bearisgray

As much of a bother as it is in getting your blocks close to the same size now, it will save you a lot of frustration later.

QuiltE

... and will make you happier for the long run.
Otherwise, you'll be having the druthers, wishing you had done this and that ....

joe'smom

When you are posting a photo using the 'Go Advanced' feature, there's a little window that appears after you've selected your photos; if you widen this window to almost the full width of your screen, you will see the 'Upload' tab.

tropit

I try to be very careful with my cutting and seam allowances, but somehow, some of my blocks end up "off." Now, If I have the fabric to spare, I make a couple of extra blocks in each color way. That way I can swap one out, if needed.

quiltingforfun

thanks all for your advice. There is clearly a learning curve for me. I did a little of everything - remade a couple of blocks, fudged a bit, and accepted non-perfectly matched points as "good enough". This was my first experience with HSTs. the instruction said to cut squares, put a line on the diagonal and sew a scant 1/4 inch seam on each side of the line. (I think this was after sewing thesquares together on one edge). Im still not sure what scant meant.

If there are any tricks to working with HSTs, I would love to learn them

GingerK

"Scant" means sewing a wee bit less than 1/4 inch. I really prefer to make my HST's a tad larger and trim. Often, the directions to make say...2 1/2 inch HST's, will be to cut a light and a dark square at 2 7/8 inches. In my opinion, it is much easier to cut at 3 inches, draw the line, sew that scant 1/4 inch from the line, cut apart, gently press and then trim to 2 1/2 inches square. If my 'scant' seam ends up being not quite as scant as it should be, I have that little bit of wiggle room.

The biggest trick for me, is to remember PRESS not IRON. Moving the iron while pressing, will distort the HST.

And good for you, working out solutions to your problems. You have probably learned many valuable lessons from this project. None of us came to quilting as experts. Most of us will never be experts. We all make mistakes--big and small--and we all have something more to learn. I hope you figure out how to attach a photo because we would really love to see your top.

QuiltE

What many do to solve your HST frustrations is to oversize and trim to size.

... eg. if the pattern tells you to cut two squares 4" and sew the two diagonal seams ... you would cut them at 4-1/4", sew your seams, cut and press ... then trim to the block size needed. Aaahhhh HST Perfection!

cashs_mom

I've learned to starch the fabric heavily before I even cut it and to cut larger and trim down. It uses a bit more fabric but gives you the perfect HST as QuiltE says.

bearisgray

Even when I used a very scant .0.25 inch seam whensew8l ng hsts from squares cut to the size suggested - I end ed up with too small hst units.

Very scant t0 me - is between 1/8 and 3/16 of an inch. I actively dislike the scant 1/4 inch seam direction.

Use whatever seam allowannce that achieves the desired finished size. There are several examples of using three strips to check - thickness of fabric, thickness of thread are also variables.

if I cut the triangles separately , the hst units ended up closer to expected size. When cutting around a template - assuming the template is the exact size - a teeny bit of fabric is added while the piece is being cut out.

I press my hst units with the grain. Both directions.

i am in the wash before cutting group. I want to know how the fabric behaves without the sizing.

Starching does minimize fraying and the back of the top stays a lot neater.