Afraid to Fail or Afraid to Try?
 

What part of the quilting process intimidates you? Do you have a block learning new techniques? Do past failures limit you to new experiences?

That voice that limits creativity does run around in my head sometimes. I have to tell it to go away as I really do enjoy learning new techniques or features on my machines. Even if I'm not "that" successful, I am learning.

Are you excited to try or afraid to fail?

The biggest fear I had was that I would not be as good as folks who have been doing this for years and do wonderful work....I keep thinking, well I will never be that good.....once I figured out that I needed to start where I was and do the best I could....and that was what was important....and now I just accept, I probably will never be as good as those prize winning quilters but when I look at what I am doing now and where I was when I first started, I get warm fuzzies....cuz I have improved....and I also found out what is important to me and why I quilt......I do not get much pleasure in hanging a art quilt on the wall.....my heart lies in making quilts to keep myself and other people warm.....and as my brother told once...."I don't care what your quilts look like....they are wonderful to sleep under".....so that is my goal...to make quilts people can wrap around themselves ......I think most of use fall more to utility quilts and their are others who do the "art quilt" thing....and it all is good....pretty things are nice to look at too....OH....and by all means.....do save the those first "somethings" you make.....take them out sometime in the future....you will be amazed at the feelings they bring up and hopefully how much you have improved....I get warm fuzzies in my heart when I look at my first very crooked, oddly quilted first bed sized quilt.

Sewingpup, Wise words from your brother. Love your story!

Tartan, Bigger is better in my view too. Make the quilts that make you happy!

I don't call it "failing", I call it "first try" and become more determined to conquer it! Usually works with computer look-ups. Worth the feeling of pleasure and pride it brings!

My biggest hurdle in quilting has been getting better at machine quilting. I don't know why it's so hard for me but it is. I started this journey as a hand quilter but that is so time consuming and I need to find a way to finish my quilts faster. This year, though, I am finally getting better. I've designated more time to really practice. So maybe the future will be more fruitful with it :)
PS. Sometimes I think I'm just not ever going to get it but then I tell myself to shut up and go practice!

I just finished a double bed quilt for my cousin and while I did quilt the whole thing I don't think it looks so good. However, she knows nothing about quilting and I expect when I wash it the mistakes won't show as much. A little story- she asked me to make her a quilt and she would love it forever. Well shortly afterward my baby granddaughter arrived. I've been sewing like crazy for the baby. I think my cousin thinks I forgot about it but I didn't. I'm really excited to give it to her for Christmas.

If I like it I will try it, if I try it and don’t like it, then at least I will know and I will move on to the next challenge. What intimidates me the most is my Longarm, I hope we become besties by this time next year.

Of course I love how many of my quilts have evolved over the years. I love to pull out one of those first and just look at it.
I do get intimidated with some new techniques. Right now I am working up the courage to try my hands at ruler work. I am sure I will be able to do this I just have to get passed the fear of failure. I have good instruction and some wonderful rulers to work with now to just get over the fear. I am getting closer. And I do not expect it to be perfect.

I guess I've never been very judging on stuff that I make--(or others either)--I look at each project as "what am I going to learn on this project" and the learning process is what's important. do I desire to get better? You bet! I always strive to improve my piecing as I get impatient and sloppy sometimes, sometimes with better results.

I like trying out new techniques, new methods, new tools. I am not in the camp of “I was taught to always (fill in the blank). I am not afraid of new things. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. But I have fun trying.

I too have learned to try a new block or technique using scraps. I hate wasting good fabric on things that don't work, need tweeking or that I don't enjoy doing. I am drawn to scraps--using up what someone else would probably toss out. Maybe it's in my blood--both my parents lived thru the dirty 30's--or maybe it's my small way of reducing waste in my home. Scraps make me work my brain and I think that is a good thing.

Free motion quilting scares me to death. Just started TODAY and I know it's a huge learning curve but OMG. Just have to keep at it I guess. I wonder if you have to have some artistic "eye" and coordination to be a good FM quilter and I'm afraid I may have neither. Everyone here says practice practice practice but it is hard for me. I found my CDs for quilting motifs and maybe soon this will help me.

I'm better than some and some are better than me. So what? I quilt for myself. If it doesn't get finished, oh well, I enjoyed what I did.
Then there's comfort quilts. My goals are to use up stash and give something someone will like. Leaves the field pretty wide open. Some are way out there. A friend said she liked quilting mine because they are so different.

Amen!

I’m pretty fearless in quilting and will attempt anything, Then, I turn on my tenaciousness and keep at it until I am satisfied. But, honestly, quilting is one of those crafts that continues to reflect growth in skills the more you do it. My goal is to reach the level of perfectly imperfect.

