Re: basting glue (or water-soluble glue sticks, or Elmer's Washable School Glue): if you want to press your seams open, you can pull the seam allowances open after stitching; the glue doesn't hold *that* tightly. Then just press them flat.

Okay, I tried both methods, and here is what worked for me. The nicely pressed fold line is very important. I used a pin to match, say, the tip of a flower to the tip underneath so that they were lined up on top of one another. I tried using glue, but my fingers kept getting in the way, and I found I kept moving the fabric out of line too much. So I did a few matching flowers pinning, and then taped, then did a few more and continued taping. Now, I had a tough time figuring out how to lay the fabric out to sew it and made the mistake of sewing nothing, just a straight line that didn't attach anything. Finally, when I got it figured out, I ended up with the main piece, right side down, on the left side of the needle, the piece I wanted to add on on the right side of the needle, right side up, and the tape all folded to the left of the needle hidden where I could not see it. Instead of marking the line with chalk, I used my edge joining foot just to the edge of the tape fold, moved my needle one notch to the right, and I used a sharp stiletto to feel along the edge of the tape and slowly drag it ahead of the needle so I could see where the edge joining foot needed to follow. It kind of made a pressing line, too, so it was easy to see where to go. At any rate, I have a perfectly matched quilt back, which I am very proud of and would not have been able to do half as well if it hadn't been for all of the wonderful ladies on this forum. Thank you so much! Pat

Glad to help, Pat! I had never done it before either, but was pleased with how it worked. However, I still think I like the glue method better.

Margo, you are an angel. Thank you so much for posting this visual demonstration with tape. I couldn't understand it till I saw it demonstrated in the photos. The first one I did with pins, and it was pretty good, I must admit, but I'm going to try it with the tape on the other side. Thanks again! Pat

Margo--You ROCK!!!!!

Ask and ye shall receive! Annis, I just added some photos to the Webshots album showing the tape method. I had never done it this way before, but it worked fine. You just have to be careful not to stitch through the fold of the tape. Try both methods and see what works best for you!!

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/578005874AcmbgY

You said easily and I told you to use all of those straight pins! It looks like Ritzy's method is the favorite. I just tried an 18" piece with the blue painter's tape and it worked great for me. I still used some pins in the seam but not near as many and was able to skip the pins on the top when matching. Thanks, Betty Ann, for the tip. I used 1" painter's tape but any width would probably work, and placed it on the front side after matching the design by just rolling the tape down a section at a time so the design wouldn't shift. Then I pinned the seam on the inside before folding the tape over. When sewing the seam be careful to stay in the fold so the tape won't get caught in the stitches. Maybe Margo could do a tutorial for you on that technique too.

Betty, I am curious where the painter's tape would go if you look at the pictures from Margo. Couldn't figure out where to put it so I wouldn't sew over it and it would hold the seam. Thanks for enlightening this old girl. Pat

OK, folks! I made a photo tute in a Webshots album to demonstrate this technique. There is text below each photo explaining what I did, (you may need to scroll down to see it) and you can select the "NEXT" photo at the upper tight side of the screen. Hope that helps!

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/578005874AcmbgY

eileenkny wrote: Of course! Hope it will be helpful.

Nancy, I think that Elizabeth's technique is fine for small pieces, but for quilt backs I much prefer the technique that Ritzy described. It is foolproof! In fact, I used it today to piece together some scraps so that I could do a "fussy cut" block. It works great!

Check out Elizabeth Hartman's tutorial with photos on how to correct a cutting mishap at http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2009/03/quiltalong-5-recovering-from-a-cutting-mishap.html. It addresses matching designs.

I've never heard of this before :shock: Ritzy, is it okay if I share this with my clients?

Thanks so much, everyone! I am going to try all of the ideas and see which one works for me. Alex, I think it is your beautiful blue and white fabric with flowers that I picked up a couple of years ago, if I'm not mistaken. And I want all of those flowers going across just right so I don't ruin your lovely design. Pat