J.M.

I've only just started quilting with my sewing machine, after doing it only by hand for years, and I am chain piecing a quilt top for the first time. There's a problem I keep running into, though. When pressing, I don't have a problem if I press towards the newly attached block in the row. But if I try to press the seam towards the bulk of the row, I run into trouble because the rows are all attached to each other and that makes it difficult.

Does anyone have any tips to make it easier? Because right now I'm pulling things out of form while pressing and that's not supposed to happen, but constantly snipping the rows apart after I attach a new block takes the speed out of the whole chain piecing, not to mention make it likelier that I make a mistake in attaching blocks to the right row. So any help from experienced quilters that chain piece on the machine is welcome!