Saturday 27 July 2013

480 Pieces, 5 Rows, 27 Rows to Go

I spent two marathon sewing days while my daughter was in Kidz Camp piecing together the 480 parallelograms in Zipper in Time into 32 rows. It took FOREVER. It was finicky and I needed to do lots of pressing (one of my least favourite quilting tasks). But, after much perseverance, I had a delicious hanger of rows ready to sew together. Hooray!
32 rows, pressed and waiting
The all-important sticky notes to make sure I put it together in the right order!
Sewing the rows together involves lots of pins and very slow and precise pressing open of the seams. I am HATING this step in particular. I may give up and just press the seams to the side. What do you think? Bad idea? 
It looks awesome as it is shaping up, though!
At this point I have five rows sewn together and just 27 (gulp!) to go. I am determined to have the quilt top finished by Sunday night so next week I can focus on the backing, basting and (hopefully!) begin the quilting (which I am dreading since this is a BIG quilt!).

Your thoughts on pressing open seams?

Lynn

2 comments:

  1. Looking good, Lynn. Great progress. I'm torn on the whole which-way-to-iron-seams issue. I waver between open and to one side. Open does lay a little better, I think, but it certainly does take more ironing time, which I don't always have or want to take.

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  2. Your piecing looks great! I'd press the short seams between blocks to one side and the long seams between columns open - which you're doing it looks like. Otherwise you have too much bulk at your intersections and it could be really difficult to quilt. To press the seams open more easily, split them a bit then run your fingernail along the seams and it will press easier. I'd also suggest sewing columns in pairs, then the pairs into 4s, then into 8s, etc - otherwise by the time you get to the end of the quilt your beginning columns have been handled a lot and they'll stretch/warp. Keep going!

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