Free-motion is still a struggle. But i can't give up! I'm a working girl, so I don't have time to practice until I get good at it. I can't get the design even, and I can't end and begin without a mess. I do a little better when I use stencils, then free-motion on the lines. And background fills are easier than borders, block designs or edge to edge. Pantographs are a good way to go free-motion, but far from perfect for me.

When rulers first came out, I thought, "that looks pretty lame." But I love my rulers, so much!

I always try to improve. My worst problem is getting in a hurry to finish. I am working very hard on slowing down and it is really working. When I look at some of my early work I know I am improving but I still love those early attempts. Last year I made “Circa 1800” by Pam Buda......many tiny pieces. It was a lot of work and I am glad I made it but I don’t want to do anything that intense again. I learned a lot making it and I definitely improved. But I will stick to 1930’s and Civil War that I really love best.

Julieasb...I too wanted do machine quilting and ruler work. I could do SITD with a special foot, and straight lines using painter's tape. But for special quilts I went to the best longarmer. Took a ruler class at my LQS but my lines were so wonky. Bought two more rulers and played around...not much better. Took a free rulers class, TWICE from different LQSs during pandemic, bought another starter set of rulers and a cross marker tool, and voila! By the third class, enough tips were shared that all made sense and I quilted 40 flannel squares. Now some look great on the front, others look great on the back, most are a bit wonky but overall they give me the confidence to continue. ( I used a row by row quilt as you go technique so I didn't have too much on the table at a time.) As others said, I make utility quilts and while I love the colors that add to a room's ambiance, they are for warmth. So, don't be afraid to try something, but DO get help and instruction however you can...and give your quilts with love.

I will try anything once. SID was the only way I taught myself. I literally started sewing squares together for my first quilt. Now, everything I do is a new skill to hone. I highly recommend retirement!

The one part of quilting that scares the socks off me if fancy intricate custom quilting such as feathers. I desire that kind of work to look good, really good. I hear the crowds saying practice, practice, practice but honestly In the greater scheme of things I don't have time to put in 20 years of practice to be perfect.

My calling now is to use my stash, make quilts to bless people with warmth and the comfort that the quilt was made for them. I view each quilt is a long term demonstration of a hug. My quilts look good and occasionally I will have one quilted by a friend with a long arm machine but only a couple a year. I have been able to produce more lovely quilts this year than ever in the past because of no longer teaching and Covid-19 keeping us away from other wonderful distractions. That is my satisfaction.

I avoid most quilts with teeny tiny pieces and leave them to others to do. Yes, they scare me and yes, it is my choice to say "no thank you". There are so may other patterns that intrigue me and over my quilting history I see that I am digging deeper, learning new skills, taking new chances and improving little things like good points, color choices, exact seams and cutting and having fun creating and giving them away.

I learned at a young age to have not fear and be brave. I was the youngest in a group of kids in my neighborhood, so I had to learn fast. However, none of them ever did free motion quilting, so that is where I fall behind. I don't want to mess up a perfectly fine quilt with my bad, FMQ technique. I've learned to get around it with my projects, but I would still like to be better at it.

My biggest fear is that even if I love the quilt I just made-I am afraid others will not like it. Don't ask me why but I really don't have too much confidence in myself I guess. I love to make quilts and I know that my family members enjoy them so that is all that really counts.

well my thought is no quilt is going to be liked by everyone. Even award winning quilts don’t have universal love.

There are things that I have had to wait until I felt I had the skill to do, but I worked up my skills until I could. Sadly as my skills raised so did my standard, but at the same time my vision isn't doing so well and I think my best work is behind me now but there is still quite a bit of quilting left in me.

I've been working quite a bit in the last couple of years with more improvisational types of quilting, or at least things that aren't so precise.

When I was young my boyfriend was a photographer and I really understood the photo-shoots betters. They have a bunch of stuff set up and then take hundreds, thousands of pictures to get the one cover shot. No wonder my snap shots in real time looked crummy in comparison. Painters often do the same basic scene many times to get just the right one.

The nice thing about being quilters is we aren't always going to get our perfection of design -- but we can always get a warm blanket in the end :)

And at least for me I always learn something while making a quilt. Sometimes it's about the quilt or fabric or design, and often it's more about inner things.

I want to make make something or try something new I do it. I either mess it up or do it right. Still very useable. I tackled a Judy Niemeyer quilt pattern and it was a mess. Nothing fit right after I sewn the pieces. I kept going and now it's on my wall getting a Wow from people that see it. They see the colors and pattern, not the mess ups and fillers I had to use to make it all fit. LOL

My motto (most of the time), is "What's the worst that can happen?"

I try lots of different techniques and have lots of strings to show for them because if they don't turn out, I just cut them into strings and put them in my string drawer to be incorporated into my always-on-going string quilt.

