Originally Posted by ArtquilterNEWWAYtoQUILT
:? :?: :?: :?: OK Why do you use 1-4 or 1-4 scant seams and WHY?? What does it all stand for?? Makes me wonder??
I'll take a stab at this one...
Long time ago when the earth was green... wait, wrong story...
A long time ago, someone figured out if you used seams less than 1/4 inch there wasn't enough fabric on the wrong side of the thread to keep a joint from pulling apart under the stresses of daily quilt life. If you used more than 1/4 inch the quilt wasted fabric and got too bulky.
SO a standard was made. 1/4 inch. Confused the heck out of the Europeans who had newly adapted the metric system.
BUT, so it was. Now maybe 1/4 inch isn't strictly necessary, fabric being so much better made... but all patterns build that seam allowance in in this country.
A scant 1/4 means you move the needle over about 3 threads so when you press your seams over, the resulting finished dimension of a piece will be the desired finished dimension.
tim in san jose