Pepita

I share your pain! At quilt festival I took a class by Phillippa Naylor, and I'll try to give you a couple of her thoughts. The quarter inch foot is really important. You may have one and it doesn't work for you. Try putting several playing cards taped to the 1/4 inch line and see if that helps. Iron before cutting, iron during your work, pay lots of attention to intersections. When you pin--and I am not a pinner--put the first pin straight down at the intersection. Leave it that way, for a minute. Pin on either side of the intersection, making sure your seams go the way you want them. Now go back and place the straight up pin into the fabric behind the intersection. (I hope that makes sense) Flip your fabric over and check that everything is still in the right spot. Now sew.

I also found that using the triangulations paper (on CD)made my life so much easier. I have always tended to cut my fabric from selvage to selvage. That makes your strips wobble, and causes all sorts of frustration. Try laying out your strips horizontally to the selvage. I found that REALLY makes a difference. Last but not least, this is your work, you will always be most critical of your own work. If it isn't working right now, give your self a break, walk around,take a mental break. Go back when you aren't so frustrated. Phillippa Naylor was just coming out with a book about piecing which has been on the market for some time. Check your library, or guild, or Amazon. Good luck and I bet each of us have been exactly where you are. (Some of us still struggle! I have sworn off BOM because I haven't been able to use the triangulation's!) Good luck

Dragonomine

Thank you everyone for the replies! I have gotten some great advice here! I did make it into a wall hanging instead of continuing on trying to make a quilt. Some of the pieces were just way off and Joann's didn't have the mottled dark purple anymore. (2 weeks wait) So I finished 4 blocks to hang and it actually looks pretty good! What I've learned though is that I NEVER iron. Only press!! I think that was the major problem. And I will also get a 1/4" guide for my machine. And finally, NO triangles until I can master squares! lol So thanks all of you! I've learned a lot!

hudgoddess

I did a quilt with blocks with 1 hst and 2 qst. I paper pieced every single one of them and, boy, do I look like a pro!
Don't give up. Get a new rotary cutter, find a method you like (after screwing up a few) and then you'll wonder why you ever thought it was difficult! Heads up, girl-keep sewing!

Bataplai

Your wall hanging looks fantastic, it's something to be proud of ... and I like what you chose for quilting it.

Rosebird

My dearest quilter's friend, first of all your color is beautiful, I love anything Purple, lavender etc... your work is not that bad,I've seen worse and/or really,really crooked. I could see you cut your patterns or template right. You just have to find
your 1/4 seam allowance and stick with it. Some fabric stretch than others, but I think the biggest problem here is your seam allowance, if you have time mark your cut fabric with 1/4 SA, so all of the cut fabric will be the same. Practice make perfect. The same thing with Applique. Good Luck!

Taughtby Grandma

I don't see anything wrong with your wall hanging. I would be excited if my blocks turned out like this. Have you seen how to do the half square and quarter square triangles from squares? Seam diagonally 1/4 " each side of the center then cut down the center. Or sew around the square and cut diagonally both ways across the block. I have seen some tutorials on this board for these tricks. Then Saturday I was watching Fons and Porter and one of the tips they said was when you are sewing the blocks (like on the four patch) have the bottom seam pointing toward you and the top seam top seam pointed away from you. It matches the seams up beautifully. Hope this helps.