I have a love/hate relationship with panels -- I love the look of the (they have some of the cutest) but squaring some of the up is a misery. I have spent WAY too much time trying to come up with a square block for the Eric Carl Brown Bear and Very series. I am trying to make a quilt with 2 - 9 block squares of Brown Bear and 2 from the Very series.

I could not square up the panels themselves (they were anywhere from 1/2" to 1 1/2" off). I tried my grandmother's trick of soaking them with starch and stretching as I pressed them to the lines. I got 1 to square up -- 3 to go. Then I added sashing to them and tried again, I now have 2 that are great, but 2 are still wonky -- did I mention that I am trying to get them to the same size with the sashing LOL. (I did not prewash this set since when I prewashed the last set I had an even bigger battle.)

I am taking a break and a breath. I wonder why I would ever buy panels, then I look at them and I love them all over again.

Next step is to wet the wayward panels and pin them to a grid and let them dry that way. Attached is a pict of the 4 -- they look pretty square from a distance.

Thanks for listening.

This is going to be soooo cute! You can defeat the panel, I just know you can.

I think blocking the panels may help you. I did that with a couple of wonky ones and worked pretty good.

hang in there. we're all rooting for you.....

Maybe just square them up by using wonky cut sashing??

Have you seen Sharon Schamber's videos on how to square up blocks? Might help. I will try to add links to them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3RIWhBvcA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6aplw_tVZc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIjZqABo2NY

I took a look at the videos -- was thinking along those lines except with water not starch. I watched the video about the pressing board -- don't uave osb but have an idea of something that may work.

Thanks!!

It's like blocking a sweater. Works wonders.

I had some cute printed cat blocks that were not square. I squared them up after adding a border. You can't tell looking at the quilt that the original blocks were not quite square.