Why and How to Block a Quilt
Eliminate Ruffled Edges and Non-square Corners!
Once completed, most quilts are a bit wavy along the edges and may even be not quite square. That’s due to distortions from quilting, so even if you square up the top itself, the finished quilt may need squaring up too.
If the quilt will be washed often, such as a throw, baby, or bed quilt, it may not need to be blocked. Washing will remove the blocking anyway.
However, “show” quilts and those that are to be hung can benefit from blocking. Wavy edges and other slight distortions will disappear and the quilt will hang perfectly flat.
Leah Day has written a good article outlining why and how to block a quilt.
Nadine from Fabric Bias has written an excellent tutorial showing how to block a quilt. Essentially, you pat the wet quilt into a square (or rectangle) and let it dry completely before moving it.
The following video from Shelley Sieverkropp goes into more detail about the blocking process. Her method is a bit more precise and shows another way to do the blocking.
Click here to watch the video at YouTube if it doesn’t play on your device.
Both Nadine and Shelley use a laser level square. This one is inexpensive and works nicely for quilts.
