After my last post I received an email in which the person mentioned that it seemed none of the 3 quilts I'd shared were made to be washed.  The person was right in that they are mini quilts and designed to be hung as art so they don't really need to be washed but of course it got me thinking about washing quilts.

I very, very rarely wash my quilts. I guess I'm lucky where we live that we have such lovely sunny days and I often take advantage of the sun's warm rays to hang quilts out to air. I find that freshens and fluffs them up. I don't have a clothes dryer so I can't compare it to tumble dried crumply goodness people talk of.
I don't have any pets hopping on the beds so that lessens the need to wash. Though I would jump at the chance to have a pet quokka, sloth or guinea pig( or all three!) 

So whether a quilt can be washed or not isn't foremost in my mind as I'm coming up with my designs. Plus in recent times the quilts I've been making are wall quilts and they just need a shake every now and then to stop them from getting dusty. I rotate the quilts on the walls every month or so and they don't get a chance to get dusty. They get their share of sun freshening too. 

But as I looked at my little mini quilts I thought why not have a go at washing one and see what happens. With a small quilt like this it would be just as easy and gentler to hand wash it but as part of the experiment I've decided to bravely chuck it in the washing machine to see what happens.  The quilt I picked was Asterisk Tricks, the one with the least stitches holding down the confetti strips.

It's done and I'm now writing this post as it's sploshing and tumbling in the washing machine like a disco dancing mermaid.

and I'm wondering...
Will the tie threads will hold? 
Will all the raw edges from the confetti strips unravel and disappear forever along with soap suds into the dark pipes? 
Will my quilting seed stitches pull, catch and tangle? 
Will the colourful colours run and cause tie dye rainbows on the linen? 
Will the linen distort and leave me with a strangely shaped soft sculpture?
Have I sent an innocent mini quilt on a fast track to the rag bin? 
oh my golly gumboots - 
It may never look like this again!! 

In the meantime here are some snapshots of my past week. 
Our house is being painted. Which means a lot of our furniture is being stored in my sewing room and piled up around where I sit at my computer. It makes things a little bit awkward but it's worth it for fresh white walls. 

Outside it's been raining. Glorious garden soaking spring rain!!

I never know quite how to photograph rain, especially when I'm trying not to get too wet myself, but I love how raindrops gather on leaves...

and make other leaves look glossy. 

The flamingos are in charge of looking after the lettuces. 

And Buddha adds a peaceful feeling to the garden. 

 On the sewing front I finished quilting this quilt and am halfway through the binding.

There goes the bell sound the washing machine makes when it's finished it's cycle... I'm off to see if my little quilt survived! I'll let you know how it turns out in the next post. It's too late in the day for photos now.

So tell me, I'm curious - how often do you wash your quilts? It'll be interesting for everyone to hear each other thoughts.