With my little side project trying to figure out the best way to get a perfect quarter inch seam I have come across a plethora of fantastic articles on the best way to do it. All the links I've put in this post are seriously worth a read!
My first point of call was Chasing Cottons' Quilt Class 101, which pointed my in the direction of Amy's Creative Side and her great tutorial. I did this repeatedly, sewing right on the edge of my foot, doing a scant 1/4" (which I just don't do well and end up with slightly wonky seams) and moving my needle slightly to the right - and each time I pressed to one side, I ended up losing some of the fabric width (not much but enough to stuff up a tricky block). So then I tried doing what Amy does - pressing my seams open - and voila it was perfect.
So then I did a bit more reading on the whole pressing issue (open or to the side) and found a great tutorial from Jacquie of Tallgrass Prarie Studios (one of my quilty heroes :-) ) on pressing seams open. This made me even more sure open is the way to go. In her tutorial, Jacquie had a link to another really informative article on pressing seams, and once I'd read THAT one my mind was definitely made up. I'm officially a pressing-seams-open convert.
So now I'm off to remade my sawtooth star that didn't really work, and my Japanese Sampler blocks and might even get started on the Modern BOMs over at SewMamaSew...
happy stitching (and pressing!!)
Jess
1 comment:
Interesting! Do you still press seams open? There are so many factors, but especially considering my exploration of free motion lately, I'm really thinking about thread and the important role it plays in the quilting of a quilt but also in the construction/seams. Hamm. I've bene pressing from side to side for so long! It's an especially interesting question when you have fabrics of different thicknesses.
Hmm - I can't change my identity here. I'm Disa from your class and from http://sparky.tasgeocaching.com/
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