Blocking and Cutting Square
Almost finished, but there’s still work to do.
Because I quilt heavily on these art quilts, when they are done, they are kind of “wonky”. So I laid this little lovely on the ironing board (face down) spritzed it with water and steamed from the back. (don’t want to melt those lovely threads)!!
That worked pretty well, but I decided to flip it over and spritz again. I pinned it to the board kind of stretching it lengthwise and let it dry over night–NO pressing from this side.
If I’m doing a BIG quilt, I put in the washer to really get it wet, then spin out the water and stretch it out on the floor, pin and let dry. It usually settles it down nicely and then I can cut a good line and it will (hopefully) lay flat and square!!! That’s the goal.
THEN WE CUT IT SQUARE!!
So after it’s dry, I try to cut it salvaging as much of the artsy area as possible. In this case, it was important for the line across the bottom to be right because of the diagonal squares there, so that’s where I started with my first cut. Everything else will have to match up to that.
I have a nice large cutting board that is almost big enough for this whole quilt. If I do one end at a time, it’ll work. The 20 1/2″ square ruler is really helpful in getting the corners a true 90. If the quilt’s bigger, I enlist super husband to help me with his carpenter skills and we take it over to the church and put tables together and make a real session of it.
Notice that you can lay two rulers together to get the sides. Measure, measure, measure.
Wow what an ordeal. But it’s worth it to get it right.
