I prewash if it's for clothing as I don't want nasty surprises after it's made, but not usually for P&Q fabrics.

Pressing direction of seams depends on the seam.  Darkside piecing seams usually go to the side although I usually press seams in the binding open to spread the bulk.  Straightish seams in garments made from wovens are usually edge finished and pressed open, curved seams such as the armscy are more likely to be hand finished by turning the edges in and over sewing, they would be pressed towards the sleeve and felled seams are of course pressed to the side as part of the process.  French seams and any overlocked seams of course can't be pressed open.  It's horses for courses.

In that case just be careful not to pull on the fabric as you rotate it as that will lengthen the thread between where it comes up from the bobbin and where it meets the needle.

Two substantial books arrived yesterday; the first one with techniques and the pattern book with the CDs.

Whilst I love the look of the reverse applique and beading I'm not sure about the unfinished look of hems just cut and left raw, nor am I keen on the knots on the outside.

I have plans brewing (and ordered  ) for something with all the hand embellishing but constructed with the overlocker.

Getting the bobbin race correctly positioned can be very tricky on a lot of machines.  It wouldn't be the first time that I have walked away and started again the next day.

Congratulations @Acorn 

Another nothing day here.  I'm finding it had to get motivated to do anything.  Probably a combination of apprehension about the next few weeks healthwise and the general covid situation.  Whilst it's good that some parts of the country are now able to start offering the vaccine to over 70s, around here they haven't even started with the over 80s.

I have done a bit of sketching, trying to catch up on a daily challenge I'm following on FB, but need to think about lunch now.

Bright and sunny but chilly here and still very wet ground.

Mr Ocado is due in about an hour and my other task for the day is tidying up, I have a bad habit of using things and just leaving them on the desk, table or wherever they have been used!

Trimming the churn dash blocks down will destroy the nice points in the corners.  Better to add plain borders around them and then trim so that they are all the same size.

Using them with the rail fence blocks depends on how much difference in size there is.  It might be that three railfence = two churn dash or something similar

@Pearl 's suggestion of mixing several different blocks into one bigger design is good.  It could be an opportunity to try out several different blocks, and just fit them together as best they will go with plain squares/rectangles to fill in any gaps.  I'm sure that's how some early quilts were put together.