I square up as I go. When doing HST, I cut squares of fabric 4 1/4" for a finished 3" HST. Place the 2 squares right sides together and draw a line for corner to corner. Sew 1/4 in on each side of the line and cut on the drawn line. Then square up. I wastes a little fabric but sure cuts down on the frustration when the blocks are sewn together. I did Dear Jane a few years ago. I put hash marks on the pattern pieces that would be on the outter edges of the block. On those sides I added an additional 1/4" (insurance) and trimmed the finished block to 6 1/2. Sure helped me get accurate blocks. Being careful not to stretch the pieces also helps.

I square up the smaller blocks before I make the big one. It sure makes life a lot easier when making the bigger blocks.

I square everything! It is amazing how much quicker and nicer it goes together. I am one of those "perfect" quilters who wear tear out until the seams and corners match perfectly. Squaring makes it pretty easy.

That makes two of us. My mother would get so upset with me when I was young and I would continue to rip out seams, because they were not to my satisfaction. She would always say just put it down and come back later, but I could never do that. My quilting group seems to have a problem with this too. They tell me it is close enough and they would rip it out for it, well I just have to have it right in my way of thinking. I made a king size quilt for my Dad when I really first got into quilting and had no instructions from anyone at the time 20 or more years ago. I did not know at the time I needed to begin machine quilting from the center, and being the dummy I was, I just started at one edge and kept going. Well........, I ended up taking all of the quilting out and started over because it began to fold up on me. Believe me that one quilt taught me a well earned lesson on machine quilting. I have since done the same thing because it just didn't satisfy me, but not because I started in the wrong place.But I square up as I go, and often I still rip seams before I get the block ready to square up. My seam ripper and I are like identical twins we are so closely knitted together. lol Where in Ky.? I lived in Campbellsville, for about 6 mo. then on to Scottsville. I graduated from HS. in Scottsville, lived there for two yrs. Have a niece and family who live in Scottsville., 68 miles from Nashville. Gerbie

Gerbie, I'm way north! Just across the river from Cincy.

Amen ...I couldn't agree more!

Ditter

I have a really hard time squaring up, when it says to square to 3,4,5,6 ect...there are no rulers this size. sorry for the dumb statement but it is true, I need to see someone doing this for me to understand. God bless. Penny

On my next quilt I'm going to try cutting all my pieces just a little bigger and squaring as I go. These last 2 quilts (my first 2 still working on the second) have been very difficult because when I am done making my blocks they vary in size between 12 and 12 1/4 inches. So I lose a lot of points and overall I'm probably the only one that notices them but I do notice. Would love to make a block that didn't have to be trimmed, it would also make the sashing and corner squares and borders etc. go a lot smoother.

Boy you are in the far north aren't you. Just curious.

yeah we just had snow last week and 85 degrees yesterday

We had snow in the mountains about 100 miles from us on Sat. and really cool here Sat, it is supposed to be in the triple digits here this week. But then I live in West Texas, we never know what the temp. will be, except in the summer. We usually have at least 115 and hotter some of the days during the summer. This has really been a cool spring for us.

115!!!! No thank you!! ;)

And I thought it gets hot where I live. I live on the Highland Lakes in Central Texas. We are having 50-60 in the morning and 80 in the afternoon. However, I am enjoying it becuase I know what June, July and August will be like. We break 100 many days in the summer. At least it is not as dry as it has been the last few years. Hot, dry and humid is not to pleasant.

Yeah but Texas,,,Dont we love it????????????????????? jolo

I second the motion. Please. Would some willing soul do a tutorial for us on how to square a block? I haven't searched to see if we have one already. Oops, I will look.
...................
I looked and did not find a tutorial on this.

jolo
Yes, Texas I love it, born and raised in this great state. Lived in three other states for a while when I was younger, but so glad when we moved back home. I have lived in this town since 1970, when DH and I married, because of our jobs here. Both of our children were born in this town and we made our home here. Yes it gets pretty hot during the summer, but I love this state. I don't think I could ever live on the coast, too humid. I was raised in this area, the desert area of Tx.

Penny, as long as the ruler is larger than the square you need, you can use it. Here is a tip that may help you visually. Let's say your HST needs to be 3.5" unfinished. You can use a piece of blue painter's tape and line it on the 3.5" line on your square in both directions. Then if you line the diagonal line on the ruler with the line that splits the HST, you can focus on the marked area and trim accordingly.