Saturday, May 23, 2015

How to square up squares??

I am pretty sure some of you that have been quilting longer than I have, who belong to a guild, helped your grandmother/mom/aunt, etc. have an easy answer for me.

How to square up, no, I think align is more the word I am looking for quilting squares?

I am making a quilt with 3" x 3" squares, all are the same size. I am using my 1/4" foot and all are sewed the same. 

HOWEVER...when I sew the second, third, etc. rows onto each other, I am always having to rip stitches, adjust the seams, because they never quite match up, so they might be a bit off on one seam, which then throws the entire row off.

When I began quilting, my original quilt was made with large bandanas, I didn't know about 1/4" seams, I just sewed them all together and every seam lined up perfectly which I was told was highly unusual.

If anyone has any suggestions, I am open to hearing them.  Part of my frustration is that I usually FMQ all of my own and I have had a long arm quilter volunteer to do a few for me and I have heard horror stories of long armer's telling quilters how bad their quilts are and I am terrified.

Thanks in advance, I know I will get some amazing suggestions! 

2 comments:

Scrappy quilter said...

I'm sure you will get tons of answers. One thing I've found is pressing is very important. The second thing I would think might have happened is that all your 3 inch squares aren't 3 inches. If they are even out 1/8th you will have trouble. I would remeasure some of them to see if they are exact. Always use the same ruler in measuring as well. Hope that helps.

Sara said...

I find that my seams match best if the seams are pressed in opposite directions so they "nest" nicely. So for example my even rows might be pressed to the right and the odd rows pressed to the left.

Another common cause for me having my seams not match is when I "iron" instead of pressing. I sometimes distort blocks because of the way I iron the pieces - causing them to stretch.