Lights are down, yard décor cleaned up, left overs finished, right? Not in our house. The tree stays up until the weekend after new years, that's been my parents tradition every year growing up and I continue the timeline. Stock pot on the stove this morning which means a few dinners of hot soup and biscuits in January, nights which can remind of this these past few days.
OK onto my quilting question. I've been working on this block, it's the first time I've made this pattern and this part is all hand pieced. I have NOT pressed any seams in any direction and here is my question. Do I press this out before stitching it to the background piece? It is not appliqued, but pieced in to two separate background pieces.
I'm pretty confident this will lay flat once it's pressed as we stretched it out by hand on the table yesterday at my LQS. So what's your expert opinion? Do I press before it gets the outside attached or after the whole block is finished?
Thanks for taking the time to ponder and reply, it's appreciated.
Sharon
8 comments:
No pressing help from me but responding to your Christmas thoughts. I'm SO glad it's over as I don't like it to begin with. The commercialization and just craziness drives me insane. I didn't put much up since it's just me so didn't take long to get it down the 26th. Get annoyed that there continues to be Christmas commercials. I'm ready for it to be done! Not Scrooge, just lasts way to long to begin with (stores putting stuff out in Sept/Oct).
I'm a pressed as you go kind of sewer. I think I would press the circle before adding the background that way the circle can be sure to match up to any reference points along the way and the curve would be smooth. That's my humble opinion :0)
I don't know if I can be much help as I've only made this block once! However, I pressed mine before I hand stitched the background to the compass.I do think it could have been machine stitched (I machine stitched the compass to a foundation paper pattern)to the background but I would use a ton of pins to make sure it kept its round shape perfectly. Best of luck, I'm sure you will make it beautifully! Happy New Year!
I would press now; and it is a very lovely block.
When I've pieced similar block, I've marked 1/8 distances around the seamline of the center circle and matched those marks to the center and edges of the four central wedges. I did only finger pressing until the block was entirely together.
I'm sure there are multiple ways to do this, but that's what worked for me.
Here's a link to my largest compass/sunflower quilt: http://doraquilts.blogspot.com/2012/04/whats-on-bed.html
I'm with you about the Christmas music and other aspects of the holiday. We lead up to Christmas for a month (sometimes more), celebrate His birth, and then act as if nothing happened. It's all so sad. My family left yesterday afternoon and I was too exhausted to do much of anything but today, I'm listening to Christmas carols again! Let the season linger.
I love savoring the season!! Always a little sad to have it arrive and be over.
Not sure about the hand sewing, but I'd guess pressing it before appliqueing it would make sure it won't have puckers or bunches.
I love to continue to enjoy the spirit of the holiday until New Year's Day is past. I still watch Christmas movies while I stitch, and play carols on itunes.
I have only made Mariner's Compasses using foundation piecing, and then I have just sewn them into a cutout circle, rather than appliqued, so my experience is a bit different, but I would think you would want it nicely pressed before appliqueing to make sure it isn't puckering.
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