3. BLOCK AND JOIN YOUR MOTIFS
3a. After your motifs are made, you
will want to block them, or rather, you
will wish that you did not have to block
them, but blocking makes joining the
motifs much easier, and because you
used 100% wool yarn, the process is
fairly quick and painless.
At right (above) is an unblocked
motif. It looks kind of ill-tempered,
which you will be if you try to join the
motifs without blocking them first.
To block a motif, simply pin it to size
(you really only need to pin the corners), in this case 3. 5", spritz it with a
bit of water, or set your iron on steam,
and iron it on the “wool” setting.
3b. After all of the motifs are blocked,
lay them out and join them together
into a single piece that is folded in
half to form the front and back of the
bag. In other words, you will be joining
all of the motifs together at this time
— none are being saved for the front
or the back.
3c. There are many methods of joining motifs together. Some people like
to sew them, some people like to sc them. My preferred method is to slst
them together on the WS.
At right (bottom), 2 motifs are being joined. The right sides are together
and the wrong sides are facing out. I like to slst through just the 2 outside
loops. This gives me a nice edge on the front of the motifs. Again, there
are many methods of joining motifs. This is my favorite because it does
not show from the front and I do not have to cut lengths of yarn for
sewing them together.
When 2 motifs have been slst together, do not break your yarn, and keep
going to the next 2 motifs.
