Any hints on pressing?

[Margo C.]

The star border is going together very well although there were no instructions re: pressing. I have found the seams don't want to be pressed open...any suggestions. Dot

:?:

[Julie M.]

Dot - press toward the triangles like we did in the 4 patch border. Jul

[Julie M.]

Wow! this is almost like instant messaging...Many thanks for the tip.

[Paula N.]

Oh I am glad I read this. Thanks for the help. PaulaN

[Paula N.]

Dot - press toward the triangles like we did in the 4 patch border. Jul

Jul, I had the same question and thought to check the forum. Thanks for the answer. However, if we press towards one triangle--the darker colored one, for example--then we are pressing away from the lighter colored triangle. Right? This creates a very thick seam on one side, but works better than trying to press the seam open.

So far, I've only sewn together one side of the star border and it does not lay flat due to stretching of the bias seam on the triangles. I tried not to stretch it during sewing and pressing, but it stretched anyway. Any suggestions on how to avoid the stretching?

I found another thread on this topic and the solution seems to be starch. Any other suggestions?

Any suggestions for a fix to a border that is already stretched?

[Keith D.]

I found another thread on this topic and the solution seems to be starch. Any other suggestions?

Nancy, I'm using starch and I'm pressing finished-size freezer paper templates to my triangles to help keep them from stretching when I sew them to the blocks...

[Keith D.]

Thanks Keith, this is a great idea about the freezer paper and starch, I've got the two short sides sewn together, and the corner triangles are pretty wavy, it made it hard when it came time to do the trimming down. I'll certainly use the freezer paper on the rest of them. Did you leave them on until they were sewn on to the quilt, or remove them right before? Heidi

[Keith D.]

I sew right along the edge of the freezer paper and then remove them after I stitch both bias edges - the smaller triangles only have one bias edge... ?? That's neither here nor there... I take them off after stitching. And most of the time they are reuseable.

[Keith D.]

Opps! I'm pretty sure I'll take them all off after I build the border, but before I attach the border to the quilt top. If I did it right, it should all be straight-grain out there... I might leave them on if I have any 'difficult areas' but for me usually it's too cumbersome to keep them on at that point.