Pressing Half-Square Triangles

To answer Joyful Quilter's question in my last blog: With the pink and green baby quilt, I laid out all the blocks,and then sewed the half-square triangles into four patches, removed the last few stitches in the second seam within the seam-allowance and then pressed in a spiral fashion. That really helps to eliminate bulk. I do this with a lot of blocks. Not only does it reduce bulk, but it lets me turn the block in whatever direction I think looks best.




And then I wanted to make the whole thing a little wider and a little longer, so I sewed the extra rows together, pressing in whatever direction I needed to to make them nestle up with the first section.

In the Blue and Green baby quilt, I skipped all that, and sewed the half-square triangles into rows, pressing all in the same direction. I struggled with the pressing!

It works much better the first way, although, it takes more time. But, I think it is worth the extra trouble.