Thanks for the suggestion, Tartan. I do have some Grandmother's Garden blocks completed, but you know how it goes...so many ideas, so little time! I'm ready to move on to the 2" square scrappy.

You know, you could also make a template with the finished piece size that you could use to trace around in the car.

Traditionally, before rotary cutters and such, we made a template of the finished size of the patch (whether square, triangle, hexagon, etc.) Trace around the template, then cut out. It didn't matter if you cut an exact 1/4" outside the line, as the size of the finished patch was what mattered, not the size of the seam allowance. This was back when I only had scissors to cut with. Oh my gosh, this makes me sound so old!! :eek:

I used to make my templates out of old greeting cards. But they will start to change size after being traced around many times. So now I would use template plastic instead. Or you could use the top of a cottage cheese container I suppose.

Andi

That is also how I learned it. For hand piecing, mark the seam line. For machine piecing, cut with a 1/4" seam allowance. Hand piecing does not require the same kind of accuracy in cutting; the accuracy comes from sewing on the marked seam line.

If the fabric finger-presses easily, I'd just take a finished-size template along. Posterboard will last awhile tho not as long as plastic.

Years ago I checked out a video from the library by Jinny Beyer, who is well-known for her hand piecing. It's well worth checking your library to see if you can find her DVD. I think it's available on Amazon too, but really you need to watch it only once or twice. She does not mark her 1/4" seams, plus she has a very fast way of piecing that she demonstrates (basically moving the fabric onto the needle).

Some quilters use a small piece of tape on a fingernail that is marked with 1/4" from the edge. I think Tiger Tape is 1/4" wide; you could just snip off a small piece of that to put on a fingernail.

If you do mark, a mechanical pencil provides a more accurate line, and you would want to keep the marking light.

thanks for all of the wonderful suggestions
 

As usual, the QB came through! Thank you all for your advice and suggestions. I'm going to have to try each of them and see what works for me. The ruler, the tape, the template...all great.

Andi--I checked my library on line but they don't have any Jinny Beyer DVD's. She did recently show soft edge applique on her newsletter and I saw her hand-stitching moving the fabric rather than the needle the way you said, but that was applique and I didn't see her seams being stitched.

I have seen several vintage quilt tops that were hand pieced and had pencil markings for the seam allowance.

I have never marked seam allowances when hand piecing. Initially my seams were a bit too narrow but with time I just learned to eyeball it and get pretty close to a 1/4" seam. The main thing is consistency. As long as your seam is the same every time your quilt will fit together properly.