I agree with Practice Practice Practice..... but if you are too impatient as I am & can't stay on the line when backstitching remember this very good advice from a very experienced quilter friend of mine. "Don't worry about it, once you wash the quilt & it crinkles up, no one will notice." And she's right. We are our own worst critics.
That being said, if you are going to enter a quilt in a show, make sure you pick a quilting design that doesn't go back over any of the other quilting you've done, at least until you are a more accurate quilter & can figure out where your needle is going to stitch. Practice following previous stitching, whether going backwards or forwards, on all your utility quilts.
I am a beginner (only did 8 quilts so far) & I am learning really fast that most people (family & friends) are not going to look at the quilt nearly as closely as you will & what you see as a sewing or quilting flaw, they either don't notice or think you did it on purpose to make the quilting interesting. I tend to use contrasting thread for the quilting (really shouldn't because I am not very good, but love the effect) and all my errors show up really bad. No one cares! They love the quilts anyway. I've been told to have fun with the quilting & the accuracy will come. Hope so!
Last edited by Barb in Louisiana; 09-24-2012 at 04:30 AM.