I am one that does better with a physical barrier, too. I have a foot with the flange thing, but sometimes I use painter's tape, or else a short stack of post it notes. But they don't always stay stuck long. Also have a t-guage...I don't know which is my favorite method.

I just bought a Janome that came with a 1/4" foot for quilting. I love the foot and the machine! It sews beautifully.

I love my Pfaff!! Are you useing a 1/4 inch foot? Pfaff has two different types...one has a guide blade onit for strip peicing. I love my Pfaff!

I have Vikings, Brother, Babylock, a Singer 160 all give me good seams. My favoriate for piecing is my Viking Mega quilter 9in.

The problem is not your machine. It's your techniques. My suggestion is to go to a sewing or quilting shop and show them what happens so that they can help you obtain a consistent 1/4 inch seam. I don't ever use pins except for certain blocks and my seams match up easily manually. For those who use pins, there have been tips on this board on how to pin so you don't change how your fabric has matched up.

I have three Janome machines. I'm a loyal Janome gal.

That said, I have a brother embroidery machine. Janome was way over my budget for those.

What a great explanation, Prism99; I think you have covered all methods I have heard of to check 1/4"! It is so true from your post and others that every machine is definitely different and we have to adjust to it, not the machine to us and then we tend to expect different results! Thanks.....

I have a Bernina 1260, purchased 16 years ago, and use a 1/4" foot rather than depend on the line on the machine bed. The 1/4" foot is #37 and a 1/4" foot with a barrier on the right side is #57. Both work wonderfully as long as I do my job of following the edge accurately. As patchsamkin said "Love it and will sew with it until it no longer works."

The machine simply sews. It doesn't know if your seam is 1/4 " or not. You will probably benefit from a quilter's foot which gives you a quarter inch seam or maybe there is a mark on your soleplate that is exactly 1/4 " from the needle. Perhaps you can move the needle to the left or right to get an exact seam. Try some of the suggestions from this board and see if you can't get a better result. It's very expensive to trade machines if you don't need to do it.

I have used all of the machines mentioned here, except for Kenmore. A good quarter inch can be achieved on all of them if used correctly so I think you are wasting your money to trade it in on another machine as you possibly just need more practice with the one you have. Give yourself a bit more time and use the good tips suggested here and you should improve. All the best.