Should quilting be dense for quilts made with seams pressed open?
 

I just made my 1rst HST quilt. I used a method where each unit has the seam pressed to one side, then when the units are sewn together the seams are pressed open. I worry about the strength of the seams that are pressed open. Does dense quilting help? Or is a less dense, looser quilting better for that?

I press all my seams open and haven’t had any issues. I don’t normally stitch in the ditch but do free motion quilting. Leah day presses all her seams open. She recommends using a very small stitch length. 1.5. I think Sally Collins also presses seams open. I wash my quilts on regular and dry them in the dryer.

I have never pressed my seams open when quilting. I did minimum quilting on a quilt with a lot of seams in the piecing. It was a king size quilt. Just trying to move it popped seams. I went back in and made sure there were no areas larger than 2 inches open with no quilting. No more popping. If what you are quilting is a baby quilt, then there is no weight and there shouldn't be any seams popping. Even a lap quilt wouldn't need that much quilting, but heavier quilts do. I use Warm & Natural mostly and I think the minimum quilting is 12 inches apart. That is way too big an area and even though the batting shouldn't shift, everything else on the pieced top could.

I've been pressing my seams open for years. I prefer the flatter look as well as it seems I can match my seams/points more easily. I've done both hand and machine quilting on them and have not noticed any issues. I use W&N batting as well. While I generally quilt more densely than the batting requires, it's still not overly dense - maybe 6-8" apart.

I press my seams open 99.99% of the time and have never had any issues when quilting my quilts on my Longarm, and I tend to use looser patterns. I do suggest that you shorten your stitch length when pressing seams open, this will help strengthen the seam.

I've been pressing open since I started, so about 40 years of experience. I do have a list of reasons why I press open but basically I believe pressing to the side is a leftover from hand sewing and that with modern machines (including irons) there is no reason to do so and many reasons why not. A lot of it is what you are used to, but yes I feel pressing open is more precise when you use pins, but a lot of people do very well without any pinning.

I have no problems but I have a few hints. For one, pressing open does require a small stitch but so do modern strip piecing techniques. What I've noticed is that very few quilters I see at classes or whatever adjust their stitch length, many just turn on and go and that is almost always too long a stitch length. If you can easily pull away (not necessarily pull out but that they move) 3-4 stitches at the end of a seam, your seam length is too long.

For example, my Bernina defaults to 2.5, I dial down to 2.1 or 2.0. Yes it makes it harder to take things out and with my vision issues it is really hard and I need contrasting thread to have any chance of seeing it at all.

I've quilting directly in the ditch and never had any problems breaking the piecing threads. I use a larger needle with a larger stitch length when I'm quilting. I've never had any problems with batting coming out of my seams and
I've never had problems with my seams breaking or coming apart, the fabric in the center of the blocks wears out long before the seams do.

I do not press seams open. Alway so that the seams lay to the darker fabric so they don't show through to the light fabrics. When stitching together I will finger press my seams so the fall right into each other for a nice flat seam.

I agree that pressing to the side was a necessity with hand stitching, but not necessary when you have a top and bottom thread and no gaps between stitches. That said, I prefer pressing to the side because I have much greater accuracy matching seams that nest. I will press open when a (usually more modern, large-piece quilt) pattern specifies it.

Barb in Louisiana, I have never before heard of seams popping! That must have been distressing.

I'm glad this question was posted because I often wonder why the seams can't be pressed open (as we learned to do in homemaking class way back when). Per directions, I always press to the side of the darker fabric but it seems so bulky especially at the point where several pieces are sewn together. In my mind it seems that it would be much "neater" and less bulky if they were pressed open. They only time I did press open was when I make some flannel quilts as someone suggested that is best and I agree as things would have been super bulky if they were to one side. Maybe my next small table topper I'll try pressing open to see how it works for me.

There are times when even I do press to one side, like with curves and arcs. But also some fabrics are better treated that way. In my historical view of "why do we go to the side" it also corresponds with a time period when US made fabric was rather flimsy but you will find references to tiny seams on tightly woven goods. Fabric got better (in general) but we didn't change our ways of "this is how we do it because the fabric is flimsy and I don't have an electric iron" but just to this is how you quilt.

I'd say "quilting suitable" fabric is entirely suitable for open seams or by definition, it's not really quilting suitable.

So some fabrics because they ravel might be better to one side or the other disregarding the fabric. Some weaves of fabric are different and the fabric just doesn't want to fold back in one direction or another but it is still usable.

I always press seams to the side easier to nest seams. I never quilt less than 3-4" apart. If more than that I worry about bunching. I have used W&N not warm enough for me. For my quilts and some others I give away I use hi-loft polyester batting. warm in winter cooler in summer.

No right or wrong way to make quilts or quilting.

I press open too, when it's required to make certain seams look flatter, and I've never had a problem with it. I do use a small stitch length and stretchy polyester threads and have never had my stitches pop.

Closer quilting will generally strengthen a quilt. You want to make sure that the quilting is consistent or you'll have some unevenness to your quilt. I have been watching a show on thread painting by Terry White, and she densely paints in places, and then creates what she calls "environmental debris," which are little tack-downs around her quilt to help balance out the more densely quilted places so they don't look "warped". But in general if you commit to dense quilting, you should make sure it's balanced throughout the quilt.

I haven't read all the comments but to be honest I think open seams are fine as long as you shorten the stitch length. I think there is a lot to be said for open seams rather than to one side. I've done both and my open seam quilts haven't fallen apart.

I always press HST's open. It makes the 'block' more balanced when trimming to a perfect square. The reminders above to use a smaller stitch is appreciated!

I watched a video that said to press the seams open on a HST, then if you stay on the right side of this little triangle of fabric, you know you haven't lost your point.

I am a mostly press to one side person as I really think it does help keep the quilt together and I make mostly quilts that are used and thrown in the washer and dryier....and It does make nesting the seams together easier as you can feel they are locked before stitching...I have longarmed other peoples quilts who pressed opened seams and have had to repair the seam....but I think they used a too long stitch too....I don't do a lot of quilting for others...just a few.

Think about it- Pressed open, or to one side, makes no difference in joint strength. It's still two pieces of fabric joined by one stitching line. To add strength to the joint one needs to top-stitch next to the original seam, capturing and securing seam allowances to one side- as in french or flat felled seams