The meaning of "scant"!

Not being a patch worker, who am I kidding, the concept of the 1/4 inch seam was new to me. So. Most of my early work featured dress maker's seams with the resulting bulky outcome! Now I have been educated, I know that for patchwork the scant 1/4 inch seam is the aim, but what does scant mean! Surely a 1/4 inch is just that or it should be.

So I have measured and sewn 1/4 inch seams but just can't get that precision I crave. Does it matter if the points don't meet or the block ends up at 121/4 instead of 121/2. Not really, except,if you get a bee in your bonnet about it, as I undoubtedly have, well, yes it does!

I have measured the space on my needle plate between the needle and the edge of the seam, marked it with masking tape, sticky notes and anything else that makes a line. I've used a patchwork foot, with and without a guide. In every case, the seams appear to measure exactly 1/4 inch, but the blocks don't end up the right size.

So rapidly running out of patience, I do a google search. There are videos on u-tube, blogs, all sorts of information, but none seemed to be of any real use. Then I found this

The perfect piecing seam guide! Bingo! The ruler fits on the needle plate and you position it so that the needle goes down through the little hole. Then you put the presser foot down so it can't move and put tape or sticky notes along the edge!

Now measure the seam using the guide and it is not quite 1/4 inch. So there you have it. I would like to think that I can now make blocks that turn out the size they should be, but already I'm beginning to lose interest and turn to art once more when it really doesn't matter how you put things together!

But by way of displacement activity and before embarking on the art ,  I made these.

 Not perfect, but an improvement.  The way the fabrics are placed makes it look as if the lighter fabric is placed over the darker to create a transparent effect.

At last I'm beginning to understand the concept of "The Modern Quilt". So much so that I've signed up for the Skill Builder Block of the Month so I'm going to be busy. I've completed the first two blocks and although the seams are a bit variable, I think I may have cracked the 1/4 inch problem at last.

Art is taking a back seat at the moment in favour of wallpaper stripping and undergrowth clearance at our lovely new home.

We won't be moving in for a while, but until we do, we can always look at this which is only minutes away!

Aah!