aashley333

I had to google Beth Dutton Quilt! I guess I am really not up to date on trends. Not really a follower. I am more...out of the box. The process that does not matter much to me is mitered corners. I just Get-R-Done! Actually, not much matters to me, as long as I am satisfied. I do like my quilts to be squared! My first kaleidoscope quilt ended up unsquared, off kilter. Well, when I drew it on graph paper, it was not squared! So, yeah, I redesigned it.
Binding- is new to me because I used to extend the top layer in order to fold to the back and stitch as binding. Now that I create binding strips, I am ok with the backside not being perfect, as long as the quilt is bound.

LGJARN52

For piecing I still use more off white than anything else because the majority of my fabric is light to medium color. Still, I have spools of camel, tan, beige, lt. blue, pink and gray that are used mostly for the actual quilting. If my adjoining seams are off a 1/16" or 1/8" I will try to adjust that only once. I'm far from perfect, and believe that every quilt should have a small mistake in it somewhere. The thing that bothers me is not back stitching at the end of a seam and then have it pull apart when the block is trimmed. Can't tell you how much time I spent on my latest quilt repairing pulled apart seams.
Oh, and I'm never up on the latest patterns and stay far away from those that seems complicated to me as my brain just won't wrap around those. The most current pattern from a couple years ago was the potato chip quilt and I did use scraps to make one, but have yet to quilt it.

cashs_mom

I agree, Bear. Lots of things that used to seem to important to me, now aren't.

I used gray, taupe, off white or whatever for piecing. I recently found some off white aurifil on sale so that will probably be my piecing thread.

In my younger days, I used to "match" fabric by standing on the table and pulling fabrics from the boxes on shelves on the wall and dropping it on the table or floor. I found that fabrics look different from even 5' away. Since that's how most people see things, it works well. Now I also use my camera to see things from far away.

I'm also don't feel that following instructions is that important. I learned when I did a lot of garments that there are often better ways to accomplish the same thing than the instructions. But then, as I've gotten older, I've found that I feel much freer to do things my way than the "right" way.

As far as matching intersections and points, I'm good with being close. Exact doesn't always matter, but the intersections have to be close. I don't like points getting cut off, but have ignored a tiny bit on occasion.

Snooze2978

I've never thought about matching thread when piecing. If it's mostly dark fabrics, I'll go with a dark grey or black. If it's mostly light fabrics, I'll go with a cream or white. Then my go to thread is a medium grey thread.

For quilting as I don't consider myself an expert or if my tension will always be perfect, I'll use the same color thread on top and bottom. I tend to like seeing the patterns on the back side in the various colors anyway and I feel it adds character to the backside as well as the front side. Right now I'm using 4 different threads on this Alliitaire quilt top I'm custom quilting for my sister as she decided she wanted it once she saw it so many years ago when I made it. She's loving that she can see the various thread colors on the backside. Yes, I know this quilt top was made say 10 years ago and I'm just finally getting around to quilting it. THink it's the oldest UFO I have hanging around too so I am making headway on my UFOs.

peaceandjoy

Re thread: My preference is Aurifil. I have several spools of a sort of peachy tan that i got on clearance a few years ago. Still strong, no problem there. But the color... While I used to love CW and darker fabrics, I've shifted to brighter, more vibrant colors - so this thread has languished.

The cones I got last summer at $34 are now $48, and I just found that Aurifil will raise their prices 25% in October. Yikes! I think I'm going to bite the bullet and just use the color I have. Rarely does stitching show. Gylene Fitzgerald said, in a class I took, that people used to have black and white thread, and they used those two colors for everything. I need to use the peachy tan.

Onebyone

My neighbor bought a box of stuff at auction. In it was a box of 12 spools of Aurifil thread. All bright red. He gave it to me. I used it for piecing everything but pale or white fabric. Couldn't see the red thread at all once sewn. It was rather fun to sit down to a bright red spool of thread on the machine. I was told never to piece black with black thread. Use a dark green or brown so the stiches can be seen to be picked out if needed.

WMUTeach

I inherited a stash oh, 20 plus years ago. Lots of thread because the quilter used different colors in her marvelous quilts. During COVID, I just started grabbing thread and using it to clean out the "thread stash". It worked, I emptied many, many spools. I filled a two quart mason jar with spools in double quick time. Now, I have slowed down on the number of quilts I do, but I still use odds and ends from my own stash or that I snatch from give-away tables, mostly Gutermann and occasionally an Aurifil. I also have a quilting friend who uses cones of thread when long-arming. From time to time she will have a cone that is just not enough to finish a quilt and in a color she doesn't care for, cream, so..... she gives the cones to me and I use them for bobbin thread. What a blessing!

I may be a confident intermediate quilter but I still struggle with some of the common skills of a beginner like sharp points and crisp matching corners. I am still working on those and getting more and more proficient. I want to continue to grow as a quilter and those two areas are what I have chosen to focus on. Others of you are following your own choices and that is what makes use better quilters. Right?