jeanharville--I think you understand me!! I have never considered myself a "perfectionist" --as I do know a few of these and they can be pretty tiresome when they live their entire life like that--but I do like doing things properly (it is an offshoot of my profession whereby you are either correct or wrong--no middle ground). Quilting, as well as other crafts, there isn't necessarily a "properly" but more of a "quality you are pleased with" gauge. I seem to have a high need for my quilts to turn out as good looking as possible. I learned early that the pinning method I was using only gave me well matched seams maybe 75-80% so I worked on that until I found the method to use and that is now given me almost 100% success.
I am still trying to find the pressing method that works for me. My primary problem is that when making a strip set of 3 fabrics--if I press one strip set away from the center fabric and the other set towards the center fabric so that you can lock the seams on these two strips: The latter strip set results in a more narrow center fabric strip than the former. I haven't figured out how to mitigate this pressing error I seem to be making. My only work-around idea at this point is to press seams open when I have this type of a strip set situation.