Nesting your seams refers to how you line up the seams of your sewn fabric so that you have a perfect point. Usually but not always nesting means that your seams have been pressed to one side.
I will only discuss pressing your seams to the side because this is the most beginner-friendly method. Nesting those seams becomes essential to get nice points and accuracy when sewing.
Too bad those points aren’t redeemable.
I know bad joke.
A point in quilting just means that all of the fabrics you have sewn meet at the same intersection.
After you have pressed the seams that you have sewn to one side you are ready.
To better illustrate this I like to think of my seams like bumper cars at an amusement park rather than a nesting of two items.
Might be because I am a boy mom. You tell me.
Slowly slide the seams toward each other until those seams have crashed into each other.
Contact!
Then stick a pin on the seam that is on the right. When I take this to the sewing machine I don’t pull out that pin until I have sewn over most of the left seam. Then I take out my pin and finish sewing my squares together.
Tada!
A perfect point or intersection is right in the center.
It’s the same process for any other type of block. When sewing HSTs together it is the same. Slide those bumper car seams together until they crash.
Stick a pin on the right seam and sew.
Wallah!
Tidy little start of a pinwheel.
When I teach my quilt students to sew I always press their seams to the side. I encourage them to feel with their fingers the moment when the two seams make contact. It will be like two bumper cars hitting each other.
Don’t be frustrated if it takes you a little bit to get this down. Quilting just takes practice, patience, and work. What you put into your quilt is exactly what you will get out of it. So enjoy the process and celebrate your progress.
Was this helpful to you? Did the bumper car analogy make sense? Let me know in the comments below and share it with your quilt friend. I am really curious to know what you think.
