When to Square Up a Quilt
 

Hello all. I am currently working on a log cabin quilt and am almost finished with all the blocks. I have been quilting for some time, so not a newbie, but one thing I have never been certain of is when to square a quilt up. I have watched YouTube videos and most do square it up after quilting.
My issue is not being consistent with the blocks. I used jelly rolls for the strips. I do have a quarter inch presser foot and checked to make sure my seam allowances are correct, but I fear the blocks still won't be the same size or not square before sewing the rows.
My thoughts were to square it up when I sew each row as I go. I will also be putting a border so it will need to be as square as possible. Is this a good idea to square as I go? I have yet to make a perfectly square quilt. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks,
Shari

I square up each block before sewing the blocks together.

I, too, square up blocks as I go. I usually don't have to square up anything after adding borders but do have to re-do parts of seams sometimes then. I generally hand quilt so not too much distortion in the quilting process and don't square up after quilting.

Hi Shari,

Welcome to the boards. I like to square up blocks as I go. You can easily see if something is off and where to make a correction before you sew all of them.

I construct the quilt blocks into quadrants and then sew those to together. Then square up again if needed. Smaller quadrants are easier to handle for me. There are only a couple of long seams to sew together.

You can stay-stitch around the quilt and the borders to prevent stretching. Borders and binding are cut using the Length of Fabric instead of Width of Fabric if possible.

I too square up each block as I go. It does make everything go together much better.

I learned the hard way to square up each block as I go. I have even been known to square up each elements of a large block before sewing together. It just makes things go together easier. Like Tartan, I square up the whole top and then again after quilting.

I fix any problems as I go, so my blocks are all within a very small tolerance in size. Maybe that's considered squaring up? If all the blocks are the right size, and if I put them together carefully, there's no need to keep measuring and slicing, which can lead to more problems. Also, if I'm adding a border, I can ease in tiny discrepancies. Fabric has a bit of stretch to it, and measuring a long piece, especially with a lot of seams, can give me a different outcome each time.

For log cabin blocks- I square them up after each round.
For other blocks- sometimes I square them up as I go, particularly if there is precision piecing involved. Most times, not.
Like dunster- most of the time I fix problems as I go, and figure that if adding borders I can ease in small discrepancies.

For squaring up the whole quilt- that also depends on what kind of quilt it is. The quilt I'm working on now is called Around We Go and is built around a center portion. There are several rounds which are fitted along the tops and sides of the quilt and in between rounds are borders. This quilt requires that it measure a specific size after each round and after each border, so I check to make sure it's the right size as I go and fix things as I go.

But, for most quilts I wait until after I've quilted the quilt and then I square it up before I put on the binding.

Rob

Hi All, thanks for the valuable input. I had thought about squaring all the blocks before sewing the rows. It will take a bit as there will be 42 of them. A lot of trimming, but hopefully will make it easier to add the borders in the end.

Shari