Red Letter Quilts: Work is Progressing

Scrappy Carpenter's Square II completed this week!
114 pieces for a 12" block!

Oh how I Love to slip a bit of my favorite vintage prints in with current fabrics ;-)

I was giving this cutie a final press, and thought of Hydee at Splish Splash Stash. She wrote an interesting post last week about the now-common practice of pressing seams open when piecing..

I have found I am much more accurate lining up intersections when I press to the side and nestle seams as I have always done. And I like that after pressing to the side, the seam intersections are then visible , making it easier to avoid cutting off points when joining rows. I do think that our wise old-timers are also onto something when they tell us that the seam will be less stressed when the thread is protected by a seam that is not exposed by being pressed open. However, as you can see in my photo, I do still press seams open when I join rows with lots of pieces.

I make sure to use a bit tighter stitching when joining rows that will be pressed open, and I avoid quilting in the ditch on these seams as well. There will be a few short segments of the open rows that will be in the ditch for this block, but I will stay just off the actual seam line. This will be a larger set of pillows quilted in a similar pattern as the set I made for my Scrappy Carpenter Block Tutorial.

Saturday is coming up fast and I am busy preparing items to sell at SewMarketStreet, a bit of a parking lot sale hosted by my LQS. I think I may be over-preparing, however anything I bring home again can then be posted on Etsy the next week. I made seven more sets of Scrappy Carpenter II Pillow Kits. And if they still don't sell at Etsy, I will be 'stuck' with enough squares cut & ready for a full size quilt- it's a win/win!