I guess this question will go round and round as long as there at least two quilters left to discuss it! I've always pressed to the side ('always' being relative as I have not been quilting many many years like many of you), simply because all of my books told me to, but I have always hated the bulkiness of this method. And the question of 'seeing a dark shadow of the seam through the quilt top confuses me. If you have a black piece of fabric and a white piece, and you sew them together and then press the seam open the white seam allowance goes to the white 'side' and the black seam allowance goes to the black 'side'. What's to see!? It can't get any better than that. So, I think I am going to switch from pressing to the side to pressing open, because I like smooth, flat seams. At times when trying to press to the dark side, I have ended up with the situation of having to sew through 4 layers of fabric. That's when I 'rebelled' and 'disobeyed' the rule and turned one allowance the 'wrong' way :mrgreen: That situation will not happen again, I'm will be pressing open