I have been through every quilting reference book I have, including The Quilting Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll Ever Face, 500 Quilting Tips, Techniques & Trades Secrets, and several other basic "learn to quilt" books. I even googled "off set seams" and came up with nothing. I think there's a problem here with the terminology.
Does the pattern give you a size for the pieces of fabric you're supposed to cut? If so, are they all an even size, or do they all end in a ½". For example, are the pieces of fabric all 1" or 2" or always ending in an even number? Or do they end in 1½", 2½, etc. If it's the former, just the straight 1" or 2" (or 4" or 6" or whatever), chances are excellent that they haven't accounted for a seam allowance, and they are telling you to add ¼" seam allowed all around, thus during the piece into, for example, a 2½" square. That means an extra ¼" seam allowance on each of the four sides, right? Does this make sense?
Does the pattern come as a set of blocks? Does it give the overall block size? Say for example it's made up of 8" blocks. If you take the sizes of fabric that they give you and don't add seam allowances, draw it to scale on a piece of paper, and then measure it, and it comes out to 8" exactly, then you KNOW they haven't added seam allowances. There's no possible way you could sew this block together without adding seam allowances to each piece of fabric. Does this make sense?
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