Her label is called Ember I think. So if you want a change from quilts your family may like to try making some for your family..

They are now making quilts with woollen garments, cutting the wool into squares etc, and resewing them together, I think that the Waikato Quilting guild are having a person coming to show them who it all works,

When I see "woollen blankets", I think Wool Embroidery...
From pram to queen sized blankets, wool embroidered hot water bottle covers, knee rugs etc.
All backed with cotton Homespun or quilting fabric.

Three suggestions for changing the blankets:
1. you could make the quilt open ended like a duvet cover to fit the blanket, so the cover can be washed separately...
2. Blemishes can be covered with appliqué, holes can be darned with matching wool then embroidered over or appliquéd or "patched" with blanket stitching around the edge of an added feature.
3. Try and dye the blanket if you don't like its current colour.

Two of my embroidered blankets to give an idea of how remnant pieces were made into single and queen sized works of art:
One on rose pink blanketing, done in mixed ribbon and silk ribbon embroidery combined with wool embroidery, beading, and stumpwork embroidered beaded berries. A floral theme finished with a surrounding burgundy frill in a parachute-silk-like fabric.

Another on deep blue blanketing: free-hand machine embroidery, mixed with wool embroidery, trapunto (stuffed embroidery), beading, folded fabric embroidery, bordered and edged with cording featuring 8 different sailing knots... the focus... a yacht in stormy high seas, but expressing the wild beauty found in the experience.






Will try and attach a photo of it... not done this before so not sure if I will succeed.

Thanks Kate for making it so simple to attach a photo.

Hi,
I am a quilter. Your idea has a great history and I'm sure your projects will be well loved. You can dye wool with food colouring in the microwave, this link has instructions... just use blanket patches instead of yarn, hookabee.com/2016/01/15/hand-dyeing-with...ng-microwave-method/ ; when sewing patches together use about a 1cm seam allowance, not the quarter inch common in quilting. If the actual quilting part is daunting, you can use knots and ties or buttons or big hand stitches to keep any layers together. Googling something like "how to make a quilt" should yield a wealth of basic info... Sue Weston is a wonderful teacher in this genre and a google of her name will show you some images. Happy quilting!

Many thanks, Melissa