you will of course get better with each project you work on...PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
and as long as you are learning and enjoying that's all that matters...you better believe all those (even famous) quilters making beautiful heirloom quilts have a few tucked away that were (far from) good...we all had to start somewhere.
the very first one (i usually don't acknowledge) was an ABC quilt. i had no idea how to make a quilt...i had an idea, and i had a baby girl and time on my hands...it started with 26 7" white muslin squares which i used a pencil and drew something on each of to depict the letter...and many of my animals are about hilarious! omg...they were terrible. but i embroidered them by hand, stitched them together with blue squares in between and it was UGLY!!! and horrible...that was the winter of 1977... a gentle reminder that there is always room for improvement....( my 34 year old daughter still loves that horrible quilt and i quake when she shows it to anyone)
and as far as not wanting to send your quilts out...go for it...most long arm quilters would not think poorly of you or your quilt and may bring it to life and make it so much better than you ever thought possible.
i used to have a little elderly lady who would bring me a quilt to quilt for her on occassion...she would have 1" or larger seams, threads everwhere, nothing ever squared or corners matching....i don't think she could really see what she was doing, but she was trying to make quilts for her great grandchildren before she died...she said she didn't have anything else to give...most made out of what ever horrible fabrics....but they always turned out quite good when they were quilted...i think i quilted 8 or 9 of them for her before she passed away...and i know a couple of the (kids- adults) who received them and they absolutely love them...so,
remember we are our own worst critics...
a quilting friend once said to me...
if you can't see it from the brooklyn bridge what difference does it make?
when i was whining about how many mistakes i had made on a project...and it's true...no one but you is going to sit down and go over it inch by inch and critique it.(unless of course you are entering it in a show for judging) and most of the errors we make, no one knows but us that it was not intended to be that way. if you can hang your quilt on a wall and stand back 12 feet and like what you see...well that's all that matters...and keep working to improve techniques
Originally Posted by stefanib123
I have made a few quilts now, and I love doing it. But they still aren't near as good as some of the quilts I see on here. I'm learning all the time, and I do see some improvement from one to the next, but that's not saying much when they were crappy to begin with!
Will I ever get "good"? I still cant do good triangle points, and wouldn't dream of tackling a circle!
I have always done my own quiliting, mostly by hand, but I have some bigger quilts in the works, and honestly, I am afraid to send them off to be quilted. I am afraid "they" will think my quilts are too terrible to even quilt!
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: