Mamacandoit

When is it best to finger press and when is it better to iron press?

thanks

ckcowl

There are quilters who finger press through the whole construction of a black, then press with an iron the completed block, there are quilters who finger press the whole construction process and only use an iron for a final pressing, there are those who finger press parts, and it in when they feel they need to and people who never finger press, who get up and iron press every seam along the way (boy, they have lots of energy)

For me I have found often my blocks are more accurate when I finger press through the construction, I press with the iron when I need to. Everyone finds what works best for them there is no right/wrong...If your blocks come out well with finger pressing go for it.

joe'smom

I can think of no reason not to iron press if you're piecing near an iron. It was my understanding that finger pressing is used when hand-piecing away from home?

Barb in Louisiana

I am a lazy quilter, but I do press almost every seam, especially HST's because I have to square each one up. I bought a folding table that is about 18" wide by 24 " long at our local WM. It has a height adjustment. It sits next to me and the sewing machine. I put an ironing pad (you can buy them at Joan's or make your own) on it and use my small Rowenta iron. I just turn in my chair and do the pressing.

If I don't press every seam, I do give it a lick before I square up the blocks. A couple of quilts were so off on the blocks that I just gave up and eased all the extra on each side in. None of them matched up. I was lucky, that on a 12 inch block I was not off more than 1/2" on the blocks. If I had trimmed them, I would have lost all my points. I HATE HST's!!!! It was painful, but I made lemonade out of lemons. After it was quilted and washed, it looked just as good as the others where I put a lot more intensive effort into.

As every one says, it is a personal choice. I let my quilt pattern design let me know what I have to do.

Happy Quilting!

NJ Quilter

Since I'm an open-seam presser, I tend to finger press all my seams open and then press them with an iron as well. Do this for every seam in every block throughout the quilt. Tedious to be sure but I think my tops come out flatter and are easier to hand quilt that way.

ManiacQuilter2

I tend to finger press when working with something detailed and I don't want to be popping up every time to just press one seam.

mirish2

I tend to finger press when I am putting small pieces together. I don't want to warp their shape with the iron.

Onebyone

According to my neighbor using my iron to press quilt blocks is as bad as not reusing my bath water. We are just the quick wave in the driveway acquaintances as she about faints if she comes in my house and sees a tin can in the trash with the newspaper.

feline fanatic

I tend to finger press only small PP units. Everything else, I chain piece several units at a time and then get up and press them all.

That said, I am currently making an offset log cabin with logs finishing at 1/2" on one side and 1" on the other. I precut my logs to size. I have found when finger pressing my blocks are not coming out as true, my precut logs aren't fitting my units perfectly as I progress. This is definitely not a seam allowance issue as I experimented and did one set by getting up and going to the iron for every seam and the other finger pressing and only iron pressing once the 6 1/2 block was completed. My iron pressed blocks for every seam definitely progressed more smoothly with no fudging then my finger pressed ones. Besides the exercise is good for me, at least that is what I keep telling myself!

quiltin-nannie

What on earth does your neighbor reuse bath water for??