Pressing seam allowances to one side not necessary.
 

I read this in APQ magazine: “Pressingseam allowances to one side was important years ago when quilts wereonly pieced and quilted by hand,” “There was more stress onthe pieced seams, and quilting through the ironed-over layersstabilized the quilt. Today, a machine-pieced and machine-quiltedquilt is so sturdy there is little stress on the seams and no need topress the seam allowances to one side.”

Interesting! However...most of the time it is easier to press them to one side than to press them open AND it makes it easier to lock seams together.

it depends on which way will give you the best block. Sometime it is easier to press open and distribute the thickness of the seams. I sometimes do both in the same block.

I have been reading some of my newer quilt books and occasionally one of the authors says that they are now ironing seams open. I recently tried it on a quilt that I was making and the only thing I can say is that it took me a long time to iron those little 1/4 seams open. Yes, it laid really flat after I was done, but I was not crazy about how long it took me to iron.

I always thought pressing to the side was the lazy way. I was taught to press open, but it takes too long.

I do think if you are planning to stitch in the ditch to the side is better...otherwise the seam can open up.

It takes me longer to set the seam and then getting the overlap out when pressing to one side. It's easier for me to match open seams.

I like pressing open better. Don't understand why it takes some so long to press open? I open at the beginning of the seam and slide my finger a couple inches further up and just go, always keeping my fingers an inch or two from the iron.

As with almost everything else involved in quilting, we each make up our own minds about what works best for us and under what circumstances. Pressing open works for me under some conditions, but not others...same for pressing to one side. However, pressing to one side is my default way of doing things because it is faster and burns my fingers less! :) Pressing open with 5/8" seams was a piece of cake...1/4", not so much.

I have read on this Board that stitching in the ditch on seams which were pressed open will result in threads being weakened or cut by needle punctures, and that the ditch seam will not reinforce anything into the cloth itself. That does seem to have some logic to it.

On the other hand, since ditch seams are on the low-side, they aren't doing much structurally to hold the pieces together because the lower piece doesn't have both pieces of fabric, whereas the high-side piece has the folded edge with both pieces of fabric. Stitching 1/8" on the high side would be a structural seam from a piecing perspective. With quilts heavily machine quilted, I can imagine there is no issue about pieces coming undone.

My first quilt, I was a sewer, not a quilter, and (not having been told how to do it properly) I did what I have always done, pressing open. It is easy to do and easy to match seams because you aren't riding over a little lump. The down-side to this is that on close inspection my seam stitching shows, whereas when I fold to the side it seems to be hidden.

IMHO! I am a beginner here, but trying to think things through. Nice to know that changes in methods (like using a machine) have been acknowledged by quilting "engineers" and pros.

HA! The quilt I just finished piecing (Fracture) has 1/8" seams AND it called for pressing them open. THAT was NOT fun and not something I ever plan on doing again. To top it off, the fabric I was using wanted to fray a lot, and every time I handled it I would leave a trail of threads from the seam edges behind. I already know that because of the small seams and the fraying (and it is an LQS fabric I was using - Northcott I believe but not certain), I am going to have to some very heavy quilting on it to make sure it holds together. I don't trust it.

I can say this much ... I think when I press seams to one side the chance that I'll iron in "bowing" is much greater than when I press seams open. That's the only good thing that came out of that 1/8" open seam experience.