i was taught to press to the dark side in my first quilt lesson-also how to butt the seams together-----somthing like 15 quilts later --i made a quilt with my daughter she presses seams open after the first couple of blocks i was getting it -----now i am totally confused as to what i will use for my next quilt --i did lower my stitch length and got quite good at pressing the 1/4 seams open without burning my fingers