I'm a visual learner...Written patterns confound me so I rarely buy a pattern that doesn't come with videos.

So, to actually answer the question...I'm not afraid to fail nor am I afraid to try...except needle turn applique. I have never tried it and I just can't get myself to even attempt it because I think it would drive me crazy and who needs the aggravation?

Watson

So, to actually answer the question...I'm not afraid to fail nor am I afraid to try...except needle turn applique. I have never tried it and I just can't get myself to even attempt it because I think it would drive me crazy and who needs the aggravation?

I have taken several classes for needle turn. Each instructor has said my way is easy and you can be doing needle turn like a pro. I even took the backstitching needle turn class. I couldn't even do the basting part. LOL
I learned that needle turn applique is a skill I will not have so I did learn something.

I am willing to try new ideas. I took a Judy Niemeyer class and completed a Glacier Star. I enjoyed it, but decided that paper piecing as a regular thing is not for me. I started a Farmer's Wife and bought all the templates, and am still working on them. I don't enjoy using templates, but am not sorry I tried them. I'd rather cut with my rotary cutter. I took a free-motion quilting class, but really don't enjoy that. It's just as well; I have absolutely no space for a longarm anyway. I heard that many of the famous quilters "quilt by check" and decided that what I really enjoy is completing a top and having someone else quilt it for me. I am happy and that is what matters.

From Teach 'it is my choice to say "no thank you".' Yes I give myself permission to not do something. I don't have enough time in my life to do everything, so I pick and choose.

I'm a bit of a 'Have A Go' quilter. As in, I'll have a go at whatever takes my fancy, lol. If it works, great, if not, oh well.

Although saying that, I would never attempt FMQ on a 'proper' quilt top until I was happy that I could do a decent job. That's what practice sandwiches and dog quilts are for!!!

Of course this is how I ended up with multiple UFOs - I bit off more than I could chew at that point in my skill set and had to put it aside until I figured out how to progress. I am gradually working my way through some longstanding UFOs right now and finding it very satisfying to actually finish some off... https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png

I would say that I regard quilting as a hobby, and don't feel any particular pressure that "I should do X, even if it doesn't interest me, because that's what quilters do". So quilting techniques that do not appeal to me are simply passed over without guilt. Same for pattern styles that do not appeal. There is far too much that *does* appeal (and too little time to do it in!) for me to waste time forcing myself to do things I'm not interested in. Again, for me quilting is my hobby - it's supposed to be fun for me, not grinding work. And I am not someone that enjoys being scared. YVMV https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/smile.png

I get excited to try lots of things. It is not always fear or failure that prevents me from trying. If I see a new to me technique that interests me, I usually try to read as much about it as possible. It is often learning more about the technique that helps me determine if it’s for me or not. I love looking at art quilts. I admire the people that make them greatly. I know that art quilting is not for me. I’m just not wired that way.

I’m still relatively early in my quilting journey, so I’m usually willing to try any piecing technique at least once. My problem is more along the lines of seeing so many things I want to try that I can’t focus on one thing to try!

I can’t think of a part of the process that intimidates me now. I have been intimidated by the whole thing when I started. I had never even sewed before my first quilt. I couldn’t sew a straight line for the life of me. I was under the (false) impression that quilts needed to be completed on a long arm due to a misunderstanding on my part. When I learned that I could finish them at home, the process of quilting them scared me. It wasn’t until I found the QB and Angela Walters YouTube videos that I had the confidence to finish even if I did screw up. “Finished is better than perfect.”

Time is the only thing that limits me now. 😊

I've always 'auditioned' new blocks before I decide if I'm going to do a pattern or not. It's a habit that I'm glad I got into because there have been several that I just did not expect to work out and then somehow, the light bulb over my head goes off, I try it again and it's a success.

Taking scraps to find out if you're even going to like the block process or not is something I really believe in. For me, quilting has always been relaxing, fun and meditative, it should never honestly be 'work'. Just in the past year, I've conquered my fear of 'Y' seams and my fear of curves because I worked out whatever issues I had before I made the quilt, just by practicing on scraps. Now my quilting world has opened up to other possibilities and when the time comes to explore those, I'll be a lot more relaxed and comfortable. So I guess I'm excited to try, what's the absolute worse that could happen if I'm working on scraps first?

This is the same way I feel. I'm not afraid to try something new, but if I really can see it's not for me then I give it up.
Is your longarm new to you? Mine is. For me I have to take it slow in order to learn. I have come a long way with it and I do have software that is somewhat intimidating but it doesn't need to stop the learning. I've been so excited to have a longarm. Message me and we can exchange some ideas if you'd like. -Rhonda Lee-