I have been sewing seams open for over 4 decades of quilting. I never did jump on the "press to the dark" bandwagon. I still get "looks" and comments, from some quilters .. that I am not a "real" true quilter. Their first reaction is how did you get it to look so flat? .. then when I flip it over and they see the open seams .. its like a brought a plague into the room. I am glad to see more are seeing the benefits of pressing open. Maybe someday I won't get the "look"!

Thank you for this thread! I'm new to quilting, but not entirely new to sewing...just rusty LOL. I was familiar with pressing seams open from apparel/craft patterns, and wondered the 'why' of it all with quilting. This is good information (as is everything I read here because even with a show & tell type thread, there are tips & notations that make for great information gathering!)
Thanks again!

I am under the impression that pressing to the side makes a sturdier quilt. Does anyone have experience pressing seams open for a child's quilt that gets dragged around and washed a lot? Just curious.

I have done it both ways and there is certainly alot less bulk if pressed open.

Whenever I want to press my seams open I actually use a sleeve ham I have had for years. You can get one cheap at JoAnns. I just lay the seam side up and the fabric pulls the material down so the pressing is really easy and I don't have any problems.

When you have hand problems you either learn ways around what you want to do or get really frustrated ... and, gasp, maybe give up.

Pressing to one side and accurately locking the seams does not create any more thickness than open seams so should be no difference in quilting.iprefer to one side for strength but sometimes get it wrong.

Which way to press seams is, to my way of thinking, an entirely personal decision and ranks up there with the other personal quilting decisions of pre-wash or not, stash or not, scrappy or not, pre-cuts or not, hand stitch or not, and so on. Do whatever works for you with my blessing, but I'm sticking with what works for me...and pressing seams open isn't it. :)

Oh! I will definitely try this, thanks! I always try to finger press them apart before I press, but it doesn't always make things better.

I do press mine open when I have a lot of pieces coming together. For me (and yes it may only be me) I have an easier time matching when I press to one side. I have never had issue of breaking a needle when quilting with seams pressed to the side.

I also lower my stitch length to at least 2, most of the new machines come up at 2.5 (not sure how many stitches to the inch that is). I think the other thing is that SID was not meant to be in the seam line but a little to the left or to the right of it. Most older quilts I have noticed have the quilting stitches either just to one side of the seam or a 1/4 to the side of the seam.

I forgot to mention that I saw a tool at a QS and went home and made it, works great. Took half-round (flat on one side and rounded on the other) similar to quarter round so it is small. Made it the length I wanted (18 in) and then created a sleeve (fabric - batting- fabric) seamed down the side and across the bottom and slid the wood piece into it.