Pressing vs. Ironing

In my world of hard to break habits lies the mysterious world of ironing.

To explain I mean I have a tendency to want to iron my fabric, my seams, and my finished blocks instead of pressing them.

This is what happens when you iron a seam instead of pressing it.

Because I forgot to press my seams (I ironed instead) I stretched out my fabrics.  When I sewed the block together I noticed that I had created what are called pin tucks.  Pin tucks happen when you stretch fabric to make it match another piece.  It's very tempting to stretch block pieces so they'll fit perfectly but resist!

One stretched seam amplifies itself many times over, ironing will aggravate it even more.

What's the difference?

When you iron something, anything really, you're essentially pulling and stretching the fibers of the fabric with a hot and somewhat heavy piece of metal.  You're attempting to physically, and hopefully gently, stretch out any wrinkles in said fibers.

When you press something you are attempting to create a "wrinkle" or a seam in your fabric.  Pressing also, as the word implies, does not involve pushing, pulling or stretching fibers.  Permanent pressing involves lots of steam to "set" the seam.

When you're piecing together a quilt block you'll often see that the directions will tell you to PRESS open a seam or to PRESS a seam in one direction or towards another seam.  Pressing and ironing are two different methods and should never be treated as the same thing.

The Chain Gang Sewing Tip

Alot of times while working on a quilt you'll find yourself piecing and sewing together the same type of  block combination over and over...and over. It can become quite tedious and boring.

To help speed it along you can "chain" your blocks together!

Chaining blocks is exactly like it sounds.  As you finish sewing the piece you were working on simply sew a couple of stitches out from the end of the last piece (don't worry it won't hurt your machine) and then add the next identical block combination and sew that one together, so on and so forth.  There is no need to stop the machine and cut threads for each tiny piece.  You can see in the picture above that there is a space between each block and each block is connected with thread thus chaining them together.

Once you finish sewing the all the identical block pieces together you'll be left with something that resembles a wonky kind of bunting.  Lay your sewn pieces flat and cut the thread between each block piece.  Presto!  You've sewn several bits of fabric together much faster with less fuss.  Plus it's kind of fun especially when your blocks start to get bigger.

You can see in this picture that I still needed to add another piece to the other side.  I did the same thing with these and chained them together, and then cut the extra thread between each piece when they were all done .

Here's a video to help you visualize it (I personally do not recommend sewing over your needles and no that is not me ^_~):

Quick Quilting Tips

Despite all of our remodeling I've been working on all my overdue Christmas projects that were put on hold due to the Holiday Rush on Tumus and then my previous sewing machine biting the dust.

One of these projects is for my sister-in-law.

It's going to be a wall hanging of the American Flag that's been stylized.  The pattern is called "Stars & Bars" by Minick & Simpson. 

As I was getting my fabric cut out and stacked I thought I would point out few things that might help you on your next quilting project.

Tools you will always find useful while sewing:

- pen and paper

- camera or cellphone with camera

 - sharp scissors that are dedicated to fabric-only use

- a rotary cutter usually a 45mm or 60mm blade is best

- a self-healing cutting mat and a ruler as long as your mat

- seam ripper (definitely)

- small thread snips 

- an iron

- good lighting, a comfy seat

- the ability to make mistakes and be okay with starting over ^_^

1) Organization is very helpful when you've got alot of bits and pieces. 

Layout your color combinations and take a picture, this will help you remember which colors you like best together.

 

2) Do label piles and write down your fabric combinations.

This is especially helpful when you have cut pieces that are only different by a mere inch.  Post-it notes are great for this!

3) Don't be afraid to mark on your fabric.  

I would recommend either a pencil or a water soluble pen, but sometimes you can get away with using a ball-point pen.  Marking like this is especially helpful when you need to sew on a diagonal!

or if you don't feel like marking and are comfortable with your sewing skills you can do this instead.

Using your top thread simply pull it from one point to the next and start sewing following your thread as you go.

These are just a few tips to help you out, but there are dozens of other tricks you can use.  If you have any quilting suggestions or tips that you know of feel free to post in the comments!