A couple of question from someone new to the dark side.

[crafter]

So I have been catching up on the BOMs so far in order to hone my skills in machine piecing.  Think I have already said that I am an EPP person myself.

The following thoughts occur to me.

1. Why are seam allowances pressed to the side and not open?  To me, pressing them to the side seems to make seams more bulky and difficult to line up.  Pressed open seams seem to be neater.  I could be wrong (it happens sometimes ) and perhaps it is something to do with the quilting process later.  Please advise.

2. Why is everything patchwork/quilting related in inches and not cms.  I know some of us are of an age that were taught imperial measurements at school but that was a long time ago.  My 10yo grandson doesn't even know what an inch is and I have had a great deal of trouble trying to find a metric quilting ruler.  Is it the US influence, where quilting seems much more common than here?

I am sure you will put me straight.

[WendyW]

There are times when pressing seams open is the better choice. There are several reason to press to the side. 1) Often they are pressed toward the darker fabric so the seam allowance us less visible from the front. 2) It makes the seam stronger because fabric spans the gap and takes some of the stress off the thread. 3) When sewing two blocks together and seams need to be matched, having them pressed in opposite directions allows the two seam allowances to butt up against each other and not shift as easily

I can't help you with the measurements questions. I'm in the USA and while I understand metric and can use it comfortably, I still think in imperial.

[Pearl]

I've loved seeing your blocks this week, @crafter , but please slow down.  You're putting the rest of us to shame. 

Wrt @WendyW 's third point, Iminei has made a very helpful tut to explain this. 

Perfect points

2. Why is everything patchwork/quilting related in inches and not cms.  Is it the US influence, where quilting seems much more common than here?

Yes. 

[Iminei]

Thank you @Pearl , I was going to link to that ...

You cant always sew them that way, but when you can, its (almost) infallible!

If you press your seams open, as sometimes you have to do to reduce bulk, you must remember you have as you will then be unable to stitch in the ditch  ... a type of quilting where you stitch along the seam. If you do this to a pressed open seam, you will be stitching over your stitches potentially breaking them, not a good thing to do!

Personally SID is difficult and pointless as you can't see your lovely quilting.

I too rail at the Inches /cms thing ... but only when I go into an Emporia for fabric;

I head confidently in, knowing exactly what I want,
I have all the measurements needed in my head (inches)
and then have to try and convert them, faffing around with dual sided tape measures and looking like a total eijit !!

[Renegade Sewist]

Is it the US influence, where quilting seems much more common than here?

I am sure you will put me straight.

Yes, it's our evil influence, pulling you all further into the Dark Side, so you can never find your way out again. It's purely diabolical.  Bwahaahaa

[wrenkins]

I am a scientist. In work I use m, cm, mm, g, kg.... Always have.
I am old(ish). At home I use lb, oz, cwt, in, ft, m (m?!?!?!?!) Eh?
Well my curtains could be 54" long but my poles might be 1500mm wide. 

[b15erk]

At least you're consistent Wren, I use whichever bit of the ruler lands face up.....

I usually manage to use the same measurement on each side, but I do sometimes get it wrong....

Jessie

[Sheilago]

Yes, the metric/ imperial confusion drives me crazy. When I was at Primary School in the late 1960s we switched to metric, yet 50+ years on we’re still using both. I can’t understand why someone in government hasn’t just decided to go with metric once and for all. It’s so much more logical and using 2 systems must be the cause of so many mistakes, not least lots of mine in sewing and cooking.    Don’t suppose it’s likely to change any time soon.....oops maybe this should be in the rant thread .

[BrendaP]

WendyW has already explained most of the reasons for pressing to one side.  Another is that if the seams are pressed open it is possible for the wadding (batting) to make it's way through.

The reasons for using imperial measurements is because the craft is American dominated; most of the books and most of the tools come from USA where they still use inches and yards.

I am old enough to have learned both at school, and I can think in both.  At primary school it was imperial, at grammar school it was lbs/oz  and pints for cookery, inches and yards for needlework, gms/Kg, metres and litres for science and for maths it was both!  I can remember doing geometry in fractions of an inch and calculating how long a bath would take to fill if the tap flowed at so many litres of water per minute.

[Sewingsue]

I am old enough to have left school before metric was taught alongside imperial.

I do find decimal currency much easier than £SD, but, while I can and do use metric, I can visualise imperial more easily and still 'feel' Fahrenheit better than Celsius. 

[StitchinTime]

still 'feel' Fahrenheit better than Celsius.

Cold temperatures on weather forecasts make more sense to me in Celsius, but hot temperatures are more meaningful in Fahrenheit. 

[crafter]

Thank you ladies, I knew there would have to be good reasons but I just couldn't see them.

Never thought about the problems with stitching in the ditch or the batting showing through.  Those things still to be tackled.

As for the metric/imperial business.  Its a bit like being bilingual or ambidextrous.  I think we can all be proud that we are all ambimeastural  - yet another skill we possess.

I will give you a rest from the BOMs for a couple of days.  School's out!!

[Sandra]

Measurements were metric for me at school, but when I left I worked at an alterations shop in town with quite a few much older ladies.
They definitely worked in inches...and only inches.

I was told never to write the instructions for any alterations in centimetres. A ticket saying, 'Shorten hem 6 cm'....could be read as 6". 
There would be a high risk of only seeing the number.

I remember somebody coming to work there after me and she didn't understand inches. She struggled with it a bit and once asked how many eighths are there in an inch. 

Sandra.
xxx

[Acorn]

I was taught exclusively in metric at school, but as soon as I left and entered the real world I discovered that that world was still measured in inches, so I taught myself the imperial system.  I found that most of the imperial system was much more intuitive and pretty much adopted it (although I still occasionally have trouble remembering how many ounces in a pound and pounds in a stone). 

I do tend to use millimetres when I want a really accurate measurement though.

[BrendaP]

Just to confuse things, in the imperial/American systems a mil is a thousandth of an inch.  Somewhat smaller than a metric mm.