Do you mean there's 1/4" of sediment in the bottom, or that the beer itself is cloudy?
A lot of the sediment in the kettle is denatured protein, and that is tough to filter out. I pour through a large wire mesh colander type of thing, it catches a lot of the hop stuff and some of the protein trub. I pour this into a bucket, then I let that sti for a few hours in a cool place and then rack the celear wort off the stuff thats settled out. You can let it settle out in the kettle and carefully rack the clear wort off the top, but I find the skinnier/taller bucket lets me get more wort. I also pour whats left in a pitcher, cover and let it sit overnight in the fridge, then decant what clear wort I can from that. I can usually get another quart or more by doing this. If you don't want to bother thats fine too.
Sounds like you are rushing your beer. Let it sit in primary for two weeks, then things will have settled pretty well and you can bottle without getting so much stuff carrying over.