Originally Posted by Mandy Keating
CARLA!!
I agree with you wholeheartedly! I am terrified of messing up months of my patchwork, designing, etc. with messed-up quilting that I either:
1. leave the quilt as a top
2. do VERY basic hand-quilting (so I have a chance of finishing it some day
3. tie the quilt (which makes some people feel the need to tell me that my finished product is not in fact a "real" quilt-- meanies!), or
4. acutally mess it up trying to feed it through my machine!
I would really love to try FMQ and other machine-quilting techniques, but I am so worried to mess something up, or have my Kenmore machine laughed at by the Pfaffers at my local quilt shop.
*sigh* :shock:
Mandy,
Please, please, please: 1. Do not be afraid to try... Make a quilt sandwich with just plain muslin if you need to, but allow yourself the chance to at least try... It is a lot of fun; and 2. Do not be ashamed of your sewing machine or your sewing capabilities... I do not know of one single person born into this world with a Bernina under their arm, and not everyone owns one (including me). If we all owned one there would be no machines made by Kenmore, Brother, Singer, Elna, Viking, and so on and forth. Most people buy what they can, but "what you can" is a relative term, and not totally based on what you can financially afford. ("Can" includes- CAN find, CAN get this one with these features I want, CAN get this one because it is a super work horse, Can get this one because of portability, CAN get this one to fit in my sewing cabinet... Getting any of this?? :wink: ) If people are so shallow that they base their decisions about you based on your sewing machine name brand and age, they are SNOBS and do not deserve to have you waste your time on THEM! Now, no more shame in your game; it makes you doubt your skills and abilities and impedes your learning process. Be proud of yourself and accomplishments. A sewing machine is only a tool to help us reach our goal sooner. :D