Your block looks very nice! Your fabric choices are lovely.
I have recently pieced a Lone Star quilt - with 512 diamonds in it, I've gotten a
lot of practice with getting my points just right. Here are my thoughts and tips.
1) Be aware of the challenge of seam intersections with one or more diagonals. When you are sewing lots of squares together, seam intersections are pretty easy; provided that the seams are lined up as you feed the fabric into your sewing machine, sewing a little bit to the right or the left of the ideal sewing line does not mess up the intersection. When there diagonal seams, everything is much fussier; swinging just a bit to the right or left will result in either a point being cut off or the point not quite reaching the intersection. So, getting good points in a matter of
both aligning the fabric properly before sewing
and sewing in exactly the right spot.
2) Before I put tricky/fussy pieces together, I mark my 1/4" sewing line on the back of the fabric with an erasable fabric pencil.
3) To align the pieces, I put a straight pin through the sewing line (back to front) at the exact point I want at the intersection and check the front side, then put the pin through the second piece (front to back), again at the exact intersection point, and make sure the pin is coming out on the sewing line on the second piece. Have the fabric at about the midpoint of the pin. Hold the two pieces very firmly together; you don't want any gap between them. Make sure the pin is perpendicular to the fabric; if it's not, slide the pieces so that it is. Use a straight pin on each side of the alignment pieces to pin them together. When pinning, use a low angle through the fabric to avoid distorting the intersection. I usually bend the fabric a bit as I am pinning to get the low angle. Hopefully after pinning, your alignment pin is still close to perpendicular to the fabric; if it's not, remove the two pins and try again. Once you've got everything looking good, you can remove the alignment pin.
4) When sewing, slow down at intersections and make sure that you are *exactly* on the marked sewing line. Many sewing machines will naturally want to pull a bit to one side when they encounter the extra bulk of an intersection. I some times do the few stitches near and at an intersection by turning the hand wheel on the machine; this allows me to make sure those stitches are exactly where they should be. It also allows me to leave the two pins in while sewing the intersection.
5) After you've sewed a seam, you will sometimes find an intersection that is only slightly off. You can correct minor errors by resewing only the intersection involved, rather than ripping out and redoing the whole seam. If the point is cut off, you would have to rip out the stitching at the intersection and resew with a slightly smaller seam allowance. If the point is not quite reaching the intersection, you can leave the original stitching alone and sew the intersection again with a slightly larger seam allowance.
I don't know if you have any issues with cutting accuracy, but I discovered that I was making a small mistake and I suspect many other quilters make it, too. When setting up your ruler for a rotary cut, make sure the measuring line is actually
on the fabric, not next to fabric. If it's next to the fabric, your cut will give you piece a tiny bit too small. I make sure the line is fully on the fabric, and usually about one thread over.
I find a walking foot helpful with feeding everything evenly into the sewing machine.
Welcome to fun hobby of quilting! Enjoy the journey.
