Originally Posted by quiltmaker

I believe the quilt police is a term used for people who enter shows that must meet exacting standards.
That is what they do to determine a fair assessment of every person's quilts.

That said the standard seam allowances are 1/4 inch for quilting and 5/8 for sewing most garments. Who decided these I have no clue but they are tried and true methods for years. If you use another person's pattern and when you start changing things to suit yourself your quilt or garment most probably won't turn out correctly. Course we have all run into patterns with mistakes. When you design your own quilt you have to do the math to make your squares and triangles, etc. all line up and fit correctly. That is a lot easier said than done.

Ultimately you can do anything your own way but the reason some of the seam guidelines are there is because that is what generations of quilters have learned through trial and error giving us the gift of their experience.