I am so inspired..so wanting to make this work. I cut, I double measure, cut once, pin, press, baste, double check, stay calm..all the things that I have read in blogs, here on this forum and watched on tv..all the tricks of the trade and how-to's...yet still...I can never get everything cut the same size. To small to large and it just is absolutely amazing and mind boggeling that I can cut fabric with the same template, at the same markings and then when I go to sew them together, they are not the same length.

I just finished some placemat tops...3,1/2 squares sewn together to make a 6x 3,1/2" block. Yet the squares were to small once sewn together and didn't fit the strip piece. Or they are to short, or to long. I just don't get it. What am I doing wrong? I can't fix the problem if I can't find it, and I can't find it! I press, spray startch, 100% cotton, measure with templates, use pins, mark seams, use seam gage, press seams open, to the side, and then go to put it all together and this group (like for 1 placemat)_ will go together fine, the next one won't. I rip seams, put back to gether and still...doesn't fit so I have to cut new ones. This time they wil fit. But I even mark the area on my template with masking tape to mark the line to line the fabric up on and do it gently so as not to stretch the fabric... I have lieterally done everything I can think of or have read about..and still...things don't line/match up and I see that I am no Elenor Burns! How do they do that without even using pins!!! I copy what they do...but mine don't come out nice and neat and measured like theirs does.

Does anyone else have this problem and if so...what have you done to try to fix it? Anyone have any tips or tricks to share to help me keep my sanity and stay quilting? I mean, these placemats are just normal size and I made 6 and I am ready to quit! And all over 3,1/2 squares! HELP!!!!