Welcome to my world! I almost always press my seams open and, yes, I sew
over pins. When I pin my pieces together, though, I pin from left to
right, rather than the traditional way, and the tip of the pin ends up
close to the 1/4" seam line. For me, it seems to cause less distortion
as I sew the pieces together, and I'm sewing over just the tip of the
pin - less likely to get a broken needle.

To get a really flat seam, after pressing them open and checking to make
sure there are no pleats, I dip a small paintbrush (like you'd use for
watercolor) into water and run it along the seam line on the right side.
I then plop my iron down on it, and it comes out really nice. I don't
care to use steam in my iron, so this is my alternative.

The exception to open seams is for the borders. I still press toward
them in one direction there, just because it's easier.

--
Louise in Iowa
nieland1390@mchsi dot com
http://community.webshots.com/user/louiseiniowa

Polly Esther wrote:
We've all heard the Quilt Police. Press this way; press that. Aim
toward the feed dogs, aim away. Pin before and aft and in the middle.
Sew over pins. Don't.
I've declared myself an 'expert'. For those of you who don't know,
an expert is someone 50 miles away from home with a briefcase.
Bringing forward my dress making experience and my heirloom sewing
along too - I have decided to ignore the rules and press my quilt
piecing/block seams open.
Yes.
I have.
Just in case that would make the seam endings weaker or more prone to
come undone, I've set my stitch length a little shorter.
Ta-Dah.
I've just make a quilt top of something so sweet: Tweetie Bird on
bright yellow combined with a batik of Blue Jay blue. Every ... need to
HOLLER he corner. Every one of them is pretty perfect.
Open pressing just works so much better for me. Conclusion? Let's
all go out and break some rules. After all . .. there's a full moon.
Polly