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I am new at quilting and pretty much stick to squares and rectangles. I have a hard time lining up my blocks so that all the corners meet. Any tricks?

Thank you,
Alli

zyxquilts

Hi Alli,
When you are pressing the seams that are going to meet, if you press so the seam that will be on the bottom comes toward you & the one on the top goes away from you, as it goes under the presser foot it will 'nestle' together and the corners be pushed together & match up! I also use a "3 pin" method sometimes - first put one pin straight down thru the seams, making sure it goes straight thru, and that the seams are lined up, then place another pin on each side, quite close to the seam - then take out that first pin.
Hope that helps...

bsquilter

Clover makes a U shaped pin. Squish seams around until they are butting together then pin in with one prong on each side of seam.
Thess pins have made my blocks look perfect without ripping.
BS Quilter

Norah

I have trouble making my seams line up too. When they are off some, one has to resew ( another cuss word) the block, or ease the larger block into the other, matching the seams inside the block. It really helps to make sure your seams are consistent, mark the points where anything is supposed to meet before you sew it together, and make sure they match when you get through. Also measure your finished blocks before joining.
I am going to try both of the methods mentioned above and I am looking for those pins next trip to town.

Steve

I use the methods that sue mentions, nestling under the pressure foot. If you start the run with the pressed seam facing away from you it pushes the corners together. It worked well on my first quilt and I’m going to try to apply the method as I progress.

Am looking into the U shaped pins but haven’t seen them at any of the stores yet.

ShellyQ

If things have really gone to hell in a hand cart, I use a method which I jokingly call "The great quilters art of fudging" :lol: Is helpful when sewing rows of blocks tog especially if you've got the blocks from a block swap or guild BOM.

First of all I match up the seams and do a couple of machine bast stitches to hold, open out and check match is correct. Then I sew the seam putting the bigger block on the underneath, the action of the feed dogs has the effect of slightly gathering the underneath fabric, If when I get to the next seam the larger block is on the top I just take the sewing out of the machine, turn it over and stitch in the opposit direction. Keep doing ths untill the entire row is sewn. Can get rid of up to a 1/4" per full size block, anything more and you gonna have a frill :lol:

Another way if things are really bad is to add a boarder to each block and then trim blocks to an exact size. A crazy boader is nice, where the blocks end up looking tilted.

Norah

I like that suggestion of crazy borders. Good thinking.

SaraSewing

I really like the idea of the bigger block on the bottom. I too have cussed, ripped out, cussed some more, resewn, taken little tucks in the seam, and even more cussing. But I'll sure give this a try. I know that the top piece stretches a bit, but didn't even think of alternating the top or bottom. Thanx for the idea. Sara