Pressing advice
Hi everyone,
i have been quilting for quite a few years and feel like I have gotten to a comfortable point in my quilting skills - not in a good way. I feel like I have come to accept my quilting competence and have not been striving to get better. If you've read "Moonwalking with Einstein" by Jonathon Foer (I just did!), I'm talking about the "ok plateau" - the point your brain reaches when it has become comfortable performing a task. You will not be able to advance from this plateau without focused practice, examining mistakes and analyzing what you did in the past and how you could do it better in the future. This kind of practice needs to be hard, you have to think about it, not just repeat the same action mindlessly.
i am trying to apply this to my quilting. I don't want to do it to enter shows or to quilt professionally, I just want my quilts to look better. One area I have been looking at is pressing. I am never satisfied with mine! I have read a lot about it. First I set the seam, then I press to one side, first on the back, then from the front. I seem to get a little wrinkle on the front pretty often. For a long time I didn't use steam, but lately sometimes I do.
does anyone know a good tutorial for me? Anyone have an iron that changed their life (mine seems like it might be too light)? How important is the board you use - I've read that the surface should be pretty firm, which I think mine is, but the board feels a little wobbly (my room is carpeted) . Does anyone use one of those clapper things (I think that's what they're called) on a regular basis? It seems like an awful lot of work for every seam, but lately I've been having the urge to use one, because my seam will lay flat after it is freshly pressed, but as it cools, it gradually floats up.
sorry for the super long post - I'm hoping there are some ironing enthusiasts out there who would like to give some advice.
Thanks, if you've read this far!
Pat