learning curve

i really like how crisp and flat my pieces are when i've left them under the floppy books after pressing. it's a sight this quilter likes to see. they don't stay that way once they've been handled again for further piecing, and of course once in the quilt they get crinkly and soft, just how we like a quilt to be. 

but for a moment, they are perfectly flat and stiff, as good as if i'd starched them.

for reference, quite often after i've pressed pieces, i set a couple of "floppy" soft-cover books on top of them for a bit to help flatten the seams i've just pressed. originally i used some old phone books (and still do). now i also use some sewing books i was going to purge and donate but found work really well for this purpose, too. i stack 3-4 of the floppy books on top of the pressed pieces until either i need to move them to do more pressing or until i'm ready to use the pieces. often the last pieces i press in a sewing session get left on the pressing table under the books until next time i sew. those tend to look especially nice.

d5 and i had another sewing session after school a few days ago. she has finished all the row sets for the "pinky stinky" edna 16 patch blocks and told me she wanted to press them herself. i was not going to argue with that! at this point, pressing is my least favorite part of the whole quilt process. (well, maybe basting? but there's a lot more pressing to do all the time, so i guess it wins.) usually i press for her, but she was ready to take on a new skill.

it was harder than she thought, of course. and she's a little perfectionist! she didn't fully follow my advice for how to lay out her pieces to make it easier to remember which direction to press the different rows (so they nest). naturally, this meant she got mixed up periodically and pressed in a different direction than she intended. she's still wrapping her head around how all that works. i know the more she does it, the better she'll get with the process and the more it will sink in for her.

after pressing a whole lot of sets, she decided to join a block. this was another learning experience for her, one with it's own frustrations. seam nesting and matching such small pieces was harder than she expected. but she's learning! and she sticks with it. i showed her how to nest the seams and pin in the seam directly. it worked pretty well. there was one pair of rows that didn't match up well enough for her and she was happy to unpick and redo.

after a while she had her first 16 patch complete! i'm so proud of her. she did another one before feeling done for the day. only about 30 something more to go. a few more of these put together and i'll start assembling the quilt top.

side note: linda asked me recently which of us gets to decide on background music when we're sewing together. actually, we mostly opt to listen to audible books together. this session we finished up the very end of our previous listen (julie berry's "the emperor's ostrich; fun, creative, well-read, recommended) and had to pick a new one. we did have a bit of a skirmish deciding on a new one from the extensive library we have. i started one she immediately vetoed; she picked one but after two chapters said, "okay, let's listen to "jane," the book i was trying to get her to choose. so l. m. montgomery's "jane of lantern hill" it is for now. although i've got to say i can barely stand how entirely horrid and toxic so many of the characters are! i read the book years ago and really liked it. listening now i'm appalled at the grandmother and aunts. but i know it will get better, so we're suffering through the set up of how bad jane's early home life is. the reader isn't great either, but she's tolerable to listen to.