I made my first quilt in the 80’s (the 1980’s, not in my 80’s), about the time I finished college and started my first professional job. It was the beginning of my quest for the perfect ¼” seam. Sounded easy, after all, I had been making my own clothes for 20 plus years. First problem, I was used to a 5/8” seam for dressmaking. Isn’t that a stupid measurement? Why not a ½”, it’s much easier to do the math. Anyway, the ¼” seam. I had a Singer I bought from Cloth World (that should take you back), one of the cheap ones. It had a great mark for the 5/8” seam, but the ¼” mark was under the presser foot right in the middle of the tractor feed. I mean, really, how was I supposed to see that? The class teacher told us all about mismatched seams, dropped points, points pointing in the wrong direction, waffled quilts, quilts in weird shapes; all the woes of inaccuracy! That’s when I learned a cool new use for masking tape. Three or four layers to see the ¼” and let you ‘feel’ the edge. It worked pretty well. I could sew a straight line and, more or less, hit my mark. The results weren’t bad and got better with time and experience. The biggest problem was frayed edges and having to remove tape goo from my machine. I tried magnetic markers and all kinds of other gadgets. Mixed results. In time, I had the money to buy a Bernina, which came with a ¼” foot. Wow, was that cool. My seam was good, my quilts were flat; life was good, sort of. I also worked 60 hours a week, got called all night for problems and was generally too tired to quilt much. In these years, I managed to make a few quilt tops, parts of quilt tops and a lot of blocks. I had a big stash and a big UFO pile. That’s when the eyes went. For a couple of years, I was just happy to see the food on my plate, much less the sewing machine. I was very relieved when they stabilized a bit, mostly because I retired on disability during this period. Now, I had lots of time on my hands and moderately useful vision. Back to the machine and new lessons. I couldn’t see the edge of my foot, so out came the masking tape. Not bad. My seams were a bit off, but I pretended they were fine and sewed like crazy. All of those UFO’s were completed and I started some new ones. And, just the other day, I sat in my sewing area. Squirrels and birds play in the back yard. It’s bright and hot outside, cool inside. One cat sits on my ironing mat, keeping it warm. One sits on my cutting board, ready to help. Hubby is watching baseball in the other room. I just ran a seam. It might be a bit wobbly, but it’s the perfect ¼” seam. And the next one will be too.
See you at the meeting. Challenge time!