I made a practice block for the wallhanging I am making. It is going to be blocks wide and one block high (long rectangular). My finished block should measure 8.5 inches square. Well, it isn't exact... I think 2 of the sides are 8.5 and the other two sides are 8 1/4 - 8 3/8. Now do a square the whole thing up to be 8 1/4 ?

There is going to be sashing inbetween the blocks. Or should I wait until all three blocks are complete before I do the "squaring"?

I am hand piecing - should I alter my piecing to reduce the error for the finished block? If so... How???

Sorry - so many questions. This is my first project.

THANKS!!

Wait till you finish all the blocks and then square them.

Since you are using sashing between all the blocks, I'd wait until all 3 are finished before "squaring" them up. That way they can all be the same size. Makes it much easier to sew.

Are you losing fabric in your seams?? I;m not sure what type of block you are making. Some of the pieced blocks w/ points need that extra 1/4 inch you are losing so the points don't get lost.

Also, there are several sizes of square shaped rulers you can buy. My favorite is a 12.5 inch one. It just makes life a whole lot easier.

HTH,
Julie

I have that problem sometimes too. I was told that once you are finished, you should measure three spots; top, middle, and bottom. Then take that average, and I presume half the average, measure from the middle and trim.

Fellow quilters - is that correct? I'm still new at this too.

I dont hand piece and i have heard somewhere that hand piecing doesnt require 1/4 seams so... was your pattern designed for hand piecing or does it require 1/4 seams? if it does go back and measure all your seams to see if you are taking out a little extra somewhere and either correct your mistakes (if you made any) or you can fudge alittle when you put it all together. Lord knows I have had to fudge on my share of seam allowances.

Does that really work then?

if you are hand piecing= how are you going to square up without clipping your seams? you could do some (fudging) on the sashings, to bring the blocks all up to the same size when the sashings are attached instead of cutting your blocks. you might want to wait until all the blocks are done so you can work from the smallest one- in case they wind up being all off a bit-differently- i have a 12 block sampler that wound up every block being different---
i would adjust-figure out where i'm not (on).
I prep when i hand piece- i draw my 1/4" lines on my pieces- it only takes a few minutes- it makes all the difference and it speeds up my sewing time- i can put together a block in at least 1/3 to 1/2 times faster- including the line drawing time when i do the prep- and the blocks are precise.

that's how to square up a FINISHED QUILTED QUILT before the binding-
if you go to the list of tutorials there are tutorials available on squaring up blocks.

Thanks!!