Blocking your quilt....the scary step

I have been working on a tiny quilt for the past few days...... It started as one of those pre-printed blue marked quilts that you can follow the lines and create your own wholecloth quilt.  It was just a fat quarter sized one.  I cannot remember where I bought it now as I have had it for so long. 

I picked a Light turquoise Glide thread from my favorite thread company Fil-Tec ( you can find their awesome threads at http://www.bobbincentral.com/embroidery/top-thread/glide.html ).  I don't use any other threads than theirs I just LOVE them!! (more about them soon!!)

 After a bit of quilting I had to use my new favorite tool that I received just yesterday in the mail.  My friend Shirley and her husband Bill are creating the MOST amazing and unique seam rippers I have ever seen.  I got to custom choose my acrylic piece and Bill hand turned my seam ripper....... I know you want one of your own so go here to check him out and order your own custom ripper, cause you cant have my Purple Haze!!!! https://www.facebook.com/Jacktheseamripper45

I put one of the swirls facing the wrong direction...pick, pick, pick!

The swirls are my take on Heavy Metal quilting with Kim Stotsenberger from one of my MQX classes

After I finished the quilting this morning I had to soak the piece to get the blue lines off...... this cannot be accomplished correctly by just spritzing water on the top of the quilt, you really must soak it.......

I soaked it into the sink and wrung it out a bit but ran out of time before a meeting to block it up......

I had to soak it AGAIN, because it dried out too much while I was away.  I had BIG fears that this VERY dark teal fabric on the back would run and things would wind up a big mess, but so far so good.....I like how the thread looks on this teal fabric!!

Finally I was able to get to the pinning stage.  This is a little piece so I was able to just pin it on my design wall to dry instead of crawling around on the floor to get it straight again.  I couldn't take photos of the stage with the ruler as I needed about 5 hands to do the photo snapping while I pulled it straight and pinned it down, all while holding the the rulers on the wall too.

Here it is all pinned up straight on the wall, now it just has to dry for a couple of days and it will be ready to bind!!  The resulting dry quilt will be so flat and square it is worth the stress of dunking it in the water I swear!!

Have you ever blocked your quilts????

Happy quilting!
Mandy