I machine wash and dry mine. No place to hang them outside, or I would do that. They've all survived the machines just fine. The lap quilts get washed often!

Machine wash & dry.

My quilts are made for Comfort and the washing machine. Warmth is the main objective, pretty is a secondary benefit.
I do have one made in 30's by DH aunt that is one cloth and heavy thick batt and it does go on the machine on delicate setting. It turned out nicely and smells a lot better.

Gwen

Mine go in my wringer washer before I add bleach to do the whites, and then hung to dry on my lines, or lain flat on an empty greenhouse bench to air dry.

I machine wash and then hang on the line or over the shower rod to dry.

I also machine wash and dry. I wash them before I give them away just to make sure nothing comes apart or something! LOL

Donna

Machine wash and dry here, too. I was holding by breath the first few times I washed the first few quilts I made. But they came out beautifully.

Robbi

Wash and dry in the machines. My 9 yr old daughter has my first hand quilted piece and it get washed about once a month for the last 5 years and hasn't lost a stitch yet and the straight of grain binding still looks great. So, I am pretty confident things will stay together. I wish I had a place to hang outside, just across the rail of the deck. Then the cats would lay on it and that would defeat the purpose!

Rebecca

I wash and dry every quilt I make. Partly to see if it holds together and mostly due to the furry beasts that lay on them.
My birthday block quilt, I don't know what kind of batt I put in there, has shrunk. It's 12" blocks are now 11" blocks. I wash that wall hanging only once a year!
I have a twin that the binding melted off of the first time it was washed. Totally gone! It was a black fabric, origin unknown,lol. There's nothing left now but the black stitching I put it on with.
But yes, I wah and dry em.
Bon
:)

I wash with Dreft on warm - delicate & dry on low.
I have a Front load HE washer & dryer (which may be great for water conservation, but I will not replace with the same when it has to be replaced). Mostly, I use Warm & white cotton batting - preshrink all my fabrics - and find there has been about 10% shrinkage. My recent Jar Quilt - the large - fat jars were not large & fat after washing, but most of those fabrics were probably not preshrunk.
I also read that the more heavily you quilt - the more it shrinks.
No outside drying here - to much pollen, dirty trees & bird poo, and the waterfowl drop their fish & stuff routinely-not to mention the neighbors' nuisance cats.

Quilts I make get machine washed and laid out to dry on a drying rack.
The antique quilts I have purchased get hand washed.

magothyrivergirl, I am right with you on the HE washing machines. I have one and don't like it a bit. However, mine is s top loading machine, but still very little water used in the washing. I think things need to be in more water than that to come clean and it must stress the fabrics more to be washed in that little water... plus I find stains are a lot harder to get out. No stains on my quilts, but I sure find it hard to get them out on clothes, even with spot remover, etc. I hope by the time we have to replace this machine, they will still be making some of the older style machines that fill the tub with water.
I machine wash my quilts that I have made. Vintage/antiques are either packed away or just for display and I do as little as possible to them to try to maintain them for as long as possible. I shake them out now and then and fold in a different area and hope for the best.
Jeanne

A couple thoughts on shrinking. It makes sense that the more quilting stitches on a quilt the more it would shrink if one uses cotton quilting thread, as I do. However, shrinking does not go on indefinatly.......once through a hot wash and machine dry and all the shrinking it's gonna do should have been done.

calliope - I agree the shrinking will stop. As a new quilter, I was just surprised at how much they shrink - even thou I was doing the math. Actually seeing it smaller makes me think I should plan better. I have a tendency to want larger overall finished dimensions, especially for lap quilts anyway. I see on many patterns the sizes are smaller than what I think would be cozy after shrinking. I love the crinkly, washed look, so I will continue to use the cotton batting, but may experiment with some blends.

Jeanne, I use the extra rinse cycle also - so how is that efficient?? And our water here is very expensive.

My first quilt was a whole cloth and it took 3 years to complete and I was awarded a second place ribbon, so I baby it. But I still wash it in the washer on delicate and I dry all of my quilts outside. I do dry the raggedy edge ones in the dryer because they fluff up more and become softer. For some reason I have always preferred cotton batting. I have used extra loft poly on some quilts for older kiddies and teens. Sometimes a quilt just calls for poofy lol!!!!
Rosa

machine wash & dry ... like Bon, I want to make sure they hold up! :) I have front loader which I like - makes it much easier to load quilts & not get all twisted up.

Sue

I was addressing two posts at the same time. When I said it should not shrink any more after one hot wash and dry, I was commenting on Bonica's statement that she only washes the wall hanging once a year because it shrank so much the first time she washed it.

Another here that machine washes and dries hers.Have been doing that for the over 30years and hasn't hurt anything yet.Then again i always wash and iron all my fabric before cutting.
kathi