Yes I iron my seams open. I do primarily miniatures and when you work with minis the open seams means less bullk. But the tack will work either way you do the seams.

When you iron to the dark it makes that side raised. I don't like the feel of that. So I iron the seams open.

I do it by hand. Tho I have done it by machine and it just takes a second to do. When doing it by machine I just sew about 4 or 5 stitches across the seam. Just enough to catch it. When I have had trouble getting the seams to line up when tacking I have done it on the machine so I can see if it is lined up right after being sewn. It doesn't take much to take back out 3 -5 stitches and it can help to get those seams lined up right. Once in awhile I get one that shifts as I am placing the seams together and it frustrates me. So I sew in the machine so I can see if they are right or not.

When tacking you can also open it and see if the seams are lined up right but you can't do that with pins.

Thanks for the great tip Rhonda. My question may seem obvious to some but I have to ask anyway. How do you make your tack stitch? Is it knotted? I probably should know how to make a tack but I don't. LOL

Terrific tip--will use it on the Bella Bella quilt I have started. Thanks for sharing.

I just take a stitch and clip off the thread about 1/4" away from the stitch. I sometimes take two stitches in the same place (one over the other) if I have trouble getting the stitch to not pull back out. I wouldn't knot it. but you could. If you make sure you don't go in and come out in the same place your stitch should hold.

Great tip. Thanks.

Thank you, Rhonda. I'll use it on the mini-quilts I'm working on.

I agree!

Very good idea! Thanks for passing it on. :lol: :lol:

Thanks for a great tip!