butting seams on machine

[Hannelore N.]

Hi there,

I am new here and fairly new to quilting. I am having trouble with getting good matching seams (i.e., matching the corners of blocks in a nine-patch block). I carefully press seams to one side; I butt the seams tightly together (with top seam going one way and the bottom seam the other); pin so that the pin goes in the stitching lines of the top and bottom piece; then put extra pins nearby but I often don't have matching lines after sewing. I even fold the fabric down a bit to see that things are really matched up before sewing. But then the butting shifts, up to 1/8" off. It doesn't happen all the time, but I'm opening and re-sewing more pieces than I'd like. It doesn't matter if there is any fabric to ease between seams or not, or how careful I am.

I am very comfortable with sewing on the machine, but cannot figure this one out. Thanks for your help!
Rhe

[Hannelore N.]

Sounds like you are doing everything right so my guess would be that the ones that are not working are because of which seam you have on top. Try doing it with the seam facing you on top.

[Margo C.]

Rhe, does your intersection tend to overlap, or is there a little gap where they should meet?

If they overlap, do like Ritzy said, and put the seam that is pressed towards you on the top. The presser foot will cause the top fabric to be pushed forward a little.

If there is a little gap, put the seam pressed towards you on the bottom. The presser foot will cause the top fabric to be pushed forward and close the gap.

In fact, if you can adjust the amount of pressure that your presser foot puts on the fabric, that may be what's causing your problems.

[Margo C.]

Thank you for these replies! They make sense and I will try them soon. My problem has been entirely with gapping, not overlapping. It will be interesting to experiment with the presser foot pressure. It may take me a month to get back to you (vacations, company, etc) but I'll let you know. Thanks again!

[Margo C.]

I had the same problem until I watched the show where Alex used her thumbnail to push the seams together. (She called it spooning). Then you can stick a pin straight thru the front seam and look to see if it comes out center-seam on the back side. If it does great! but If the pin comes out to the side, adjust the fabric so that the pin goes through the seam-line. Next, put a pin very close to each side pinning very close to the top edge as Alex suggested. It works every time!! When we get more experienced we won't have to do that anymore.
It is time consuming, but if you are like me, I can't stand to see seams off center. (I ripped out miles of seams before I discovered this).

[Margo C.]

Hi, Sugarmuffin (love the name!),

I have been doing exactly that, which is why it was so frustrating to have that not work.
What you suggested should work, but it didn't, though I'm glad that it's working well for you!

I'm going to play around with the presser foot tension and work with the seam directions as
Ritzy and Margo suggested. If I had to guess, I'd say changling the presser foot tension will solve the problem.
It's been really frustrating to be so careful and have to redo things even three and four times before getting
a seam corner to set right.

[Alex A.]

When pinning - pin 1/16 of and inch on each side of the aligned seams - not in the exact spot where you want them to line up.

[Margo C.]

Rhe80, if you were a Star Member you would be able to check out Alex's classroom on the Lemoyne Star that she did back in June 2008! Great info there for lining up complex intersections!

The link to the first class is here:
community/alex-anderson/

[Marion D.]

have you tried sewing over the pins and then removing them? Sew slowly, or you might break the needle.

[Annis C.]

All of these suggestions are good. I try to have the open side of the top seam facing the needle whenever possible. I leave that first pin in until I get to it, then leave the 2nd pin in until I've stitched across the seam. I also use a sewing machine that has dual feed and can often get accurate results without pinning the block units, but always pin when assembling the quilt top. And I prefer a machine that is set in a cabinet or at least has a large slide-on table. A flat work surface makes it easier to assemble the blocks.