Another snow day for us, not as far as school being cancelled or anything like that, but as far as me not having a car because Graham needed to drive it, as opposed to his scooter, to work today!! I didn't have a whole lot needing to be done around home today (though I do need to fold the towels that are in the dryer and bake banana muffins) and the cutting instructions for the Sparkle Quilt Along came out today so I figured I had plenty of time to do the few chores plus get cutting for the QAL!
This is enough for the largest size, in other words enough of the print fabric for 16 "sparkles". I have yet to cut into my solid background fabric, which is going to be cream.
A question for you today.....
In general, do you press your seams open or to one side??
This is not by any means a right/wrong question, I am just curious! I think it's all of the people working on the Swoon-Along that has gotten me wondering. Before I made Swoon, I pressed all seams to one side. Then with Swoon, which has so many seams needing to line up and intersect it made more sense to press everything open and I am so glad that I did! With that project, I got in the habit and liked the results and now I press all seams open, with very few exceptions.
So, just curious, what do you do????
A question for you today.....
In general, do you press your seams open or to one side??
This is not by any means a right/wrong question, I am just curious! I think it's all of the people working on the Swoon-Along that has gotten me wondering. Before I made Swoon, I pressed all seams to one side. Then with Swoon, which has so many seams needing to line up and intersect it made more sense to press everything open and I am so glad that I did! With that project, I got in the habit and liked the results and now I press all seams open, with very few exceptions.
So, just curious, what do you do????
15 comments:
It depends on what type of block I am working on. Swoon, yes I opened them. Even my Farmer's Wife blocks, I open most of them but if there are not to many seams to the side they go!
Usually open, but I'm flexible!
Almost always open.
I press to one side.Beautiful fabrics!
mmm...your fabric looks great! And don't tell, but I have always done my seams to the side as I was taught. If asked to on a specific project, I'll do open tho. And btw, when did you change your header? I've been thinking about doing that!
always to the side - i read somewhere that the seam is stronger that way. but i can see how opening them could be better sometimes.
I love to press open, unless there is an obvious light dark seam x
I almost always press to side, so the seams nest neatly. In fact, I despise patterns that don't include pressing instructions - I don't like to have to figure the nesting out myself. When I nest, I don't have to pin. However, I press some seams open in a bulky block. With Swoon, I've done a mix of open and side, trying to both nest seams where that works and ease the bulk by leaving some seams open. I still haven't figured out a good way on that block.
Some of each. I like to nest the seams, especially on square or rectanglar pieces, so I generally press to the side in those instances. But otherwise, I kind of let the seams tell me what they want to do. Sometimes pressing open means more accurate matching because on a small block with lots of seams, the bulk of multiple seams pressed to the side can really mess up your finished block.
I'm no expert so I follow the pattern if it tells me!! Otherwise I tend to do what felicity does, a bit of both and see what the fabric wants to do!!
As a fairly new quilter, I have a question on this topic. Is there a good technique to press open quarter-inch seams and not burn your fingers? I'm working on a quilt right now that called for open seams and after spending way too much time getting them open and burning my fingers, I gave up and pressed to the side. Thanks.
I too have tried to figure out what's 'right' in terms of seam pressing. I generally just do what the pattern calls for!
Looking forward to seeing your sparkles blocks come together!
Oh, and 'yeah', you got snow!!!
Depends on the block etc but usually to one side!
I usually press them to the side. I find this way I need fewer pins and stitch in the ditch is still an option. Though I'll press them open if my quilting plans or the block calls for it.
I'm a press to the side kinda gal and did this for the swoon block I just made. The seams nested very well.
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