The Birch Blocking Affair

Birch has waited patiently for the best part of the week for her blocking adventure which began last evening. I know that some people have special blocking boards for this purpose, perhaps a rug or even the carpet. Now, my house is tiny and frankly there just aren't that many (read: none) wide open spaces for my purposes. So, I turned my attention to the wall. The wall of my living room is made of softboard and the perfect surface for pins. Plus it's earmarked for removal once we start our renovations.

I drew a line 203cm across the top and bottom of the wall, measured halfway along and dropped a plumb line (a length of wool with one of the children's Hama bead constructions tied to the end of it) which gave me the halfway line from top to bottom. The finished length of Birch is 102cm so this gave me the bottom point. I used cream wool to stretch from the bottom point to top left hand corner and top right hand corner which gave me the triangle outline.

I spritzed Birch which my Eau de Linge Parfumee so that it was lighty damp (and smelt gorgeous). I then started to pin Birch to the wall (having cleared out the pin stocks of my local Woolworths). I worked along the top edge first, pinning every ten stitches or so and adjusting constantly and then started securing the bottom point.

Do you think it will stretch any further?

Why, yes it will!

Getting bigger...

Bigger still...

Will that little bit line up? More pins, please

It fits! Check out those birch leaves!

And to think it started out as this.

Posted by Anita at September 17, 2004 12:10 PM