Washing also lets you know if there is a problem with a quilt - like seams not holding up or colors bleeding. It shrinks the quilt some which made me very grateful on the last large quilt I made. It covered up a lot of mistakes.

I take the large ones to the laundromat and put in the front loading washer. You don't want the agitator scraping against the pieced top and the large quilts don't swish back and forth. I dry mine about 80 to 90 percent dry then spread out over a bed to finish drying. We have so many birds around here nobody has a clothesline. So, no outside drying. Someone on here recommended the color catchers and I'm amazed at how much they catch.