For me it's not the 1/4" seam in itself, it's when you start stacking pieces with points and everything, then the 1/4" seam starts to get wonky.
I think I have a problem with my cutting too. You know, do you line up the fabric to the line on the ruler, over the line on the ruler, etc. Sometimes I'm not consistent.
I am re-working a BOM set of blocks that I previously did and these pieces are coming out much larger than the ones I did before. I must be doing something better this time, because the older ones were much smaller than the 12 1/2" they were supposed to be. These are around 12 1/2", but still a little wonky depending on how much piecing is in that particular piece.
Squaring up is one of those things that I haven't grasped quite yet. I have the little squaring up rulers, but to square up a 12 1/2" block is for some reason giving me trouble.
I find myself cutting off tips of things or not allowing for the 1/4" so I don't lose a point, it just seems like all so much to keep in mind while cutting those edges. I'm apparently not aware of yet all the things to take into consideration when squaring up a block.
Stupid question though, after reading some of the responses, if you were doing a multi-stage block, would you measure each step to be sure it added up and if it didn't would you cut it down before moving onto the next step. Is that something that should be done or not?