Try several different stitch lengths on a sample square.
Make them each about 2-3 inches long and about 1/2 inch apart and mark each sample with the setting on your machine that created it.
Measure the different samples and find one closest to about 11-12 stitches to an inch. This is the one you are best using when strip piecing. It will help your seams with other kinds of piecing, too.

If you have trouble getting the tip of our seam ripper under a stitch, try using an Clover brand seam ripper. The one below is less than $4 at Connecting Threads -- so cheap you could order 2-3 at a time! The tip of the Clover ripper is very slender and sharp and works really well. They are one of the tools that you should replace often, as they become dull, just as you would needles or rotary blades.


http://www.connectingthreads.com/cft...paign=PPCgpGen

Jan in VA

I always sew my blocks with a smaller stitch. If a thread would ever break after a few years of use, it won't come all undone. I know it's a pain to rip but it sure has made my quilts last better with fewer repairs.

Gosh, now I'm afraid for my previous quilts. Nothing I can do about that anymore but I'll definitely figure out the proper stitch length and use it in the future. I will also get myself a Clover seam ripper. I had noticed some of the seam rippers in my collection seem to have a thinner point, so it wasn't my imagination after all!

Thanks for all the advice. I have learned a lot.

I think Jan's idea of a sample piece with notes is great particularly if anyone has a machine without numbered settings for stitch length. Jan, you are always such a font of knowledge!

Done. I found the sweet spot that is 11-12 stitches per inch and stuck a post it there to mark it. I am getting the impression that's the spot I want to use for most of my sewing anyway?

I was thinking no matter how loosely I stitched my blocks, the quilting would hold everything together in the end. Wrong??

So THAT'S why you press your seam after you sew them. It sets the thread into the fabric.
And I never realized that cotton would hold better than poly thread.
Learned two important lessons today. Thanks everybody.

I mostly use poly covered cotton thread and have no problems. I have been sewing and quilting for many years.

On my machine I can just shorten the stitch length at the beginning and end for about 4 stitches. That way I don't have to backstitch and is easier to rip out than a backstitch.

Also try Bonnie Hunter's Leader and enders method, where you are making another piece of a quilt as a way to start a seam.

I checked my stitches per inch per Jan's suggestion. Well I found I needed to decrease stitch length from 2.5 to 2.0 (Pfaff). And then I came back to me yes, 2.0 is where it used to be, how, when, and why it got increased I don't remember.
Point being--- another reason I so enjoy QB!
Thanks Jan!