A mm at a time

Marie -- using one of your rulers... measure 1/4" to the right of the needle and mark with indelible ink where the line is. I have one that goes from the throat plate all the way to the edge of the machine... (closest to my tummy). If you can't get a 1/4" foot for your machine... then find the spot on the machine... and peel away about 12-15 post it notes and position those in such a way so that you create a "wall" to use as a fabric guide for your fabric.

Hopefully that will help with your 1/4 inch consistency!!

Buy a cheap pack of index cards. The lines on them are exactly 1/4" apart. Practice sewing with an unthreaded needle on the line: see where on the presser foot the next line to the right falls. Once you've sewn a half-dozen lines, you'll be able to see exactly where on your foot the next line over is: that's your 1/4". (eg: on my Janome Gem, the 1/4" is at the point of the foot). Then, take a ruler, and draw a line on your machine bed, extending from the line of the index card: much more accurate than trying to measure with a ruler, since the thickness of the ruler will have some impact on your

I always carry a stack of index cards in my "teacher's bin" for quilters who have trouble eye-balling a 1/4" seam: it helps a lot.

I never thought of that. Thanks. Gen

I can't as the foot is over the 1/4" place on the plate. A NewHome has very wide unwieldy feet. I'm using a special foot with a built in 1/4" guide I recently bought. I can't seem to ever get the *START* place right so when a triangle is opened I get a rectangle. One or the other triangles sewn to the sides has to be redone repeatedly before it opens to a rectangle. This time it's the roof and sky part on the little building.

I have one that goes

The clear plate where the bobbin is, takes up that entire area. I practiced on scraps with the new foot and am now doing ok with it. I"m getting a nice

If you can't get a 1/4" foot for your machine... then find the

That's not the problem today. I can't find the correct place to start sewing to get the "flying geese" rectangle from 3 triangles. I have to do it repeatedly until I happen to hit the right spot. Tedious and time consuming.

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I did exactly that until I got them right. See my other post above. I can't find the right place to start sewing to get the three triangles to open into a rectangle unless I do it repeatedly and hit the right place to start sewing. One of the smaller triangles is always too low or two high and then I have to move up a tad, then rip it up and move up another tad...... It shouldn't take 20+ minutes and repeated tries to make a "flying geese" rectangle.

(eg: on my Janome Gem, the 1/4" is at the point of the

The clear plastic bobbin plate takes up the entire front bed. I'm using the special 1/4" foot I recently bought. I practiced like crazy this afternoon until I got the 1/4" seams down pat. Now I need to learn where to start sewing to make the "flying geese" rectangles from 3 triangles. Using the dot didn't work or the sewing lines. It took endless rip-outs and retries until I accidentally hit the right place. Joining the sky to the building's roof (parallelogram) was another exercise in frustration.........