My goal for this past weekend was to get Lost My Marbles blocked. When I was getting ready to wash the quilt I remembered something critical. This quilt was made with every brown scrap of hand dyed fabric and much of it was from my early days of dyeing. That means that much of it wasn't processed correctly. So that meant I should soak it and, as you can clearly see, it was a necessary step. I soaked it for 24 hours in 3 soak cycles and that was enough. I do my blocking directly on my sewing room floor. When I had the carpet put in here I put in a wool pad and picked a commercial grade plush so that I could block quilts right on the floor. I was ready to block it Monday evening about 9:00 and figured it would take at least 2 hours. I really hate blocking quilts and generally have to it a couple of times to get it right. But I figured out a shortcut. See my fabric cabinets on the right? It looks like a white wall but it's a white wall of fun! I measured the first side off these cabinets so I started absolutely straight. From there it was easy to use my collection of large Olfa rulers to line up the rest. I got it done in an hour! That was a record for any size quilt. Then I got the fans from the Airbnb house and discovered that one of them has a short. I wish people would leave a note when something is broken. I hate having a potential fire hazard in guest space. The other one was one that a guest left behind and it's filthy so both need to be replaced. A trip to WalMart for replacement fans and these tower fans will be better anyway. I always leave a blocked quilt for 2 days just to make double sure it's completely dry. I'll get it off the floor today (after I do my dyeing). I need my cutting table back so I can trim these veterans quilts that I quilted last night. And I need to get my binding fabrics cut and get started on piecing a gradient binding. I want to have this quilt done by the end of the month.
But first I'm off to do some shibori today! That's always a fun day. the quilt looks like it turned out great - I have never blocked a quilt! Like the look of those tower fans and adding that to my list - I have no ceiling fan in the kitchen and need something and in the sewing room with it's oddball ceiling slanted - because it used to be a porch at one time before we moved in it and just left it in place when we remodeled as it was going to be hard to change it - the ceiling fan in that room is not centered and one end sure gets warmer than the other does
Cheryl J Kotecki
6/19/2019 07:41:15 pm
The Marbles quilt looks FABULOUS!!
patty
6/20/2019 07:54:46 am
You have been busy! The only quilts I have blocked are the embroidered t-shirt pieces I entered into the Akron Art Prize. They were 6' x 6' so I could block them on my big table - no crawling on the floor! I used bricks to hold the sides in place. Probably not the right way to do it, but between that and steaming them, they did hang straight. 6/20/2019 08:31:19 am
Your instructions on processing dyed fabrics has saved me loads of headaches. I had/have a stash from another source. So I processed all of it and now none of my hand dyed fabrics will bleed on me. (and I always do any that I dye the same way.)
Mary Anne
6/21/2019 06:00:35 pm
Aha! Now I know why I don't do sane quilts....I don't have floor space large enough to block them. I KNEW there was a reason!! I wouldn't have thought to soak it either, so that came as a surprise. Comments are closed.
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I'm Vicki Welsh and I've been making things as long as I can remember. I used to be a garment maker but transitioned to quilts about 20 years ago. Currently I'm into fabric dyeing, quilting, Zentangle, fabric postcards, fused glass and mosaic. I document my adventures here. Categories
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