Quilting Basics 10: Wash Out Quilt Marks

At this point you’re probably wondering how to remove the quilt marks and basting stitches so you can enjoy your pretty quilted block. So today let’s learn how to soak our blocks and remove all the water soluble pen and thread so you can really appreciate the finished design:

Click Here to find the pattern to Block #1 This it the very first block for the Flower Festival Quilt, a beautiful throw sized sampler featuring 12 flower and Dresden Plate quilt blocks!

How to Mark Your Quilt Properly

The first step to marking any quilt is to test your marking pen or pencil and make sure they come out. Click Here to find a tutorial on three ways to mark your quilts.

No, you don’t always have to mark your quilt designs with a pen or pencil. Check out that tutorial to find a method using paper instead.

But because this is a 12 month project, you probably don’t want leave your blocks marked or the water soluble basting thread in that long. That’s why I’m taking the time to remove the marks on each block as I go.

How to Wash Out Quilt Marks

After soaking my block, I spread it out on my table and let it dry with help from a small fan. Once it dried, I store my blocks in a bin with a lid so they don’t get misplaced or damaged floating around my sewing room all year.

After finishing a full row of three blocks, I’ll begin connecting the blocks together using my favorite Quilt-As-You-Go technique so the quilt is mostly together by the time we’re finishing up in December. Of course, if you’ve decided to add the extra Sashing and Cornerstones, you can already be connecting sashing rectangles and the first block together as well as sashing and cornerstone rows.

That’s a pretty big job and a lot of extra quilting so make sure to break it up over the year so it’s not a ton of work all at the end.

More beautiful Patchwork Blocks

We’re nearing the last days of January and I’ve seen so many beautiful Blooming Nine Patch quilt blocks! Here are my three favorites from Iise M, Paula W, and Sandra M:

Barbara H has jumped right into the Sashing and Cornerstones pattern and I love seeing the beautiful quilted feathers and flowers coming together!

Tomorrow we have a new block coming out and a few more Quilting Basics Tutorials to get you started with applique on the right foot. Click Here to find all the Quilting Basics videos shared so far.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day