I have some very bad habbits
 

first one is I have no patience and I am not a perfectionist. I know you don't really have to be a perfectionist..but I am not even close..well that is because I have no patience. :)

Another bad habit. I never pay attention to where the starting thread is. So it usually ends up being a jumbled mess at the start of my fabric. I am working on trying to remember to straighten out the threads.

Another bad habit. I hate to iron. I know that in quilting irons are my best friend. Could be my iron keeps shutting off...time for a new one.

Another bad habit. I can't sew straight to save my life. I just purchased a 1/4 inch foot to help. :o

So What have I learned.

1/4 inch foot really helps.
Move my starting thread and hold it when I start to sew
Iron is my friend and iron those seams.
Square the block before I sew it in rows

Now if I can just remember the above and not stretch the minky I am putting in the baby quilt. I will be happy.

Good luck, those are the same habits we all have...lol. Mine is not squaring. Have learned the iron helps and that nasty starting thread. Cannot get in the habit of using a leader and that would work wonders.

There, there, Steph.

Everyone has to "iron out" their habits to begin quilting. It is just a fact of life for all of us. No matter though, because the new habits you are forming will serve to make you happier when sewing any type project in the future.

When I look back on my first quilting projects, I cringe wondering how I even was able to finish them at all. (This was so long ago there wasn't even rotary cutters and very few instructions available to learn!) Cereal boxes were our templates and a number 2 pencil outlined onto the fabric were eyeballed cut out to the quarter inch seam allowance with a large pair of sewing sissors! Oh yes!! That was how it was done.

I think you are so smart to learn new habits. You go girl and happy quilting!

I hear you - after making several quilts I'm not thrilled with - I've learned to square and just take my time - that patience thing! Good luck in making new "good" habits!

To avoid thread nests on back of piecing check out WWW.quiltville.com. This is Bonnie Hunter's site and under her Tips and Techniques she explains using leaders and enders. This method gives you half of a four patch block.

mltquilt

The easiest way to fix this problem is to sew onto a scrap of fabric when you finish with a seam, then sew from the scrap to your next piece. It's like chain piecing, but the scrap is the last piece. Many people do this. I think it saves time because I don't have to mess with finding the loose ends, worry about tangles or trimming loose threads and I think I use less thread because I'm only sewing a couple inches rather than pulling thread to the thread cutter on my machine. I've heard several terms for them. I used to call them leaders, but now I call them headers and footers (like the word processing terms, because they are at the start and finish of the seams).

I use to sew fast, zipping through chain piecing and kept wondering why my blocks never were true square, always some edges short or longer. I learned to sew slow, feeling and eyeing the fabric edges as I go. It has made a big difference. If the edges of my blocks or strips are out by 1/16th I know something is not right. I find the problem and correct it. A few time doing this and I know what to watch for and prevent. It may take longer but once done, my quilt top goes together perfectly. Having every seam match and laying flat is a good feeling of accomplishment for me.
I found a nifty little thread helper. A command strip on the machine bed will hold the thread tails out of the way when you start to sew.

My bad habit is not being able to keep blocks lovely and flat when tranort ing to class.
A shaky hand which spills coffee onto fabric.
Not panicking when seams etc don't match.
I love learning a technique or doing a difficult pattern
Trying to go slower because quilting is so expensive at at least 1 quilt a week.

I have some of those same habits and am very impatient. I want it done when I start.

I have a problem when things start to go wrong I get so frustrated I start I start making all kinds of mistakes and I just want to throw it all away. I have been sewing for to many years to count and I am setting here now trying to cool down after making the stupidest mistake on the most simple little girls dress. When I get myself calmed down it is a take it apart and redo. I had my mind on the quilt I want to start when I finish some dresses I am making for my DGD's birthday next weekend.

