I am working on some secret sewing right now, and trying to get started on my Christmas sewing, so I don't have a lot I can share here. But I can use a couple of pictures to show you what I have been thinking about.
When you sew blocks together for a quilt, how do you press the seams? Do you press to one side? Do you press them open? Do you do a little of both? Press to the dark side if there is one? There are many different answers here. I do a little of both, but, I am thinking about changing my ways and here is why:
This is the back of one of my blocks. As I sewed each seam, I pressed it to the side. I used a good bit of steam and then pressed the entire block again when it was finished.
You can see here, in spite of my best efforts, this block is not as flat as I would like it to be. I did 15 blocks like this and you can see that there are so many seam that overlap, it is hard to keep it flat.
This is the very last block for this quilt top. I decided to experiment with it and press every seam open on this block. This is obviously the back, but I think it looks much better.
You can see here the seams lie much flatter than the other block, especially where so many seams intersect. This is clearly the best option for blocks with lots of intersecting seams.
One more comparison for you. This is a close up of the top side of the two blocks. Here, you can clearly see that this block is not lying very flat.
And here you can see a much flatter block on the top side. I was not really surprised by this. A part of me knew it would be so.
I think the main reason I don't press seams open all the time is that I am lazy. It takes a wee bit more effort to open the seam and run the iron through it, than to just press it to the side. And I think I also thought it slowed me down in my piecing. But, it really didn't take me any longer to press seams open in the last block, than to press to the side in the other blocks. I probably used less steam too.
So, that's my lesson for today. What do you think? Happy Friday!
1 comment:
That is an interesting comparison/observation. I tend to press to one side unless it is really bulky. But that is just from habit. I must admit that I am opening seams up a lot more. I think the fabric and threads are strong enough to handle that now, compared to years ago.
Good luck with your Christmas sewing.
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