What is meant by squaring off and how is it done?

Squaring off is making the block completely square - there are special rulers for it- or you can try to use a regular ruler ( i have tried that way can be done but is hard ) what size are you making the blocks ?

Hope this helps.


http://www.ehow.com/how_5940886_squa...ilt-block.html

More importantly, is to figure out why it isn't square to begin with....was it the cutting, sewing, pressing? Cause it's one or more of those things.

A great reference book, even though I think she's a tad anal retentive (and I mean that in a nice way), is "The Art of Machine Piecing," by Sally Collins. Even if you don't subscribe to all her methods (and I don't), it at least really explains why you're not creating perfectly square blocks

But if you've got a pieced block with many parts, and don't want to risk chopping off any points or important parts of the design, I'd suggest Sharon Schamber's helpful videos on blocking -

shrinking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6aplw_tVZc

stretching
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQkF02vpVuw

You got all the great info here....hope it helps you like it has me...

Thanks folks, my squares are a windmill, all meet in the middle just great, but some of the sides are off as much as 1/2" - could I just square them all off to 9"?

As long as you center the ruler. You might still have a little "easing" when sewing the blocks together to make the design match up. That's what pins are for. :wink:

Thanks MTS. you have confirmed what I have palanned to do....thinking all night about this and I am sure it will work quite well.

Hmmmm, if you are off by 1/2 an inch and try to square everything up to the smaller size you may be loosing points. Don't know what your blocks look like though. Might be ok. I would square up the worst one, then attach it with a quarter inch seam to scrap pieces of fabric on all 4 sides to make sure you are not loosing some of your design. Use a long stitch length and just unpick the stitches after the trial joining. This will let you see if it will be OK to proceed with the rest of the blocks!

This helps a lot for each square. How do you square a big quilt?

Quilter711
Nancy