Mailmanldy

I have heard of blocking quilts, but does any one ever block their blocks?? I'm asking because I pulled out an old UFO and it is comprised of QST, so every block has bias. This was started back when I first started quilting and so not all my blocks turned out the same size. At first I thought I would just trim them all down to the same size, but some of the blocks were off by as much as half an inch, and that would be a lot to trim on the ones that are closer to the correct size. And the blocks are from strip sets, so trimming the edges would really make some of the strips on the edge look a lot smaller than every other strip.

Then I thought, since they are bias, perhaps when I was sewing or pressing them, I just managed to get them off kilter, and perhaps if I block them I can get them all back to close to original size.

So far, the few blocks I have blocked is working, and I'm liking the results of the blocks being closer to the same size and what they should be, however, I started thinking what is going to happen to these blocks after the quilt is finished and it gets washed. I don't mind the crinkly look in my quilts, and this is a quilt I want to get used, not something to hang on a wall. But, are these blocks that are way off before I block them going to revert back to being way off and make the quilt go wonky, or do I need to have a lot of quilting to keep that from happening, and do more than just stitch in the ditch? I don't want to take the time to block all the blocks if the quilt is going to be all wonky after it's complete and washed.

If blocking the blocks isn't going to help after the quilt is done, is there anything else I could do to fix the problem other than trimming the blocks? I can't make more strip sets, this was from a Bali Pop and I don't have any more of that fabric, and I don't really want to start over. The quilt doesn't have to be perfect, but I don't want it so wonky that it looks terrible.

Thanks for any advice you can give me.