Sylvia Landman's Appliqué Designs

Blocking Quilts and Pieced or Applique' Blocks

As a teacher and designer of knitting and crochet for thirty-five years, I learned that the finished, polished look of blocked garments added to their shape and professional appearance. Editors commented that my laces and other garments looked "more finished" compared to those who submitted projects that were left unblocked just because a yarn label said, "no blocking needed," to increase sales. And so it is with completed quilts or quilt blocks, pieced or appliquéd. Blocking squares up and straightens wavy edges and can make appliqué stand out in relief as it flattens the background a little. Blocking also helps you to make perfect square corners and helps a wall quilt hang flatter.

SUPPLIES:      You don’t need much that is not already in your sewing room or studio.
A good steam iron,
Long, rust-proof pins called "T" pins,   
Rulers or yard sticks, measuring tape and one 8" or 12" square ruler. Optional: a blocking board or; 
A clean sheet or pad laid on the thickest carpeting in your home or studio. 

Consider a piece of fiber board, cellulose or bulletin board cut 18" square. Mine last about ten years of frequent use and so will yours if you prepare it well. Cut a piece of heavy plastic or oil cloth 20"square. Cut a 20"square of heavy but smooth padding, (not batting. It melts) an old blanket is ideal. Cut one piece of sheeting, gingham or strong cotton fabric 22" square. Layer these over your board: plastic on the bottom, the padded layer then the sheeting. Use a staple gun to pull the layers drum tight wrapping them over the edges of the board. You may find it helpful to enlist another pair of hands, one to hold the layers, the other to staple. I fold the extra fabric over the first two layers to create a finished back. Your board will last many years when you protect if from moisture with the plastic and pad it this way. The photo shows my blocking board which also doubles as a "big board" to fit over my ironing board. The flowered fabric you see is an old sheet. You can see the piece to be blocked in the center photo with the square ruler in place.

PROCEDURE

Whether you wet or dry block, the pinning process is critical. The pins hold the project into the shape you give it while it dries. You need many more than you think. I prefer to pin along the edges of my project at least every inch and no further apart than two inches. If your pins are too far apart rather than straight edges, yours will become scalloped where the quilt edge sags inward between too-large spaces between pins. Note the pins in the photo on the left are less than 1" apart. Blocking a single pieced or appliqué block is less daunting than an entire quilt. Start by preparing a blocking or pressing board. Stacking towels on a table or ironing board sounds good but does not work well owing to the softness and shifting of unstable layers

Blocking a Large Quilt on the Floor I start with a 12" square ruler in the first corner to insure that the quilt corner is perfectly square. I tug gently pulling the quilt as needed to align its top edge perfectly along the ruler edge. Once past the length of the ruler, I extend the perfect line by laying a yard stick or two even with the top edge of the ruler. When I reach the end of the top edge, I check with the square ruler again to make sure the yard sticks plus the ruler create a second, perfect corner. Place pins along the edge at a 45 degree angle to the quilt, not straight up and down. You want the pin head angling away from the quilt edge. This secures them in place so that when you pin the opposite edge and putting tension on the quilt, they will not pop out. Pin evenly every inch or two along the top edge inspecting continually that the row of pins lines up with the rulers).  See close-up photo above of proper placement of blocking pins. My preference is to block the bottom edge of the quilt edge next. I measure carefully to make sure both top and bottom are exactly the same width. Last, I pull out the sides of the quilt, pinning as needed to create four perfectly squared corners, edges and sides. When blocking a bed size quilt on the floor, you must eventually lean or sit along the edges of the quilt as you block. I remove my shoes and wear clean clothes to keep the quilt clean. I use a steam iron as shown in the photo below. Scooting along, I hold the dead weight of the iron in my hand moving it along pressing the steam button for extra steam as I go. For very stubborn bubbles in the quilt that won’t lie flat, I add water from a spray bottle as I go.

I blocked the very large (8 ft x 12 ft), quilt made quilt-as-you-go style, (the only method I use). Each block was a different size, thickness, color and batting thickness and all were orphan blocks. Blocking was key to making these blocks made over 24 years become one quilt. I did not like the photo of myself sitting ungraciously on the floor, but felt better when I found that Caryl Bryer Fallert looks pretty much the same way while blocking. http://www.bryerpatch.com/faq/mq.htm#blocking.  Blanc Plume, another Web site states, "An important component of our cleaning process for quilts and coverlets is to measure them before washing. After washing, they are gently stretched back into shape and blocked or clamped to specially engineered, extra large tables to prevent shrinkage."

p.s.   My Quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) students often wonder if you can make king size quilts without sashing using the method. Indeed you can. Here is my very first quilt, "Trip Around the World" which I learned to make in a class with Blanche Young in 1980 before rotary cutters and mats so my squares varied considerably since I did not yet know how nice it is if all your squares are the same size! I have revived it and am now completing it 26 years later. Here are a few photos just for fun of how I solved my mismatched squares problem as I turn the thing into a king size QAYG quilt, with my husband pictured, learning how to pin baste. Enjoy!

        Copyright © May 2008 by Sylvia Landman. All rights reserved. No part of this site may be copied or reproduced  by any means without written  permission from Sylvia Landman, at Sylvia's Studio.