If you square as you go, do you square each finished square or each row?

I don't square up my quilts , they are not that far off . If they are off by a half inch who is going to know when its on the bed. And if any one is running around the bed measuring the quilt , than they better make there own lol

Finally, a kindred spirit! When I try to "square up", I wind up whittling the quilt smaller and smaller. Same thing happens on blocks. So I really concentrate on cutting the fabric accurately and sewing consistent seams.

Somehow, without worrying about squaring everything up, my quilts come out mostly square. So far, no one has complained about the quilt they get being out of square.

I stopped feeling bad about my slightly off-kilter quilts when I started quilting charity quilts by others. The backing for the first one I did was cut so short and kind of curved, that I couldn't use it. The quilt top and back were done by a very experienced, respected quilter, and I was hesitant to speak to her about it. Such a dilemma!

Finally,I just called the her and told her about it. She basically said, "Find a way to make it work! You won't hurt my feelings." So I did. I used a different fabric for the backing and then used the backing to make a pinwheel quilt.

Crooked quilts and squaring up one
 

It is easy to say "oh, my longarmer can straighten it up". Not true unless they want to take an extra day to do just that. There just went their profit unless they tell you upfront that there will be an extra charge. 100% better if you keep your blocks squared as you go. A 1/16 of an inch in a block in the center gets bigger exponentially by the time you get finished. I hate to try to quilt these. Sometimes I have to put pleats in the sides, not to mention that the quilt can pucker on the back and you don't see it til the next row.

Short version: square blocks as you are piecing, even ripping and resewing a seam or two if you have to, along with measuring and averaging width and length and cutting borders makes for a beautiful finished product. Jussayin' lol

This is a wonderful alternative to 90 degree corners. I am certainly going to try this, thank you Phyllis nm.

Square each block as you go and if you are adding a border, measure and average, cut on all sides. If it lies flat on the floor or table, it's square. If it waves at you on the edges, boooohoooo for the longarmer. There is ample instructions on how to do borders if you google adding borders. Jussayin'.