Do I have to iron before I sew together?
 

I am making a quilt for DGD for Christmas. I have each of the horizontal rows sewn together.
Do you think it would be ok to join the rows, matching the seams, (sewing seams going in alternate directions) then iron after joining?
It seems I could ease the seams together more easily that way.
Does this make any sense? Hope I wasn't too confusing.

This a personal preference thing Most will say to press as you go. Then I had one teacher say she does not press until her quilt is together. As a clothing seamstress before a quilt goddess I am in the habit of pressing as I go

I would press my rows before joining them. I think my top turns out better if I do it that way.

i also found that pressing as i go helps me to catch mistakes in time to fix them before i have to seam rip an entire quilt to get to them.......:-)

I would definitely iron as you go. It honestly makes it easier to piece together when it's all flat.

You might try joining one row the way you described and see if it works for you. You never know, it might.
I am in the habit and was taught to iron before joining any seams. It works for me so I'll stick with it. I think it might be difficult to get the seams going in opposite directions without ironing them. Just a thought.

the only time I don't press as I go, is if there are a lot of bias seams. I really like suern3's suggestion, however. try it both ways and see what works for you!

I have found that if I wait to press the top when it's completed, it's way too hard to actually iron all, going the right way. The iron is just too big to fit in the right places, with matching seams alternating going opposite ways.

As a result, I always press each row as I go, then sew the rows together.

I tried that once & wouldn't recommend it. Among other things, I ended up with some seams that had to later be either un-done or else pressed with a wrinkle in them & quilted down (I tried both & they take nearly equal amounts of time & aggravation). I actually like ironing, but didn't want to disrupt my "flow" to be constantly getting up & pressing seams. I had to learn the hard way that there is a reason our sewing teachers taught us to press as we go. You might get away with it once or twice or ten times, but if you're like me, eventually, over the course of 50 or so seams you will have one or two that get away from you ... and of course those will be the ones dead center in your quilt top.

It truly is, in my humbling experience, worthwhile to press every time you've joined a seam before you add another piece of fabric (even if that piece is on the opposite side).

Try each way and then you can decide which way is best.