a pressing matter

which side of the debate are you on? do you press open or to the side? I was taught, originally, to press to the side, but after reading Elizabeth Hartman's book "the practical guide to patchwork" I decided to give "open" a go. something about it appealed to me. (her use of white space and fabrics also inspired my design decisions.)

unfortunately, the very next quilt I made, "taite", had lots and lots of tiny patchwork and it was quite a pain to press all of those open. that is one thing about "open" that is not in it's favor - it is twice the work.

that quilt has also been put aside and taken out several times since it was begun. this has required re-pressing all those darn seams more than once. ugh.

on Friday, my sweet friend jill came over to sew with me. I drug out "taite" to be basted. it was still sandwiched after my last unsuccessful attempt to baste it, and neatly folded. I was hoping it would be just a matter of taping it down and getting those pins in it. unfortunately, I could tell by looking at it that she would require pressing of the back and top due to the large creases left by months of being folded.

I drug out my iron and board, then got to work. it took way too long, but I eventually got it all pressed one last time.

I realized this was the last time I was going to see all those crazy seams and had to take one last photo of them. strange, but I think I might actually miss them. seeing, not pressing, that is.

farewell, my first open seams! may you lay flat and be easily quilted.

linking to needle and thread thursday