A “Pressing” Matter!

I finally got enough of the wing triangles sewn on to the string geese triangles to be able to see what my first row was going to look like.

Sewed geese into pairs…

Went to the ironing board and….

Oh. My. Goodness.  These Geese are REALLY BULKY!

String quilts are like this…a lot of seams coming together and crossing when you join them to each other, making it hard to figure out which is the best way to press.

When joining goose-to-goose I like to have the one on the top with its crossed seams showing so I can tell where my seam needs to be in an extreme effort not to make my goose beak-less!  Yes, I am a relaxed piecer by nature, but I DO try!  Sometimes they get a blunt beak anyway ---but I try!

When I went to press….I tried my normal way of pressing the seam up toward the goose above ---but there is too much thickness both on the sides and here in the center to want to cooperate.  I tend to err on the path of “least resistance”  when it comes to deciding which way to press. But what do you do when the center wants to go one way ((Up)) and the corners want to go the other way ((down))??

CLIP!

Yes, there are two colors of bobbin thread -- I was using stuff up!

Here I’ve made a little clip on either side of the main goose triangle.  I try to be shy a few threads, don’t get too close to that seam or you’ll snip it.

Press THIS way!

Now the bulky point can point up toward the goose above, and the corners of the string goose above can press down toward the unpieced area --- which is the way it wants to lie.  If I had pressed all those seams UP it would have been majorly bulky because I would be doubling seams back against themselves.

Unit from the front.  Pretty good!

Length of snipped geese from the back ---

Length of geese from the front.

My first row of geese hanging on top of the inspiration quilt!

I'm generally leary of clipping any seam lest it weaken the seam or make it more vulnerable to popping --but in this case, I really think this was the best scenario.

Most of you know this already – but I’ll mention it again.  I don’t use steam.  I don’t need steam.  I just need a good crease on that seam line, and the tip of my iron is just on the seam line only..I’m not ironing the whole unit – it’s not wrinkled.  It doesn’t need it, and it certainly doesn’t need to change shape by too much ironing. I use just the tip of my iron on the seam only to get it nice and flat.

That’s all for now!  Press On!