Quiltingboard Forums - 1/4" seams-Newbie's request for help..

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Quote:

Originally Posted by crashnquilt

If you can't find a 1/4" foot you can mover your needle to the right.

Put on your regular foot, take a small ruler and place under the foot with the edge of the ruler at the edge of the foot. Put the presser foot down and move your needle a notch or 2 to the right, lower it by hand and see if it hits the 1/4" mark. Just keep moving it a notch or two until you have it coming down on the 1/4" mark. Just make a note of the position so that you can go back to that position any time you need too.

I tried that lol.. I think the guide is the next step. Never could draw a straight line when I was a kid come to think of if. Thanks for the suggestion though. :)

anne

If you don't have the 1/4" foot, sometimes you can use a regular foot, move the needle all the way to the right, and either the edge of the foot will be 1/4" or the first groove that marks the seam allowances will be the 1/4". Use a ruler to help you. Find the best way for you, and do it.

I used to have an old cranky machine. The needle didn't move. So I actually drew a line on the machine. Had to do it. Made that machine do what it wasn't necessarily made to do... it got crankier... But then I got a new machine, learned how to sew all over again, and now... it's wonderful.

Most importantly take your time. Practice. It'll come.

If you are watching your needle go up & down, STOP. You should be watching a little in front to keep things straight & in line. Just like driving a car, you don't watch just in front of the hood but out in front some.

All these are great ideas. I have a 1/4 quilting foot for my machine and love it (I do have to watch myself as I like to go too fast too!!! LOL)
I also have found some help from a 1/4 inch masking tape called "Quilters Masking Tape" that I tape to the edge of the material and then sew as close to it as I can. I did this with my hand piecing too. You can also tape it to the machine when you find the true 1/4 inch from your needle!!!

I pretty much do o.k. with my seam allowances matching. I'm assuming they are a scant 1/4", but whether they are or not, they are all the same size and that works for me. I've heard that if you stick a hunk of a Post-It Notes pad to your machine exactly where you want your seam allowance width to be, i.e. a 1/4" from the needle, your fabric butts up against the pad and maintains the width. You would need about a 1/2 of a pad of Post-It Notes (sticky side toward the needle), enough to where it's thick enough to keep the fabric in line. I have not tried it and am aware that it might even get in the way of the presser foot. I have used painter's tape for really wide allowances (as in home decorating), but had to be very careful not to let the fabric stray beyond the edge of the tape, so I think the Post-It Note pad idea would work better than the tape.

This is what helps me Painters tape.....I cut out a section and take an eighth of a layer and put it everywhere....

just an extra piece I keep

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Hi Mainer,
I finally learned that I can adjust my needle position. Amazing! Then I practice the stitching on some extra fabric and measure it to be sure it is 1/4 inch. I have a 1/4 inch foot but measuring first insures accuracy.

Good luck from a former Mainer.

judee

Quote:

Originally Posted by crispyquilts

All these ladies have great advice. I would like to add a couple of things though...I found that unless I'm in a swap, I really don't care if my blocks are exactly 12.5" square or what ever the size of block I need. I realized that if I fed my fabric under the foot exactly the same way on each piece, all my blocks came out the same size....be that 12.25 or whatever and all came together as a top.

If you really feel you have to have your blocks exact....Cut 3 strips of fabric 2.5" wide by 6.5" long. Measure 1/4" away from your needle, stick down some tape and sew the strips together. Press and measure the square....is it 6.5" square? If not, adjust your guide and try again. Once you have your guide tape where it needs to be, do a couple more to get the hang of it and you should be set to go.

One more thing, using leaders & enders really helps you start and stop in a straight line (as Bellaboo mentioned). Leaders & enders are scrap pieces of fabric you sew first, then sew your piece then sew onto another scrap (leave the ending scrap as it will be your leader for the next piece).
Hope this helps.

This is what I do, As long as I sew each block the same it works just fine. I just use the edge of my foot on the edge of the fabric.

Ah, so it's not just me and I use a Brother as well. For some reason it will "kick" the fabric out from under the foot and I end up sewing right off the edge of the seam. I did see a hint on sewing with strips and it was to let the strip feed over the finger of the opposite hand that is feeding it into the machine. BY lifting the end every so slightly, it seems to feed in better but I still have the problem with it "kicking" the line of stitching out.

I've also used the masking tape as a guide and it worked quite well. I've bought two seem guides and neither seem to do the job. And I'm in Maine as well so maybe our hands are frozen from this horrible winter????

Before I bought a 1/4" foot for my granddaughter's machine I taped a stack of those plastice cards that you get from credit card offers to her machine. This seemed to help.