miholmes

Did I get your attention?

I recently took a class with Kaye England and it was kind of a real eye opener. She made us all try creating a block her way just to see how it turned out. Here were her rules:

Iron your fabric first
Then you don't touch the iron again until the block is done. In the real world application it was until the quilt top was done.

While piecing it together you would sew the dark toward the dar without pressing. Her philosophy was, if you measure it right, cut it right, and sew an exact 1/4 right. Then the block will turn out right.

Well I will say this...I'm an ironer....I like to press it all so it like cardboard going through the machine. But when I did it her way I was astonished at how well the blocked turned out. Points were lined up GREAT and another thing....NO PINS!

I wondered if anyone else quilts like this all the time? After such a successful first try, I think I will continue this way, it actually saves a lot of time running back and forth to the iron.

So I would say if you think you might like to do it, TRY a block. I was kinda amazed, did I mention that I'm kinda in love with Kaye England now? :-D

brookemarie19

Very interesting. I was always told to press after every line I sewed. This would be so much faster and easier. I must try.

DebraK

Going to the ironing board is my only form of exercise ;-)

cjomomma

I kind of go back and forth on this depending on what kind of block I am making. I hate to iron and press.

Prism99

What kind of block did you try this on? I'm wondering if it would work on a pieced log cabin.

nativetexan

i tend to like to iron as i go too. it seems difficult to me to iron a whole quilt top, even just doing the seams of rows is not fun. but i see her point.

wolfkitty

I tend not to press until the block is done. I'm just not the 'press every line' kind of person.

miholmes

I know, me too. So we did this making a block from her "Star of Hope" quilt.

Here is the pattern, it was one of the blocks.
http://www.pineneedles.net/store/pc/...6&IdCategory=0

amma

This is an interesting concept, thank you for sharing it with us :D:D:D

cherylynne

I just finger press until I am all done. It really makes a difference in the quality of your piecing.