"ONLY" one sixteenth of an inch ....

You would not think that one sixteenth of an inch would make all that much difference.  It is in many cases just the thickness of a (blunt) pencil.

Yet in quilting it makes a HUGE difference!

This photo shows TWO one inch square reference blocks -
I would have said that they are both the same size, yet the square on the left is just ever so slightly out.



I didn't realise anything was wrong, I measured the block drawing, it was only a little bit out so I concluded it "was not to scale"...





I made up my first block and fussed over the fact it did not sit right. No matter what I did it would not go together!

I blamed everything from my own lack of talent to the 'dodgy' 1/4" seam of my machine -
I re-measured the reference block, I checked my computer - it was set to print at 100% - so what was wrong?

What I didn't know was, when we unplugged the Printer for a day recently it reset the custom settings to "Fit to Page" when it was turned back on.
Apparently it didn't matter what my laptop was programmed to do - the printer ALSO had to be set to 100%.

Here in the pieces that make up the block you can see the subtle difference.
On each piece it is only a 'bees whisker' on the side seams - But the REAL issue was that One Sixteenth of an Inch at the bottom of the fan shaped piece on the right hand side.


Mystery solved and now my pieced 6 1/2 inch blocks are going together like a dream!