Which do you do?
 

When you see a new technique or method of doing something -

Do you "keep on doing what you've been doing"? or give the new method a try?

Some examples:

How to treat fabrics that bleed -
Starching or not starching -
Using glue or not using glue -

Do you do (or not do) whatever because "that's the way you were taught"? or "that's how Mom did it"? or from trying different methods/techniques and then deciding which works better for you?

Sometimes the way we were taught IS "the best way" - but not always -

How hard is it for you to try new methods and allow yourself to be objective about the results? (After factoring in the learning curve)

Or if someone says - blah blah blah - do you do an experiment to see if it is so? or if it just sounds good? (Or wonder if that someone has actually done "tests" to verify his/her statements?)

I try them any new method if it's not a lot more steps because I'm sure to miss a new step in a new method. The results can be good or bad. I always use scrap fabric. May be a pre-use method or type of stitching or safety method. It has to make the process easier or better for the overall end effect. We must remember every situation is different especially where we are located. I use bottled water instead of our tap. It just has so many deposits in it that build up quickly. I use distilled for my irons and anything to do with fabric. Bottled drinking for cooking, anything going into the body. Often I use new methods and forget and go back to the old.

I sometimes try a new idea but I just can't see using glue in basting. THAT I will NEVER try.

I always try the new method. I don't see why anyone would not try before dismissing anything new.

Like Onebyone, I will give a new technique a try. Sometimes it works better and I keep using it, and sometimes it doesn't work better and I go back to my old method.

Pam

Like Onebyone, I always try a new method -- but like Tessagin, I often forget and go back to the old method, even if the new method was easier or more accurate. Some new-to-me methods I've tried and continue using are glue basting, freezer paper piecing, Deb Tucker's flying geese rulers, and using glue for hard to match seams.

I like to try new methods, as long as they don't require me to purchase expensive new rulers. I plan on trying glue basting once I've used up my supply of 505 spray

I threw out the rule book a long time ago. I experiment!

New ways to sew a block ......I will usually try....sometimes it is better, sometimes seems more complicated...I make a mental note.....still use pins to hold seams, not glue.....but my weakness is templates.......will buy, if it makes something interesting...EX: F&P whirling pinwheel and pixie wings are my latest crazy purchase!

I try anything new if I think it might work. I follow Marti Michell's way of checking fabrics for bleeding and so far, it works for me too. I have tried the starching method and sometimes I use it but mostly I do not. I have tried the glue and loved it for piecing a quilt once and decided I will use it again. I read about appliquing for a drunkard path quilt and decided not to do it, I would just stitch it on machine. Some things are ok and some aren't. I tried making some quilts out of little pieces of fabric following a famous designers patterns and they aren't for me at all. I am even going to sell her books, I dislike them so much. So I guess I am very open to trying things and if it doesn't work for me, then I go in another direction. I do not let the experimentation cut into my quilting time though.