Has anyone done their own tapestry blocking?

[Buxusmortus]

I was given a beautiful Erhman tapestry kit which has taken months to do but I have finally finished it. I did it in tent stitch and as expected, even though I used a frame, it has distorted and is rather a rhombus shape, not square.

I've read and watched quite a few YouTube videos on how to wet, stretch and nail the canvas to bring it back to a square ready for making into a cushion.

I'm patient, accurate and have very high standards so feel as if I could do this, but is it a difficult thing to do? The videos make it look quite straightforward which can be worrying, especially when it seems that people often send them away to be finished.

No its as straightforward as it looks. I find best results for the heavy wool tapestries come from using a piece of ply board ths same size as the main picture and stretching it to shape around that once damp, using temporary staples to fix it in place to the back.

edited for typos

@KillingMeWithSilence I thought it might not be simple. Thanks for that idea, it sounds good.

It’s absolutely fine to do it yourself. Just take time and don’t rush. I used a sheet of hardboard for nailing mine to. I waited for warm weather, so that it dried fairly quickly and didn’t get that damp washing smell! But that just me. 😀😀

What did you cover your hardboard with? Some say greaseproof paper, others blotting paper or cartridge paper?

I just used a big sheet of clean white paper on it

I've not done it for many years (before the internet was a tadpole!) but I'm pretty sure I used calico to cover the board. And lots of strong thread long stitches on the back pulling in the directions it needed to go. Three pronged pins (the sort for silk painting) or staples would have been much easier but I didn't have such things in those days.