Prism99

Are you 1/4" too small? Or 1/4" too big? Remember that finished size is a *combination* of cutting and sewing. If your blocks are 1/4" too small, it means you are cutting your pieces too small, sewing the seam allowance too large, or some combination of both. If your blocks are 1/4" too big, you are cutting your pieces too large, taking too small of a seam allowance, or some combination of both.

Have you actually done the strip test? That is the easiest way to figure out how to adjust your cutting and seam allowance. I think a link was posted earlier in this thread. It means cutting 3 strips 2-1/2" wide, sewing them together, pressing, then measuring. Until that measurement comes out to 6-1/2" exactly, you do not want to be attempting complicated blocks with lots of seam allowances.

What brand of ruler are you using? I have found some variations in rulers -- not only in line thickness (as others have mentioned, thin lines on a ruler are easier to use than thick lines), but also in accuracy. In other words, some rulers cut a slightly wider strip than other rulers. Line placement when you cut really depends on the trial-and-error method of working with 3 strips, depending on which brand of ruler you are using.