You might also try using your walking foot. It helps both top and bottom fabric travel at the same speed. It should minimize this stretching when sewing long lengths together. Your walking foot isn't just for sewing sandwiched quilts.

Great minds think alike! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Are your blocks all (approximately) the same size?

As usual, lots of great info!! Thanks so much :D

We were typing at the same moment :!: Love your winking kitty ;)

Sashing is a mini border so you have to measure the block like it was a quilt top. Measure down the center of the block and across the middle. That is the size to cut the sashing. What I do is sew 1/2" at the start, skip down to the middle, sew another 1/2" and then skip to the bottom and sew the last 1/2". then I go back to the beginning and ease in the unsewn seam.

Would pinning in that order do the same thing?

I always make the sashing a 1/4 inch longer and then trim so that the line of blocks and sashing are straight. Also make sure you're using the correct gauge of thread for the fabric.

Lining up the rows is not a problem. It is the puckering ruffling look that is the issues. The sashing fabric seems to be stretchy. Wish my camera worked.. hard to describe! It just looks terrible and lays horribly. I wonder if on the blocks I sewed a 1/8 seem to keep the rows from stretching at the seams if it would help keep it from puckering up.

Mamabird, it sounds like it just may be that your sashing fabric is hard to work with. I've had a couple of those fabrics that would pucker no matter how much I pinned and adjusted the tension. Wouldn't have known it ahead of time from the look and feel of the fabric... but there was really nothing I could do but scrap it and choose a different one. It's a last resort, but if nothing else helps that'd be better than having a quilt that won't lay.