sarge1

So I went away for the weekend-away from home and my sewing machine-and feel rejuvenated after reading all these wonderful posts! Sooo many good suggestions of things to try! I have done some of them already, but have not tried several of these things. Tomorrow when my son goes to school, I will sit down and have another go at it. I also had some time to look at the manual that came with my machine, and have a few other things to try like the "correct" presser foot :/
I should say, when I started quilting 20 years ago, I learned by tracing around plastic templates, and hand piecing. I am very accurate with hand piecing, but it is so time consuming. All other techniques such as rotary cutting and machine piecing, are self taught. Perhaps a beginner course is in order at this point.
I should also say that even though I started 20 years ago, I am not a prolific quilter-I'm slow, and part of the reason I'm slow is this frustration with not getting things right. Yes, I am a perfectionist.
Having said that, the 2 sample blocks I made for this new quilt are 1/8 too small, each one. So, they are "consistently" off, I guess I can take comfort in that, huh? lol. I know, 1/8 might not seem like a big deal, but it is when I had such high hopes for perfection. Thank you all so much for taking some time to help me.