I started to free motion a quilt and didn't like the way it looked so I sat down and took out all of the stiches. Now I am hand quilting it. Has anyone ever done that before?

I have not done it, but I setting here looking at a quilt I need to pull several rows of stitching out of. I'm putting it off.

YEP! I'm about to do that to a table runner I thought I could do cause it was a small project. I am just not good at that machine quilting stuff. This will give me something to do while we watch TV and they are Christmas presents anyway so I have lots of time.

I've heard of others doing it. I don't do FMQ on a regular machine, so I hven't had that experience. However, I think the people who do FMQ have practiced and practiced and practiced on junk pieces before they do a "real" piece. Just a suggestion, IMHO

I made my first quilting project. A table runner, not straight edges but with points at each end. Was sewing the binding pieces together and 3 times I sewed them together wrong. Luckly I added 10 inches to the binding when I cut them so I had enough to go around the runner. Then the mitered corners frustrated me, so I walked away from it for a couple of hours. I'll finish it later on today.

I think that has happened to most of us :D:D:D

I did just the opposite. I started hand quilting a wall hanging, then decided the hand quilting just didn't fit the design, so I pulled it all out and machine quilted it. The thing that saved me was a hint given by another quilter on this board to use a small metal crochet hook to pull the stitches out with. It worked wonderfully, and I didn't snag any of the fabric. Sometimes ya just gotta listen to the quilt.

I stink at FMQ so I'd only attempt hand quilting, tho' I haven't yet.

Yep! Done before. I like to call it Reverse Sew. It doesn't sound so harsh!

ha ha

Yes, we have all been there a time or two.

I didn't do that but it was almost as bad. I made a queen size quilt, all hand pieced and after if was done I hated it but I loved the fabric and didn't have anymore so.........I ripped the quilt apart each and every block that was made and then I decided what block to make using all the cut fabric pieces and now it will be a picnic quilt. Did I explain this correctly????????

I understood that just fine. A picnic quilt is bettr than no quilt. Next time I think things out a bit becore I do something that stupid. Maybe!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nope, the opposite. I started hand quilting a queen/king size quilt and don't like it, so I will be taking all the hand stitching out and machine quilting it, eventually. :?

Yeah, I've done that. I started a king size quilt, did a terrible job, ripped out all the machine quilting and sent it out to be quilted! Then I thought I'd start with a table runner. I thought I'd quilt around the leaves and flowers in the fabric... I did such a terrible job, I ripped it all out and just did some SID. I need a lot of practice!!!

No!!!! I've never done that and won't. When I learned to machine quilt, I never looked back. Hand quilting is toooo slow, I FMQ all my quilts and love it.

I have one in my sewing room that has stitching in the border I don't like and haven't had the nerve to start removing it. It's a beautiful quilt so I need to make that my next tv watching project.

Yup the quilt I did for my son's wedding (avatar) I thought it would be so much easier to just quilt by machine but it just wasn't going very pretty so I took most of it out and then hand quilted it! It would have been faster to just hand quilt the entire thing! It also would have looked even better!

I had to give up hand quilting but I have ripped entire pieces out, on several occasions more than once. The quilt on my bed and the one for my GD.

Usually now If I have problems, I rip after a row or so. A suggestion, do a small practice piece, say placemat size. Use cotton batting, fabric and thread. Toss in in the washer and dryer and see how it looks. I was amazed at the flaws covered or at least camaflouged by this.

Blessings,

Sharon

I picked out every stitch of my first attempt at fmq. The second attempt was much better. It wasn't so bad picking it out. I didn't mind, but it was a small wall-hanging.

OH everyone that saw it loved it I just hated it. It was a pieced basket quilt with pinks and blues, I had no money to buy fabric and I had a gingham blue and white in my stash so I used that for sashing, the gingham looked to county for the fabric in the baskets. I would never be that stupid again!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't like it to begin with and was using the gingham fabric out of necessity, before that would ever happen again I would rather not make the quilt.

im working on it lol i spent the night with the seam ripper and have to finish today.... i have to quilt it by hand.
i would be embarrassed to pay some1 to quilt my work lol (they see way too many perfect 1s)

I just pulled out a 3/4 finished small quilt that I was stitching in the ditch and didn't like it in the contrast thread. It took 3 hours to pull. As you say, you have plenty of time til Christmas.

