The Gabriola Fibreshed pod wanted to prove to island farmers that local fleece is well worth processing, so we sent a number of fleeces from Alexa Boultons’s Somerset Farm off to Custom Woolen Mills in Carstairs, AB. We got back some lovely woollen spun 2 ply yarn, which we used in dyeing workshops, and several one-pound bags of roving and batting. One obvious use for wool is in bedding – in fact Custom sells its own line of pillows, mattress pads, and duvets filled with wool. Wool Bedding | Wool mattress Topper & Pad | Custom Woolen Mills
I decided to try making a standard sized pillow, using wool batting. It was as easy as folding the batt and stuffing it into a pillow protector, and zipping it up. Pillow softness or firmness can be adjusted by using more or less batting. I found sleeping on the pillow very comfortable. After a month or so it had compressed a bit so I just added some more batting, and it has been ideal ever since.
I’m not much of a quilter, maybe because my first quilt, made back in the 90’s, was somewhat of a disappointment. I used a wool batt, which I encased in cheesecloth, then between a pieced top and bottom layer. I just tied it every 8″ or so. It was delightfully fluffy and warm, but it “bearded”. (Bearding is when the fibres within push their way through the layers of cloth and tangle on the surface – nasty!) From then on I only used commercial cotton batting — until now.
The roll of batting as it came from Custom was more than big enough for a double sized quilt. This time, I sandwiched it between two layers of finely woven organic cotton mull from Maiwa, all the better to hold those crimpy wool fibres from wiggling their way out. I then pinned, and began hand basting the layers together, which worked well but took an awful long time, especially because I could only work when the dining room table was clear, which almost never happens. Finally I decided to bast the layers using an extra long stitch on my sewing machine, and was done in a couple of hours.
Now on to the fun part – the actual quilting. I am using a pieced cotton quilt top in the Grandmother’s Flower Basket pattern that I got at an island estate sale – the fabric is more closely woven than the poly-cotton blend I used for my first quilt. I will pin baste and machine quilt to hold it all together. Although I have used a traditional patchwork quilt top, there’s no reason why you couldn’t any other firmly woven light-to-medium weight fabric. Part of the appeal of a quilt is that they can be made with what’s on hand – sheets, vintage table cloths, yardage from the stash!
There are lots of You Tube videos and Reddit forums full of advice on using wool batting for quilts, but all seem to use commercial batting. However, it seems wool is ideal – being lightweight, more drape-able than cotton, fire resistant, warm in the winter and cool in the summer, as well as being eco-friendly, sustainable and locally sourced! I hope to have my finished quilt ready to show off in the next newsletter!
by Heather Cameron
Heather lives and works on Gabriola Island. Her blog can be found at True Stitches.