Here goes another try at adding photos to my blog. Our webmaster, daughter Darcey, has updated with the latest version, and I have high hopes! Anyway, I was preparing “We Loved Paris” for exhibit at the Denver National Quilt Festival, and then at the Colorado Capitol Quilt Show, and I noticed that the quilt was not hanging evenly.
This is often a problem when a lot of quilting is added to some areas of the quilt, and not as much to the others. I quilted the borders quite heavily, but not the photos, and so there were places where the quilt kind of “pooched.” The best way I know of to deal with the problem is to block the quilt. Here is how I do it:
Pinning the corner of the quilt for blocking.
First, I spread a clean sheet on the carpet, then lay the quilt back side up on the sheet. Because the borders were distorting the quilt, I wanted to stretch them out. I started in one corner, and used my big square ruler to get the corner square, and pinned it firmly. I moved to the next corner, pulling the border as I went, and making sure I was keeping the edge straight and square. I pulled the border as tight as I could and pinned again. (I was able to pull them an inch to inch-and-a-half longer.) I continued in this fashion all the way around the quilt. Then I double-checked that each corner was square.
Next, I got a large piece of flannel fabric wet. I wrung it out as dry as I could, then placed it over the quilt in one corner. I plugged my iron into an extension cord, and let it get hot. Then I went over the wet flannel lightly with the iron, steaming the quilt underneath. I repeated this at all four corners.
Wet flannel over the quilt
Then I let the quilt dry overnight. When I removed the pins, it hung much better. To see an image of the finished quilt, check out the previous post.