Monday, August 8, 2011
Blocking and Finishing Underway
After completing the hand stitching, the next step is to block the quilt.
Blocking consists of pinning quilt to a padded surface with consistent tension across the entire quilt. The pinning removes any torsion that may have been established with the quilting.
I use yellow headed pins to do this and pin it down onto carpet. Once pinned, I thoroughly steam it with a steam iron held just over the surface about 1/2 inch until it is thoroughly moist throughout. Then it will need to dry for 2 days before removing the pins. At this point, the piece will have the low relief sculptural finish that I designed.
The next step is cutting it to size and putting on the bindings.
It gets exciting to be this close to the finish line!
Nancy
Labels:
blocking,
CMC Mercy,
commission,
finishing,
Kousa dogwood,
Nancy G Cook