bucksie

That was my first and safest thought, instead of re-measuring my improvised guides, and render my 1/4" foot with guide useless...I will try and see if i moved my needle over 1 or 2 places to right if it will hit the foot, if not, I may consider starting over as i am only on block one...(1/2 actually)..Plus, things are going so well... so far.
thanks for your time!

kima

Welcome from OKlahoma

bucksie

I replied to you but used the reply button only....you can scroll down to see it....You made me laugh!...how right you are..See, I have adhd and i put way to much pressure on myself to do things right....with one of my biggest issues is when reading about quilting and importance of EXACTNESS is what scared me because in my mind I couldn't understand how with all those hundereds of pieces how anyone could cut, sew and be so exact, and with that then there was NO WAY I of all people would...So my mess. was me being so excited that I actually could do things like cutting precise pieces and sewing exact seam, etc....I know we all make mistakes, I however take the cake on the category, so my doubt in my ability turned into "I CAN DO IT", my excitement purged out, probably in wrong way?

I uploaded a pic of grandson....and will do new one when quilt is done (maybe some along the way)??? I did make him a flannel backed with minky (the super stretchy lined stuff) at the size which could almost fit a single bed..and the lil guy drags it around everywhere!!! its funny!
Thank you ....I much appreciate honesty such as yours....

bucksie

one question though.......How bout when pressing seams open in regards to scant 1/4" seam? It appears that it is more important for those who press to one side??? OR is it pretty equal for pressing both ways???

LindaR

I bought that 1/4 foot with the guide and hated it, snapped that sucker right off first thing LOL...I ride the edge of my foot off the fabric and get perfect blocks. Scant 1/4" is a smidgen less of the foot...

Holice

you need to check the foot. they are not all correct and you may need to adjust to produce the scant seam.
and you seill need the scant seam whether or not press open or to side becase there is still a fold.

Quiltforme

Welcome from Washington too! As far as pressing seams it depends on what you are working on. I press them to the dark side of the fabric unless I have a block that has a lot of seams the I will press open to relieve the bulk. I heard that quilters press to the side and sewers press open.

CorgiNole

Technically a scant seam is one to two threads narrower than a true seam, so I don't know that it would be a full 1/16, maybe closer to 1/32.

However, as I work through Quilter's Academy Volume I, I came upon the concept of YUMS, which I'm blanking on the exact words Harriet and Carrie use for this - but essentially it is your own measurements - so as you've pieced together a block and measured, you can adjust the next seam or cut to accommodate the dimensions of the current portion you've sewn - it comes in with a project in which you are using wider strips to create some of the blocks.

All that truely matters in the end is that you are HAPPY with your project. The goal is squareness and evenness - but how you get there and how much you enjoy the process is up to you and you can do it as you wish.

Cheers, K

PMY in QCA-IL

"Scant" quarter inch really is just a thread or two shy of a true quarter inch, not as much as 1/16'th. As you sew, 1/8'th multiplied by each seam soon adds up to an inch or so added across the whole quilt. In some blocks you can fudge and make them fit together, but you would be doing well to figure out your sc. 1/4" seam line if you eventually want to make quilts with more piecing requirements. One recommended way to do this is to cut 3 pieces of fabric the same size (i.e. 2 1/2" x 6 1/2"), sew them together, using your 1/4" seam, pressing the seams as you wish and then measuring your sample. In this ex. it should measure 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" exactly. Work on this until you can get a true measurement and mark this somehow on your machine so when you need to be exact you have a guide. (In my case, using my Janome with the 1/4" foot with a guide I just have to move the needle one spot to the left to find my correct 1/4")