Need some advice on squaring pre printed panel
 

I purchased a festive Sea Life pre printed panel to make a wall hanging. I am using 4 of the 5 squares available which I separated. For the life of me I can not get them square, they are incredibly crooked. I starched them all very heavily and just let them lie flat hoping the starch would allow the fibres to go back into their original shape.... that didn't work, I have stretched it from side to side, pressed it trying NOT to stretch it.... nothing seems to work. At this point I have run a basin of warm water and have them soaking and hope that might help. I even pulled a thread across the grain and whoaaaa.... it is crooked..obviously printed not woven... I know I can't return it now as it's cut into 5 pieces....
So.... any other ideas??? Included the photo of the panel, I am using the 4 smaller outside squares. Thank you for any advice you can give!

Just to show an example of how crooked this fabric is, if you look at one of the smaller squares and see the inner dk green line, I started my ruler 1/2" from there to square it, it ended up in the blue outside of the green box.
I think I may just have to scrap this and move on to another project. Very frustrating!!

Okay, take this from an "older" beginning quilter with a grain of salt but I have become very adept at fixing my "creative errors" and I think you could square them up by re-sashing them with a similar color (blue at the top and cream at the bottom) like a narrow 1 inch for one suggestion; or by putting triangles in the corners to make them a less "wonky". Make pieced sashes in rectangles or triangles of similar colors from the panel to go on and then add a single lighter or darker color for the next sash. OR tip them at an angle on the quilt highlighting with larger triangles. Now remember, I have been quilting for only 1 1/2 years and I have been creative when I find errors in fabric. Hope maybe these ideas will help. Next time (don't ask me how I know this ;-) take a square in the fabric store and make sure the panels are square or ask the company online that you are ordering them from if they are square!!!! I have learned a lot over this past year and a half. Good luck!!!!

I had that problem with a panel of 6 pictures.....my pattern called for a frame of fabric to be added to each picture. So, I am unhappy with how it isn't exactly square, but, it works anyway. So, my suggestion is for you to make a frame around each of these, then square up the completed items. Then, if the pictures are a little wonky, at least you will have squares, hopefully not too big for what you are trying to make.

I've yet to see a square panel. You just have to make it your own.

Sharon Schamber has some Youtube videos on how to straighten crooked blocks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3RIWhBvcA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6aplw_tVZc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIjZqABo2NY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQkF02vpVuw

Framing certainly would tame them to some extent....the quilting would perhaps hide any further discrepancies....I sympathise....wonky panels are a pain in the neck.

Sometimes it just works better to accent the wonkiness & make it into a design element. If these were mine, I would try adding several logs...think wonky log cabin... to each panel piece, turning the piece so it is wonderfully off kilter. The logs should be narrow at one end to larger at the other. Use as many different colors as you can, ending with a zinger. For me, that would be the red.

I am one that has to have balance, but balance can be all wonky. If you are determined to trash the panel, I'll take it. We have a trailer on the Gulf Coast & it would make a wonderful couch quilt.

What if you fused lightweight non-woven interfacing to the back of the panels? Obviously it would make them thicker and heavier, but it should help eliminate the twisting you might get if you sewed those wonky squares to your other fabrics. Hopefully, the printed pictures would remain square. I've done this will small pieces of printed plaid that I wanted to be "square" despite the off-square print. I love the colors in your panels!

I sometimes tug the opposing corners to try to help straighten the fabric out.