Your lack of patience which leads to the bad habits will eventually teach you -- as it appears it already is teaching you -- that you'll just get frustrated and/or have do it over, which takes longer than doing it well in the first place.:D

Mostly, mistakes are the best teachers anyway, so you'll learn one way or the other, take heart!

Jan in VA

Patience is a virtue, one of which I don't have so I make due with what I've got. I walk away for awhile. My iron sits to the side of me where that little red varmint likes to hang out.

You have to click on her blog to find the Tips and Techniques link, it's not on the quiltville site but the blog link is.

Ha! Don't we all?!

Hi Steph, love your post. My "bad" habit is I like to iron. Sometimes I think I iron fabric out of square and change how my blocks fit together. It's all good though.

Sometimes haste does make waste.

Do-overs really don't save any time at all.:rolleyes:

Ok, silly question here. Where do you put the strip so it's not in the way?

I put mine in the back of the needle to the left about 3 inches. It has never been in my way.

Or....you can go the other way and be crippled by fears of imperfection (ask me how I know:)).

Thanks Jan for being a Mother Hen to us all. StephT I like yourself had sooooo many bad habits ( but not really bad, just inpatient) that now that I have more time to make quilts, I've been reading a lot of the threads on this board. I have started to listen. ( I am not a person who can be told what to do). So I've learned that heavy starch is a necessity to better squaring up and less stretch. Also there are no quilting police. So If I love it, that's all that matters, but I'm slowly, and mean that literally, slowly starting to take many of these ladies advise on how to be more professional in my quilt making verse Just Making A Quilt.

DottyMO, try putting your blocks in a clean pizza box. I have a variety of sizes just for that purpose. They stay clean, ordered, and usually not wrinkled. I, too, am friendly with the lack of patience, not-so-straight seams, etc. But just hang in there and make good habits and use them always. 1 cut finger is a wonderful reminder to always close your rotary cutter, etc.

What is a command strip??? Please tell us!!!

To keep quilt squares flat: The 12" square by about 2-3" high plastic boxes with handles on them work great for storing finished quilt squares until you're ready to put them in a quilt. Another method is to wrap them around a empty tube from paper towels or wrapping paper. I also have a pattern using a tube and some fabric to wrap them in too. It was one of our quilt guild programs.

When you see how much benefit it is to use a small piece of fabric in which to take your first four stitches, it will be no trouble to develop that habit. It saves a great deal of trouble with thread nests.

I think my worst habit is starting too many projects, then not finishing them...especially if something goes wrong...I hate ripping out...and usually will put it away and get back at it when I either really have the time, or start feeling too guilty that it is set aside.

Patience I do have a lot of(except ripping out)....that is very helpful with quilting. Leaders and enders I use all the time, and when I want them to be productive, will sew together squares as the leaders/enders...after awhile, you have lots of them to play with to put together a quilt...usually make 4 patches or 9 patches with them.

Join the club. Patience is a virtue, unfortunately I wasn't blessed with that particular virtue. I now keep a piece of fabric under the presser foot, I sew onto it with last piecing, then start from there for new piecing. I was told by a sewing machine owner that keeping a piece of fabric under the presser foot when not in use is a great idea.

Good luck in making these good skills a habit. I am patient, but I have all the other problems. But like you I'm learning to prewash, starch, iron, hold my starting thread and sew a scant 1/4 " seam.( I wish it were an even 1/4".) When piecing, use the same sewing machine throughout the whole project. I'm finishing up my third quilt, which I doubt will ever withstand many washings because of a too thin fabric I used. In that experience I learned that if a thin fabric must be used, then use fusible interfacing to stabilize it. These above statements tell almost everything I know so far. I'm also learning to cut and square accurately. Onward and upward!

Last night I was fussy-cutting some pieces and one of them wouldn't cut right. A piece of scrap had worked its way under my fabric. One of my bad habits is not cleaning the table before starting a new project.

