My sister-in-law is learning how to quilt. She went to her LQS (she lives in Albuquerque) and signed up for a class. The teachers are uber-perfectionists, to the point where if your seam isn't a perfect 1/4", you have to rip it out. Her machine is doing a fat 1/4" (which I told her not to worry too much, since all of her pieces will be a tad shorter, so it evens out), but they freaked out and told her it's awful. UGH!! It really bugs me since that is not how you teach new students! At my LQSs (in Tucson), they were always super nice. They explained how to adjust to get the right seam and ways to pin for accurate points but would never make you tear something out because it wasn't perfect (though I did have to tear out once because I sewed too far in and it threw off the block, but that was a construction issue, not a seam issue). And looking back at my first quilts, they were okay but not great (which is expected) and I DIDN'T GET DISCOURAGED SINCE I HAD KIND TEACHERS. I've repeatedly told her to not get discouraged or worry and such. It's just really bugging me, since that's such a bad way to teach anything. But especially something where it's practice makes perfect.
