Hand Piecing Tiny Inset Seams

 

          This is what the cube lattice block looks like with about half of the piecing done. The task of stitching it together is both meticulous and soothing to me. Meticulous because of how exact every seam and corner must be; soothing because I am only working with four fabrics and I don’t have to make any design decisions.

          The corner lattice units are made first. Two parallelograms are stitched together, stopping a quarter inch short where the inside corner of the square fits in.

          With most hand pieced projects, I mark off the stitching line with disappearing ink. It takes a bit longer but takes much of the frustration of maintaining a straight seam and making sure the pieces meet up properly.

          After the two parallelograms are stitched together, I have found it much easier to get a sharp and perfectly matched corner if I begin my seam at the inside corner of the square, then stitch outward. Once that is done, I begin again at the same corner and stitch the other side of the 90 degree angle. If the pieces are much bigger it is possible to do this by machine, but I rarely do.

          Once my inset seam is the way I want it, I press the entire unit. The seams can be pressed either toward the square or away from it. I like the square to look as if it is standing out a bit, so I have been pressing the seams toward the square. Be sure and press after each seam. It saves many mistakes in the long run.