Hey everyone. Today I want to talk about pressing every seam.
It sounds like the slowest advice in quilting. I know. You just sewed a good seam. You want to sew the next one. The iron feels like a detour.
Here is the thing, y'all. That detour is the work. Pressing is not the break between piecing steps. Pressing is a piecing step.
Why skipping it tempts everybody
I get why folks skip it. Chain piecing feels fast and productive. You can sew twenty units without standing up once. Standing up feels like quitting.
Finger pressing feels like a shortcut, too. Run your nail down the seam. It looks flat enough. For about ten minutes, it even is.
Then the heat leaves it. The seam relaxes. It stands back up, quietly, while you sew.
The story I have watched too many times
We see this in the shop all the time. A quilter brings in a top that will not lie flat. The rows wave like a flag. The corners will not sit down.
She is frustrated, and I understand that. She measured her cutting twice. Her quarter-inch seam was honest. So what went wrong?
We lay the top on the table. Block by block, we start looking. Sure enough, the seams were never really pressed.
Some leaned left. Some leaned right. A few were still folded closed, like nobody ever opened them. Every block had grown in its own direction.
One block measured 12 1/2 inches. The next one measured 12 3/4 inches. Same pattern, same cutting, same machine. The only difference was pressing.
Here is what unpressed seams do. They stay puffy, and puffy seams wander. Your points stop meeting in the middle. You tug the row to make them meet. Now the row is stretched, too.
I have done this myself, folks. Early on, I thought speed was skill. I pieced a whole set of blocks standing nowhere near the iron. Oh my goodness, those blocks taught me a lesson. Not one of them finished the same size.
The seam ripper and I spent quality time together. Just like that, my fast afternoon became a slow evening.
What I do instead
Here we go. This is my pressing routine, seam by seam.
First, I set the seam. Lay the piece down exactly as it came off the machine. Press the seam closed, flat, for about five seconds. That sinks the thread into the fabric. It makes everything after it easier.
Second, I press the seam one direction. Usually I press toward the darker fabric. That hides the seam allowance in the shadow. If the pattern says press open, I press open. The pattern usually has a reason.
Third, I lift and set the iron. I do not slide it back and forth. Sliding is ironing laundry, y'all. Sliding stretches fabric. Press, lift, move, press again.
Fourth, I use the cotton setting for quilting cotton. A lukewarm iron fools you. The seam looks pressed, then relaxes later. Real heat, held a few seconds, is what sets it.
Fifth, I check the unit before moving on. Measure it against the pattern size. A 6 1/2-inch unit should measure 6 1/2 inches. Not close. Exact, or within a thread of it.
That check takes ten seconds. It catches a drifting seam allowance early. Catch it on unit one, not unit forty.
For bulky intersections, I add one more step. I set a hardwood clapper on the hot seam. I let it sit while the fabric cools, about 15 seconds. The trapped heat flattens what the iron alone could not.
And keep a wool pressing mat at your machine if you can. Wool holds heat and presses from both sides at once. A small mat by the machine removes the walk. No walk, no excuse. That bad boy lives right next to my machine.
Now, the permission beat, because it matters. Your pressing does not have to be perfect. One seam leaning the wrong way will not ruin a quilt. You are your own worst critic here.
Take your time. It is not a race. We are not reinventing the wheel here. We are just giving every seam its five seconds.
If I can do this, y'all can do it. Completely up to you how you press — open or to the side. Just press.
Don't take my word for it — read this: How to Press Quilt Seams on the Fat Quarter Shop blog, which walks through setting a seam and pressing it cleanly, step by step.
Shop the Wool Pressing Mat 17in x 17in x 1/2in Thick at Linda's Electric Quilters.
Thank you for spending a few minutes with me today. Press that next seam, then come show us how flat it lies. We'll see you next time. Bye.
— Corey, Chief Quilter, Linda's Electric Quilters
