I HATE it! Is there an easier way?

I'm on break, my back is killing me.

Tiny pieces of scrap and thread all over me. I'm breathing the stuff.

No chocolate in the house either. Had to eat a handful of chocolate chip but there are no calories in them because I ate them standing up. ;)

Thanks for this great tip! it's amazing the things you learn on this board! I'm going to my pantry & look for something yummy right now.

If I don't have the exact size square ruler to do it with, forget it, I get to confused. Thats probably why I have a wall covered w/ rulers and a list in my bag to take to Paducha to fill in the missing ones.
Stick with it you'll get it done after you run out and get that chocolate!LOL

Put those chips in the freezer...that's the best way to eat them...I just finished a full bag in a wk...This is not good...neither is sqing up quilts.

I'm sorry but I'm a self taught newbie, but what does squaring up mean?

After you've pieced a block (like half-square triangle or four-patch, for example), it's possible that it is slightly too big, depending on your piecing. Squaring up trims a pieced block to the size it's supposed to be for the next step.

It can be evil - right now, I'm typing without my left index finger because I just ran the rotary cutter into it squaring up some flying geese :-(.

it's all worth it & squaring up is under rated for sure!
you will be GLAD you stuck it out when you sit down to sew those blocks together & they fit just purrrrrfect! SMILE!

huh, maybe that accounts for some of the issues i've been having.

most likely--if every one cut as good as a die cut & sewed perfect quarter inch seams, you wouldn't have to square up!
i s'pose that means none of us is perfect.......hmmm

I also hand piece so not the straightest by any means...

I square up my blocks with my 15 inch square as I go. I piece the top, do my sandwiching and quilting, then comes the part I loath!! It's time to square the whole quilt before adding the binding. I have to crawl around on the floor with all my squares and rulers, sliding the cutting mat and using my rotary cutter. I then use a tape measure, corner to corner to see if the measurements match and proceed to binding. Painful but worth it to get a nice square quilt and perfectly staight binding. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. If anyone has a better method, please share!

put a fresh blade in my cutter. That made the job more enjoyable.

The one crucial piece of information that I had somehow missed for squaring up for a long time was that you have to use the diagonal line on your ruler and make sure that it is exactly on the diagonal of your block and then trim around. For a long time I couldn't figure out why my half square triangles were not evenly split in half by colour as I had used the proper sized square for trimming. However I had just plopped the square down, hacked off the excess and had not been checking the diagonal. It makes a huge difference. Now how did I miss that? I finally understood when I saw a demonstration on squaring up at our guild meeting the night we offered Tips and Tricks.

Squaring up is so tedious! But I am always so glad I have done it when I am putting all the finished squares together!

This is one task I break up into small pieces. Once my HST are sewn and pressed, I put them neatly into a basket on the kitchen table along with rotary cutter and mat. Every time I walk past, I trim a certain number, say 10 or twelve or a blocks worth. Then back to chores, say throw a load of laundry in, feed the cat, etc.

Its not like I stop piecing while doing this, there's always more HSTs to piece, block to put together from the ones I've already trimmed, new pattern to look at. Hey, watch that chocolate around quilt pieces, ask me how I know.

What a rush the first time I put a quilt together this way. It was precise, the corners were already square and blocks and rows just went together like a dream

Sounds like a lot of work, I guess I'll go have somemore chocolate! And I am standing up!

I'm making a storm at sea. Lots of squaring up.

Yep, I have found that if I really take my time to make accurate cuts and quarter inch seems I hardly have to square up. Having said that there are still times when no matter how hard you try to be accurate you have to square it. We are not machines and can't be perfect. There has to be a point where you say "good enough" :)

It can be evil - right now, I'm typing without my left index finger because I just ran the rotary cutter into it squaring up some flying geese :-(.[/quote]

Been there! I learned a whole new respect for my rotary cutter :mrgreen: Hope it heals quickly!

I don't think there is an easier way, unless you don't do it at all.

But then you have the problem when you put your blocks together sometimes they don't quite fit properly.

Then when you fudge it to make it fit you have a quilt with wonky sides...ask me how I know.

I also have a problem with holding my rulers securely when I cut, and it slips and then 3 sides are perfectly square and the 4th is just a smidgen off-then I have to decide if I'm going to work with the smidgen off or just go ahead and trim all them down a smidgen....oh the choices.

If there is a local glass shop that is good to work with, you can go to them and have them cut you a piece of plexiglass the size you need and have them sand the sharp edges for you. They have to be willing to be extra careful, and you need to check it before you use it. If all goes well it only costs a couple of dollars for that pc of plexi! I made my own diagonal lines on mine with permanent marker and wrote the square size on it for future reference.