Thank you everyone. The concensus is to stitch before cutting, which I was not doing. I'll try that the next time. Plus for extra measure, I'll starch.
I realized I did not introduce myself. Top end of my youth at 60. I am a grammy to one 17 month old little boy, who is an only child of two only child(ren). They live just outside of Boston and we live in the Chicagoland area; so there are not a lot of visits.
I have always loved to sew and taught my daughter to sew. Poor kid growing up, mom made all of her dress/party clothes. But all of her friends envied the way it fit her torso. I digress...
I have many several baby quilts and have two more on the sketching board to construct between now and January. But I have to work on a big boy bed quilt first. I am very excited to be doing this quilt for him; lots of color and lots of trucks, cars and planes in the material. I am hoping this is going to be one that I photo and post.
DH has been encouraging about the quilting and the mess; but I'm sure he'd prefer it confined to 1 room not spread over the whole house. He has a hard time conceptualizing a block when I ask him to look at just the uncut material. But his eye is good when looking at the layout, helping with borders, quilting designs.