You make a good point about knowing now what she was trying to teach you. But, making a student rip it out over and over is just frustrating. Maybe working on scraps to teach 1/4" seams would have been better. And you are absolutely right about learning to iron properly. My neigbhor (and quilting buddy) always kids me about being a perfectionist but I figure if I'm going to spend all this time making a quilt, I want it to be the best I can make.
Mistakes?? I make tons of them but my favorite quilt instructor (who moved her shop to IN) always used 2 suggestions for dealing with mistakes --
1 - Can you live with it? If you can, don't worry about. If you can't, fix it.
2 - Can you see it from 5 feet away? If you can, refer to rule #1....If you can't see it don't worry about it.
This has made my quilting life so much easier.
Originally Posted by
KyKaren1949
In my beginner quilting class, I had a very strict teacher. She was kind and she was funny, but she was strict about the basics of quilting. She told us over and over again that we needed to learn to do things right. She always explained how important accuracy was if we wanted our projects to turn out correctly.
I grew very frustrated with the 1/4" perfectionism quickly too. Her being adamant about "how to press" and "when to press" and which "side you press" about drove me nuts. I have never been a perfectionist and knew I'd never change into one. I left at the end with mixed emotions about her.
Well, that was three years ago. I was in a quilt guild with her for awhile and liked her very much. After three years of making my share of mistakes and realizing that what she said was right, I would now have to admit that I am so glad she was a perfectionist because I now know how to find what I did wrong to fix my mistakes. I now know that if I take the time to be more careful, I am more likely to have an end product that is well-made and that I'm proud of. She was strict with us because she cared enough to want us to learn the "correct" way to quilt. I'm still probably not as "perfect" as I wish I could be, but I do remember what she taught me and am grateful that I know the best way to be happy with my quilting.
By the way, the final night of class, she brought many of her own quilts and wall-hangings to class to share with us. I had to fight laughing and pointing at some of the mistakes I saw in her quilts. Not all of her points were perfect either! That made me feel normal!!