I like that - reverse sew - makes it sound like a technique instead of a changed mind or a mistake.

Oh yes, I've done that too... but only because the longarm was acting up. If the quilting isn't to my liking, out it comes. I always hand quilt the "special" quilts, and if that's not up to snuff, I take it out.
If it doesn't do the quilt justice, it shouldn't be there. If I can't take pride in what I've made, I redo it till I can.
And I learned the hard way that if I'm not in the mood to quilt, I shouldn't be doing it as I'll end up reverse sewing it later!

More times than I want to admit.

I learned to piece, applique and quilt by hand. Have 50 years experience or so...doing that..

Now along comes machine work, and I want to learn to be "more productive", but can't get control I get with hand work...so undo, redo.

But as I become more and more disabled, I have to face reality...I won't be productive much longer unless I adapt, and accept limitations on control and points matching, etc.

So should I show you what a few choice friends and I have been doing on Face Book to learn?

And the thoughts in my head are things like, that would be better if she slowed down for more control, or I could do that...and ohhhh I really like that design.

So if you want to do what we are doing for online machine quilting lessons...say the work. I will show you how to get to the first site and then you just follow the "strings of thought" and go with the flow...

yes. the stitches are very hard to remove.

I just unpicked a single line of machine "stitch in the ditch" on a quilt for my grand-daughter. I was in a rush to be done with it to beat a birthday presentation and after just the one line, her quilt screamed "STOP!" I decided this one would be better in the end with Gram`s uneven, but loving stitches. Years from now, those stitches will mean alot more to her than having received the quilt a month sooner. AND I found some variegated thread perfecto mundo for it. The decision was meant to be. Heart motifs, her name embroidered in, little bits of whimsy here and there. I`m a stitcher first and a quilter second so I truly enjoy the extra "work".
I gave her her first "piecing lesson" on this quilt. (She was 9) She and I know which block is HERS, she did very well and nobody else would ever know. I can let her take her first hand quilting stitches on it as well, thus passing on my addiction, I mean a meaningful hobby, to a new generation.

yes,I have the same thing .Last week I FM a quilt for a friend,(took an hour)pulled it all out and hand quilted it(took three days)

I never practiced the first time I looked at some photos of meandering and stippling and said "Okay God lets do this" and I took off. I will say that I am my own worst enemy when it come to critiquing my work but I think I am getting the hang of it now. Maybe in the next 25 or so years I will know what I am doing!

Billy

I don't hand quilt, but yes, I have ripped out many times!

yep i have done that !!

I started hand quilting a double size quilt about 10 ago. Got half way done, had a toddler and put it away since she kept pulling on it. Now a few more children and 10 years later, the batting is all ripped up and my arm cannot handle the hand quilting any longer. I am going to have to take out all that hand quilting. I have just lost heart for it. I don't even have a bed it will fit on any longer. But it is a very pretty heart pattern. I was thinking of selling or trading it. I will pull it out and post pictures one day.

Yes! That's what happened on My Attic Windows. I was trying to stitch in the ditch, but it was too bulky under my machine and I didn't like the way it looked. So I ripped and did the hand quilting.

Give me time, I am sure I will :D God bless. Penny

Up til this lat one I have hand wuilted all my quilts. I like the way it looks after. I can't machine quilt, all I do is make a mess...lol But hand quiltiing is so relaxing and looks so good. Good luck with yours.

Donna

Yup, me too! I am forever taking it out and redoing. That is why it takes me forever. Keep quilting. It is good for the soul.

Been there, done that.

There is no such thing as stupid in quilting, you just have to get into your groove of things. There are days you need to take a break from it, when you come back to it, you will say "aahhhh, thats right, I know what to do now!" Dont sweat it.

When I do something like that I call it a learning experience. Somehow it makes it huret less. Good luck.