If I didn't know better, I would think that I had written this post. As badly as I would love to be a precise sewer, it just doesn't happen. Have many times taken out my stitching and restitched over and over and never get any better. It isn't the machine, that I know for sure! Loved your post and feel your pain. Yolanda Wood River

I have started doing this and it makes everything go a lot easier.

My bad habit it not checking my measurements twice before I cut. Do you know how much fabric I've had to throw in my scrap box because of this. Plus fabric is expensive. Makes me crabby just thinking about it, lol.

I'm very impatient about some things (standing in line, for instance; drives me crazy. I abandoned six pots of plants on a display of fertilizer bags yesterday at Lowe's because there were five of us waiting in line to pay while four Lowe's employees chewed the fat a few feet away instead of opening up the other register) and doggedly patient about others, which includes most sewing. I've discovered when sewing it helps to just stop and breathe! Make yourself slow down and remind yourself to breathe. All the other things -- the straight seam, the 1/4 seam, using leaders and enders, squaring the block, it comes with practice. You'll get there.

I saw a great quote in a movie today: "If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you always lose."

I'm planning on making that my mantra!

Good luck and go easy on yourself!

My bad habit is to stop and start with the needle up but the thread take up NOT all the way up. This can mean that the bobbin is ready to finish a loop and will make a cool knot down there or a piece of thread wrapped around the bobbin shaft to clean up. My habit is especially bad when I use my industrial machine. I've had to pull the shuttle off the shaft and dis-assemble it to get the trapped threads out. I did learn sewing machine repairs though. At least I know what causes it now.

Leaders and enders are perfect for avoiding thread nests, etc. Others have mentioned them and great information is given by www.Quiltville.com. Neat ideas, and you end up with patch blocks, crumb blocks, and so on for scrappy projects while you are making a current project. Be patient and be kind to yourself....quilting is meant to be enjoyed, smile.

As I progress in my first year of quilting I have discovered the importance of taking it slow and making good habits. As a mender and clothing sewer I could take the shortcuts and get away with it. I have found out that in quilting accuracy and and avoiding shortcuts is a must. I tried it the other way and paid for it. Each quilt I make gets better. I think everyone has been there at some point. And when I have two many projects on the table is when I tend to cheat.

This is a great thread. Earthwalker put it really well - the opposite of being impatient can be just as bad. I have stopped going to classes because I was always the slowest (by a long way) in every class. Partly because I'm just a slow learner and also because I get obsessed with getting everything perfect and I end up ripping out what I have sewn, over and over again. That applies to both hand and (especially) machine sewing.

Command strips are a basic have to have in my house. No damage to any surface. I keep a package of the refill strips in my sewing room. I use them for seam guides on my machines too. No residue at all. http://www.command.com

Ah, yes, the learning curves gets steep, then flattens out a bit, then gets really, really steep, and on and on. I have, over the process of several projects, learned to cut more accurately, sew that 1/4" seam very carefully, and to press well. It all makes such a difference.! I just finished a couple of placemats (that are going to stay here, by the way, after many projects that I've given away). Because I was super careful at every step (my little 6" Omnigrid ruler is my BFF), they both turned out well!
For me quilting is not a hobby that goes quickly, but I really enjoy it and it's worth the time and effort. I totally agree it does require patience - lots and lots and lots of patience. Hang in there; it will pay off in the long run!

Command Strips is a brand of stick on hooks, stick together, etc. The advantage is they're removable without leaving a mark. Say you want to mount a power strip to the side of your sewing machine furniture; command strips can act like glue. When you don't want it there anymore, you pull on the command strip to release it and there's no residue left behind.

As to bad habits; there are standards in my sewing, but I choose them. Let's say I'm making a quilt block. I prefer the wonky look to all lined up. It's not a standard of points/seams matching I'm ignoring. I've decided that's not as high on the priority list as the artistic statement and might actually get in the way. My bad habit is getting distracted when I hit a bump in the road. Being with other people keeps me more accountable and persevering.