When I first starting sewing, I worked in a factory ... what do you MEAN ---IRON??? never happened, and I quilted for more than ten years without ironing most of the time. After all, gravity CAN be our friend, right?? <g>
Time went by, and the Lord brought me a helper who is a STICKLER! well, it might be better to say that she makes beautiful quilts and she does EVERYTHING the rules say ... even the ironing. So, we would work together, her making her quilts, me making my quilts, but we found out that we could produce more if we worked together. Just before that happened, we produced two quilts for a Veterans' Day luncheon ... they were to be presented from a free drawing. The Friday before the Luncheon, we met at the Post, each carrying our individual quilts and we hung them on the wall. And, I asked her ... okay, you iron, I don't. Look at those two quilts and tell me which is which!
She just laughed and said, I can't tell them apart ... I didn't iron mine, either!
It happened, that I got a chance to quilt a quilt that she had assembled. The difference (in a good way) was very noticeable!
Now, I press my blocks, setting the seams first and then opening the block and pressing from the front. And, using steam helps me with being gentle with them.