Chain Pressing

 

It's likely that we've all done chain piecing at some point, but have you ever tried chain pressing? Maybe I'm the only one, but I finally tried it. This was a tip in the directions for the Old Town Mystery quilt that I've been working on. If you're chain piecing, cutting each pieced pair apart, and then pressing takes a lot of extra time when you're doing 100's of HSTs, etc. And especially when you're working in matching sets like I am here.

I think I'd heard of this concept at some point in the past, but to me it sounded fussy and fiddly. I figured I would get it all tangled up or just take more time to arrange on the ironing board. But I finally took a chance and just tried it, solely because it was explained so well by Bonnie K. Hunter in the Old Town directions. And what do you know...it really is quite easy and works very well. I think you have to definitely have at least a stitch in-between each piece so there's enough maneuvering room.  Now, I haven't tried this out for other sorts of units to see if it would have the same sort of easiness, but I will definitely try it again. 

Here's a short video that shows you how to do it.