Battle Axe

If I can do something fine, but if not, I find someone who can do a better job than me and I hire them to do it.

I study it and watch others do it, then if I discover that my hands are so swollen, that I can't thread a needle, even with the help of a needle threader, then I take it down to the neighbor and pay her to do it. Her hands will swell one day just like mine.

LanieLady

To me, the beauty and charm of a handmade quilt is its human imperfections. Store bought quilts are much closer to perfect. They are also much cheaper as well, but they are no where near as special or as beautiful as a handmade quilt. After all, when did you last hear of a store bought quilt being saved with the intention of passing it down as an heirloom?

MeadowMist

I love this thread because I can so relate to it. Despite cutting so very carefully and measuring everything 2-3-4 times my seams still don't match up and my points are off and I can't stitch in a ditch to save my life. By the time I get to the end of the quilt I'm ready to give up and just want to be done with it. I still can't figure out why when I put 5 carefully cut 4x4 squares next to each other they are all different sizes, each off by a 1/16"or 1/8" or so.

Yet I love to quilt so I keep on going. I love picking out the fabric, finding a pattern, seeing how everything falls into place when the squares join one another to make larger squares. And when it's all put together and put on top of the bed or wrapped around someone on a cold winter's night the little imperfections aren't noticeable. In fact, I can see many places where I have perfect points. I'm nowhere confident enough to make a quilt as a gift but have made table toppers and other items as gifts.

quiltingshorttimer

Wait! You mean they are suppose to be perfect? I've been quilting for 10+ years and have to say that my friends rib me for my willingness to accept some less than perfect piecing. But I have to feel that each quilt taught me something or I'd probably quit quiting. If you enjoy the quilt it's easier to finish.

KarenShu

Reading through all your replies has so cheered me up. It's nice to know i'm not alone.

It's been a rough week, my husband's best friend died Thursday from Cancer. A few months back I made him a simple jelly roll race quilt with no borders just to keep him warm. He and his wife both said they loved it...it really made me feel good. On a recent visit to see him they were using it so that also made me feel really good.

You are all wonderful and I thank you for your kind thoughts!

Claire123

I've found sometimes it's in the pressing.

Other times the pattern instructions aren't the best.

Onebyone

I have used creative sewing a lot. In fact in my last quilt my binding was wavy. My quilt was square but for some reason the binding wasn't. A slight variation in the stitch width of the binding can make it wavy. I didn't rip it off. I sewed another on top of it following a drawn line exactly where I wanted the edge of the binding to be sewn down.. The binding now is full and straight.

Grandma’sgirl

Oh my. I could say so much about this topic. I think many people could. But the idea that things need to be perfect is so sabotaging. Yes, I appreciate perfect points. Yes, I have ripped out seams to get it right. And my family thinks that I am nuts for doing so. They tell me, and probably rightly so, that no one will notice. And if they do notice, they will not care. They will care about the fact that they got a quilt from someone who cares about them. They will care about the warmth and comfort. My grandmother, who came from a very extensive quilting background and had family members with all sorts of amazing quilting skills, decided later on that she was sticking with four patch and nine patch. She made amazing quilts from those. And us grandkids still treasure them and looked forward to receiving them. She said that she was sick of perfect everything. She had got so stressed out about perfect points that the fun was lost. And she well knew the value of warmth and comfort as she lived in Michigan.she said that there was little use in making a quilt that people were afraid to sit on when it was on the bed. She also would have been surprised to see quilts hung on the wall. They were practical. They were functional. They were also beautiful. The stress we put on ourselves, and the quilt police do great damage. They prevent us from making quilts and destroy joy.

it was these kind of ideas that kept me from diving into this craft when I was younger. What if it wasn’t perf, or even good? I think that quilting can draw those of us who are perfectionists because there is so much preciseness involved in the art of quilting. But it should not be allowed to steal the joy. Most of us do our honest best. Enjoy the process.

ibex94

I am sorry for your loss KarenShu.

As I have never actually gone beyond flimsey stage, I cannot say if my quilts will be the right size....I love piecing blocks and I love buying fabric. Haven't gotten much further, lol. Based on what I read on this thread, I better buy more seam rippers.

JanieW

This whole thread is really interesting to me and illustrates how many different approaches there are to our quilting. I’ve been quilting a long time. While I don’t strive for perfection cause that ain’t happening, I do want it to be the best I can make. I get my joy when the seams match and my points are pointy. I have learned to recognize when something has to be good enough and move on with it but it doesn’t make me as happy as when I am successful with the quilt going together properly.