Terrific Tutorial Tuesday--Blocking Your Quilt

While helping to hang our local quilt guild's show, I had a discussion with a couple of members about blocking quilts. A few of the quilts had not been blocked which made them very difficult to hang. Without blocking, the edges are very "wavy" and the borders are not even. Blocking a quilt is very important particularly if you are going to be hanging your work. It is extra important if there is very dense quilting or trapunto, because they both tend to distort the quilt and pull it out of square.

First, I want to steer you to a good tutorial by Sylvia Landman on the Quilt University site. I wanted to get this post up as soon as possible, because Quilt University is "closing;" I'm not sure how long this tutorial will be available. You might want to print it out for your personal use. Check it out here.

Second is a blocking tutorial by Leah Day. Her method is pretty much the same, but you get a little less detail. I DO like her idea about using insulation board as a surface for blocking since that is what I use for a design wall, and it would be easy for me. Take a look at it here.

Last, I'll share two sites that I think do a REALLY good job of showing you how to block a quilt. The first is by Ellen Lindner. One of the things l like about this tutorial is that she goes into pretty much detail about how she blocks quilts, and she shows you a couple of different ways to block. She also shows two quilts before and after blocking; the difference is amazing. You can check out Part I here and Part II here.

The second is by Tracey Pereira. She does a good job of explaining what blocking is and why it needs to be done. She also shares her blocking method, and a big plus--she has a free, 20-page "e-book" available on preparing your quilt for binding, determining how much binding you'll need, joining and folding the binding strips, sewing the binding to the quilt, joining the ends of the binding, and finishing the binding. Here blocking tutorial is here. The e-book is available here.

I hope you have enjoyed these tutorials. I know that I will use bits and pieces of the information from each one. Let me know if you think these will help you.

 

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