Tollergirl

Not perfect is no big deal. It took me a while to learn that. If the little imperfections bother you, then check your measurements/square up after each step. See where your greatest errors are and just work on your technique.

Or leave it! I have been needlepointing for years, and every project has a missed stitch. it adds character!

117becca

When you say it's not lining off, how much is it off? I pin - pins are your best friend. Pin the matching seams together - alot of times when you sew it together, the extra can be eased in. If you're looking at 1/2" difference, maybe that can be trimmed off the edges, or trimmed a little bit off of several pieces.

redmadder

If Arachne got turned into a spider for bragging about perfect weaving, what might happen to the perfect quilter?

redmadder

Oh right, the subject was long rows. I pin in the seam, so the pins can be pulled out before I sew over them. Ah, but the real secret is, also put a pin in a couple of inches away from the seam. All that fabric is trying to pull away from you and the extra pins tame it.

romanojg

I square my blocks, then I try to keep the seams matched when I start making rows and then when again when I start sewing rows together I match seams to keep them as even as possible. Now, my daughter's quilt she had put her rows together and they were so uneven that we put sashing between the rows so that we didn't have to match up so much. She's a beginner. Her next quilt is so much better. Practice will be on your side.

nycquilter

I tend to be a tad OCD so I square up at every step. For instance, if I sew two parts of the block together, I make sure they are square and all the same size. Add a third piece, iron, measure, trim or resew, ad nauseum. My finished quilts are typically square and need little adjustment. When I tried to cut these steps out, I was always sorry.

Dawn227

Krysti,
I just took a "trip around the world" class. it was also strip piecing. One thing was to sew the one row say first top to bottom then second bottom to top then top to bottom in a conitnuing manner to help with wonkyness.
FYI I am a newbie quilter.
dawn227

corkygal

As most have said, no quilt is perfect. I always tell myself quilting is an art and not a science!

JenelTX

I'm not much further ahead than you are, but I discovered something that really helped with my second quilt... When you're pinning the rows together, try to match up the corners with pins, and then go back through to add more pins in between. Unless your squares are WAY off, this should work fine without a lot of wrinkles. The corners of my second quilt all match up, and it looks much better... but I'm still proud of the first one!

(Experienced quilters, please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want my ignorance to cause problems for Krysti.)

SandyMac

I learned a big big lesson ,it's called squaring up the block .It really does help' I not perfect ,but a little better. Sandy