oksewglad

To Tish05: Don't worry, accuracy will come with time. Just this week I quilted a UFO from the early 90's. Although not really bad piecing, I did use 1/2" seam allowances when I pieced the blocks together. If I recall I was pleased with how the quilt came together. Have I ever come a long way over time! It is so refreshing to find this piece and see how my skills have improved. I've used the same attitude on LA quilting. I started about 18 months ago and notice improvement with each quilt and at the same time realize I can get better...someday I will do feathers! So keep at it and remember the only quilt police out there is the one you impose upon yourself.

BonnieJP

I too quilt for myself and as gifts for family/friends and charities. Everyone I have given a quilt to has loved it. I don't enter shows because I enjoy the hobby and don't need/want anyone judging and potentially ruining my joy of quilting. When I retired from my career, I also retired from all the years of being judged throughout my school and career years.

gillyo

I'm one of those people who can't stand a picture that's crooked on a wall, so something "off" in one of my quilts drives me crazy.

I've been quilting for 44 years so I've learned a lot. One of the things I had to accept is that perfect intersections aren't easy, particularly by machine and when cut to template size.

Accuracy is hard to achieve when you are working within very tight parameters. 1/4" seams leave very little room for error. So years ago I started adding an additional quarter inch to my templates. I still sew the 1/4" seam, then I trim to the correct size. I use a gridded ruler to make sure everything is square. When my pieced sections are squared I baste a stitch or two at intersections before sewing. Then I stitch them together with 1/4" seams, and check for square again. I always make extra pieces so if something is off I have another piece to use.

This takes extra time but is the only way I've found that works well consistently. It took a lot of years to figure this out so if you're still struggling keep trying and you'll get there. It takes a lot of patience to get it right but taking the extra time does pay off.

DJ

I just do the best I can with what I've got …

Pudge

I feel like I've won the lottery when I measure a completed quilt or table runner and discover the finished dimensions are those shown in the pattern. Yes! I did it! And 4 years ago, it would have been a different story. Accuracy and precision is important to me. Unfortunately, I stink at choosing fabrics that go well together which is a real bummer. All the accuracy in the world doesn't help if the finished product is "blah". So I'm working on color and value now.

sewingpup

Hi all, umm.....perfection is the question.....well after several years....I am a believer in done is good! I can't achieve perfection....but I am getting better.....the primary question I ask is why am I making this....the answer for the most part...cuz it is fun....it is my hobby. a secondary answer is to make something useful. In general, I make utility things...that get used. I have made a few "art quilted items" but that is not my passion. so....when making something that is difficult and I am not reaching perfection....I go back to my base question...."am I having fun?" I don't really get much enjoyment out of remaking, re-stitching, something a lot....so in general, I have a rule...3 tries and it stays. I also compare my peicing and quilting with myself only...years ago...I think my points were fairly decent about 30% of the time....on a recent project...I thought...yikes most of my points are pretty good! I like to tell my critics...you can choose to look at my good points or the bad...whatever you chose...it is not my problem. I do the same thing with my lawn...I don't use chemicals nor do I weed a lot. so...I tell them...you can choose to look at the weeds or the flowers....your choice. or another good choice is to call the weeds flowers...they are pretty! I love the bright cheery dandilions that spring up in my yard as the first bright flowers after a long cold winter....I have started a champaign for dandilion appriaciation...please join in tee hee...Lin

oksewglad

What techniques are you using to work on color and value? When I first started working with fabric, "collections" of fabrics were limited to just a few different fabrics. With the use of jelly rolls, layer cakes, and charm packs the work is done for you, which has it's advantages, but doesn't help one to learn how to mix and match fabrics. I know I learned a great deal when doing controlled scrappy blocks. A nine patch, hole in the barn door, or shoo fly are good examples of blocks to use. Make several like blocks using your scraps to get a feel of coordinating fabrics within a block...mix up your fabrics and don't take from the same collections. Then sort your blocks to see which ones fit with each other. However you work on color and value have fun with it!

bearisgray

When I started out, I was super matchy-matchy - down to the last 1/8 inch dot in a tiny print. Some of the results were so-so - being charitable!

The book that really helped me was Jinny Beyer's Color Confidence for Quilters. Her "bridging" of colors was so eye-opening to/for me.

I also learned to stand several feet away from a group of fabrics to see how they looked together. Sometimes the over-all look of the fabrics might be different than when looking at them from a distance of 18 inches.

Another tip - that I learned from this group - take a picture - somehow things seem to show up in a photo that are missed by just looking at them. (Wonder why that is?)

Also - "in" colors come and go - make what you like - "quiet and subdued" can be as interesting (to a careful observer) as "loud and bright and popping"

patricej

two excellent philosophies.

weeds are free, so if they produce flowers i usually leave them alone.

MeadowMist

I've made 20 or so quilts and am still waiting for things to be "accurate." In fact, I'm just coming back to quilting after taking a vacation from it for a year or so. One of the reasons I stopped is because of all the little inaccuracies in my work, knowing I'm still having the same problems after 20 quilts is very frustrating. I go slow, I measure everything twice, I'm careful, I have the correct tools, I watch youtube, yet things are still wonky, my seams are off a hair or 5 here and there which at the end of a row makes a difference.

Last week I watched several youtube videos on making quarter square triangles. I followed the directions to a tee. Yet in the end just about every one was wonky and now I am doing the daunting task of cutting every square down to 3" because 3 1/4" wasn't working and even with this I'm finding some of the squares are short by a sixteenth of an inch or so. And I know when I finally get the pinwheels together, even at that point after all my careful measuring, things will be wonky again. By the end of a quilt I'm usually so fed up with my crooked lines and borders I want to throw the whole quilt in the attic. From a distance things looks fine, especially after washing it when things seem to fluff up a little and inaccuracies are hidden but if it were to be judged, I'd be doomed.