I've been working on a Postage Stamp quilt using 1" finished squares. Mine is a checkerboard pattern with every other square being white (Kona Snow) so I did blocks of 10 squares by 10 with seams pressed toward the colored squares. I have found I get beautiful results by pressing each row after it's added. This is easy for me to do as I have a little pressing station set up next to my sewing machine so all I have to do is swivel my chair. Sewing station is a wooden TV tray with batting and a cover over it. I also like to have an extra piece of disposable fabric over the cover as I sometimes use starch or Clear Press and over time the area where I iron the most will discolor and become brittle. When it's discolored I just rotate the cloth or if there's no clear space left, toss it.
I had to smile reading the description of "small pieces" and realizing they are talking about 2" squares. After you've worked with 1.5 inch squares for a while even a 2" square looks big ...