joe'smom

I was adamantly against trimming (because why can't things just come out right?) -- I thought it was such a waste of time -- until I did a quilt-along with Edyta Sitar. As many of you will know, she makes quilts with lots of small pieces. She trimmed every unit. I thought, if she can trim all of those, I can at least try it this time. It made such a difference in the ease, enjoyment and accuracy of my piecing that I kept it up, and no longer see it as a waste of time. What I do now is make my seam slightly more scant than I would if I were aiming for perfect size, and trim off any excess. When I used to aim for the correct size, they were often slightly under and wonky. It's such a pleasure to sew with units that are just right. But I can totally relate to the reluctance to trim, as that used to be me. I trim in small bunches.

Polliwog

I do not think of "small errors"; I call them "small variations".

TheMerkleFamily

I gave up the expectation of a perfectly finished quilt long ago BUT I do still strive for it. I do my best at every step of the process and, as a rule, I do trim my blocks (or partial blocks depending on the design). I find it increases the odds that I'm kinda/sorta close to my desired block/quilt measurement when finished. Regardless, after piecing the blocks together, sandwiching the layers, quilting and binding - I often do not end up with a perfectly square quilt. And I am perfectly fine with that, too.

To answer your actual question - I'm good with up to 1/8" fudge factor but any more then the block comes apart and I try to figure out what can be done to better achieve my desired finished size. Might I add that it's usually a BH Mystery quilt with all those tiny pieces that I'm wrestling with to finish well. Love her mystery quilts for that reason - I've learned so much from her instruction and having to repeat blocks 100's of times.

rryder

Depends on what I'm working on. Most of the time I do not trim or square up blocks but if I'm working on something intricate, then I will check the block and trim any excess off. If it's too small by more than 1/8th of an inch on something that needs accuracy, then I will usually unstitch and redo. I don't have any problem stretching some parts of a block if that will make it the right size. Since I do fairly dense quilting I figure that once it's quilted it won't have much chance to try and revert to the unstretched size. For the same reason, I also don't worry about twisted seams or pressing and fiddling with them in order to reduce bulk- unless it's really bulky (like the intersections in some star blocks) then I hit the offending intersection with a hammer to reduce the bulk. Works for me LOL.

Rob

Rhonda K

I do square up units and then blocks and then quilt block quadrants. They aren't usually too far off. Points are taken into consideration and to leave that elusive 1/4 inch seam allowance for later.

I am thankful to have great instructors at the LQS that taught square-up techniques.

I've been working through a BOM project with careful cutting and piecing only to result in being "off". For now, they will good enough!

Gemm

I am more inclined to trim small units (tiny hourglasses match up better if they're trimmed, for example) and final blocks than I am to trim part way through a complicated block. On my most recent quilt, many of my house blocks were "trimmed" but still ended up with gaps in what should have been straight edges because my FG units (the roof of each house) were quite unpredictable (and frequently really off). The trimming did help me be aware of which areas would need to be sewn more carefully to the sashing to maximize the strength of places where the seam was reduced to closer to 1/8" because of these weird blocks. I think that was the most helpful part of the trimming process for me. :-)

Jingle

I make lots of quilts for donation in my county. I try always to make them perfect. Of course, I haven't made one perfect yet. When my quilts are finished I say not perfect but, still warm and free.

Karamarie

If I have a block that may be a little "off", I will adjust the seam a stitch or two- it usually works.

CanoePam

I hate spending time futzing around to get seams lined up when my blocks were a little big or a little small. However I also hate to have corners that don’t even come close to matching or points all cut off. I ended up buying an Accuquilt die cutter. I had to fine tune my sewing width because pieces needed to have an exact 1/4” seam instead of a scant 1/4”, but once I had that nailed, I no longer have to mess around with bad sized blocks. Really! HST, QSTs, flying geese, wedges, all kinds of things now match very well. I save so much time by not trimming.

tropit

I don't make perfect quilts...not by a long shot. But, I do find it helps to square up my blocks. It's one thing to have my seams a 1/16th of an inch off and another to have them 1/4 inch off. I can always quilt through a small mistake, but there's no hiding a big one.