I love doing piecing, but have always had trouble getting a perfect 1/4" seam -- my fabric would shift around, or kick to the left, and getting the fabric to perfectly, consistently line up with the edge of the foot was often difficult. So after Christmas, I went to our local sewing machine place, and talked to them about it, and they recommended a stitching foot with a guide:

http://www.sewingmachinesplus.com/vi...-412914145.php (just a link so you can see what I'm talking about)

It works so great -- I have a perfect 1/4" seam now, every time. And I don't have to pin the pieces together anymore to keep them straight, which is a huge time saver.

It's probably old news to most of you, but in case any other newbies are having similar troubles, I thought I would mention it; I would imagine most sewing machines would have such a foot available.

I couldn't live without my 1/4" seam guide foot. It's the only thing that helps sew a straight line

Thanks for the info. I'll have to look into this.

I have a reg foot that makes 1/4 in seams. works great for me

I bought a 1/4" foot with metal blade to fit all my machines. I have one for my Featherweight too.

My 1/4" foot, with a metal guide, broke after two months. :0/

I couldn't beleive how much more accurate my mini's were after I bought and used my 1/4" foot :-D

I had one Janome 1/4 foot break. It was the cheaper one but the only one available when I needed it. The shop gave me a refund and I ordered the better quality one and there is a big difference.

It was the good quality one. Allegedly. Ha. That was the price anyway.

I love the 1/4 foot that came with my Jannome 9000.

However, when I use it I find that the finished size of the blocks don't always turn out correct....for instance if the finished block should be a 12.5" block, sometimes the blocks come out as a 12 1/4" block instead. I am not very good a 'scant' 1/4" seams.......so I've tried to make the fabric cuts 1/4" or 1/2" larger than pattern calls for and that does not work either.

How does one go about doing an accurate 'scant' 1/4" seam?