First, I make all my HSTs necessary, all cut a fraction larger than they need to be...then i press and trim all of them. Then I set all pcs tog, including the HSTs, now I square up all the blocks, and lastly, i measure the quilt in 3 places, use the middle measurement to go by for borders and then square that up...it is totally worth it, and if you have ever tried to quilt a quilt with ripples and bumps and gathers everywhere, you will know why.