How to Block a Quilt

Hallelujah! I’m finally, absolutely, totally, and completely finished with this Beginner Quilting DVD! Yahoo! I’m really, really pleased with how much I managed to squeeze into 2 hours of time.

I watched the first disc 2 days ago and the second disc today and sat back and thought “Man, I wish I’d had this info when I started!” Ha!

Nope, Not Everything Fit

Of course, I didn’t have time for EVERYTHING I wanted to include, but I hit ALMOST everything and I think it’s a great first start to free motion quilting, particularly quilting big quilts on domestic sewing machines.

The things that I didn’t have time for were using stencils to mark designs and how to block and bind a finished quilt.

Technically these things aren’t really truly about free motion quilting so I could justify leaving them out, but still…I want you to know how to do them!

So I’m planning on still shooting those videos next week and I’ll share them on You Tube, but for today let me walk you through blocking your quilt after you’ve finished quilting.

First question I’m sure you have is:

What the heck is blocking and why in the world do you want to do it?

Blocking is another word for squaring your quilt. You’ve just quilted it and the quilting stitches can cause the top to stretch and skew out of square.

By blocking your quilt, you return your quilt top to square and get it prepared for binding all in one step.

How to Block a Quilt

1. Measure your quilt top – This is super important and I almost always forget it. You MUST measure both the length and width of your quilt top through the center to get an accurate measurement. Record these measurements – you will need it later.

2. Soak your quilt in water – I use my bathtub for this, but a washing machine can work too. You just want to get the quilt wet and make sure any markings on the quilt have dissolved if you’ve marked it.

My quilts look pretty tortured when they’re being blocked!

3. Stretch the quilt out on the floor or table – I have a design wall made of 2″ Styrofoam insulation boards that I throw down on the floor for blocking.

It’s extremely useful and though I hate scrambling around on the floor, I must admit it’s the best thing for this method.

4. Start Pinning! – Starting on one side, pin the edge of the quilt to your floor or foam insulation. Make sure to pin this side square with the straight edge of the board. I keep a tape measure in my hand the whole time and work from the center, only pinning around 12 inches.

Move to the opposite side and measure your quilt. If you have to stretch the quilt back to the original dimensions you recorded in step 1. Pin securely from the center working out, constantly checking that your measurement stays the same.

Do the same for the other side. Secure one end, then measure and secure the other. It’s great if you have a buddy for this job, but I’ve learned that it’s possible to do on your own with a tape measure that will lock and stay flat on the quilt.

Leave the last 24″ around the corner open and do each of these areas last with a big square rotary cutting ruler.

Take Extra Care in the Corners

Using the ruler, try the square the sides with the corners so that everything stays nice and flat and even.

You might have to do some tweaking in the corner the first time you try this. Corners are notoriously the hardest areas because we tend to piece them out of square to start, then stretch them a bit when quilting.

Just take your time and bring you whole quilt back into the dimensions you originally recorded before getting your quilt wet.

5. Set up fans and go piece your binding – Typically I will start blocking a quilt around 8 pm and get the quilt fully pinned and blocked in about an hour, depending on how complicated the quilt is.

If I get started early enough, I will go on and cut and piece all of my binding strips, which sets everything up perfectly to bind first thing the next morning.

Make sure to set up fans! The one time I didn’t do this I woke up to a wet quilt. I wasn’t a happy camper.

Now it’s Time for Binding

6. Cut the quilt to square and bind – Since the quilt is already all nicely stretched out on the floor, once it’s dry I just take the pins out and trim the edges right there on the floor with my rotary cutter.

Again, make sure to trim carefully, using the largest square ruler you own for the corners and longest rectangular ruler for the sides.

For binding, I first attach the strips to the front using the machine, then stitching down the loose side by hand to the back.

If the quilt is not for show or particularly special then I will stitch the binding to the back and fold it over to the front and stitch both by machine. It just depends on how lazy I’m feeling that day!

I like having a hand project occasionally so I like the little bit of downtime to stitch the binding down.

I think that just about covers blocking your quilt. I’ll try to do a video on this soon. I have 2 completed quilt tops ready for binding – whoohoo! – so I know I’ll be downstairs pulling my design wall off the wall sometime soon.

Okay, I think that covers blocking your quilt. Any questions on the method leave them in the comments below!

I’m off to cook more food. We’re throwing a little party tonight, celebrating Valentine’s Day and the end of my kitchen remodel. I’m so happy I finished the DVD it’s time to celebrate!

Ya’ll have a great day and GO QUILT!

Leah