i made a mistake.
 

please qb, tell me the jammed up cable in one corner of a hand quilted border will not be too noticeable.

i just kept quilting and found myself closer to the corner than i thought i was, leaving myself NO room to adjust the lengths of the cable. now i have a corner with two squished cable sections.

there's a rule in my house - no removing handquilting ever. and to fix this i'd have to take out at least 3 sections.

just tell me it's fine. my perfectionist is having a meltdown.

aileen

I'm sure it will be fine and the blind man on his galloping horse won't even notice!! Don't beat yourself up.

er. maybe not too noticeable is the wish. and that mistakes make the thing hand made. and that beginner mistakes by a not beginner happen to the best of us...

aileen

But wasn't that your plan all along? Wink wink

at first i thought i could cover it with the label, but it's in the top right hand corner.

for the recipient, that means it will hang on the corner of the bed closest to the door.

!!!!!!GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

aileen

Which one will fret you more? Breaking the household handquilting rule to fix the mistake you made or you and the recipient living with the mistake?

Have you quilted the other corners yet??


If not ... just change the design of the corner and repeat the change on the other three.

i'll fix it in the other three. it's a mess.

and...not getting it done before my grandmother dies would break my heart forever.

so. i'll finish it, and then if there's time i'll reconsider the stitch ripping rule.

aileen

Your Grandmother will love it any way it's done. I'd just finish it and give it to her for Christmas. If it bothers you that much, then go and visit her after the holiday and requilt it while you sit and talk.

Since I can't see the quilt, I will not say it is fine. It is obvious you feel you made a mistake so I do not speculate and say it is ok or your grandmother will be ok with it. It has been my experience over the years seeing 1000's of quilts that when the quilted corners do not match, then it is noticeable. Another point....it is pointless to suggest a solution to a problem like this if you can't see the problem.

I agree with Holice. Without seeing the problem, how can we say it is or isn't noticeable? I have to admit I have a bit of a problem not correcting mistakes, especially if the item is for a special gift. This is just me . . . but giving a noticeably flawed item is like saying to the recipient, "You aren't worth my time, to correct this." It's one thing, if it's the best you can do . . . but quite another, if you just don't want to take the time to make it right. If it can be fixed, I'd fix it. I know that's not what you want to hear/read . . . but that's the chance you take, when you ask. Sorry. :rolleyes:

BTW, if you are a perfectionist, you must make it right. Otherwise, it'll haunt you forever! :shock:

Reading nessies comment gave me this thought. " It is better to be late and right than on time and wrong"

No mater what anyone says. I have found that if a mistake is glaring to me, and or bothers me, I fix it. Other wise every time I look at the quilt all I see is the mistake. LOL I am not perfect, believe me there are a lot of family quilts out there with mistakes. There is even one that has mistakes that bothered me so much I took out machine quilting to fix. Two years latter I was at my cousins house, noticed she had my quilt on the back of the couch, as I sat down , there in front of me was another mistake! AUUGH ! LOL

Tell us what is the story behind that house rule? Look at it this way, if you must stick to that rule then there is no way to fix it, so maybe it is OK the way it is.

Ha, ha. put a big bow over it. kidding, I think.

I say put it on your bed. Can you see the border on the right and the border on the left at the same time? If not, nobody but you is going to know there's a mistake. If that's the case, I'd leave it alone!

I chucked to myself over this.....I made up another little saying.....It goes like this.

"I made a skirt but discovered the back is shorter than the front. However, it hikes up when I bend over anyway so it is ok.....and besides no one will see it unless they are walking directly toward me".

If one makes a mistake or error and not sure what to do.....don't ask other's opinions. You will get as many opinions as those who post

i knew before i posted it that there was no fix it if i wasn't willing to pull out 5 or 6 hours worth of work.

sometimes i come here for the assurance of others who have made mistakes. and while i know sometimes we fix them at great expense in time or tears, i also know that sometimes our vicious self-criticism can be soothed by others who know it is to make something less than perfect and live with it.

thanks for your thoughts. here's the error - in the end and once it's all done, any one who notices will notice. and then appreciate the hundreds of hours of work that went into simply finishing it.

and i would be sad if people stopped posting their mistakes and stopped sharing their vulnerabilities. it would make this community a whole lot colder if we did that.

aileen



pea ess: the cable's incomplete, but i wanted to post the picture and i have to get busy in the kitchen....

If you gave the quilt to me, I would not have noticed the problem. That is the absolute truth. I'm not an inspector and I wouldn't have noticed.

You do some beautiful work. I'm sorry, I don't have any advice to give.
Rodney

Aileen, I agree with you 100%. Sometimes we all just would like a little reassurance and empathy. We don't always need terse instructions and that is obvious from the wording of the posts. You are right that this would be a colder board if people can't look for a little support. Most of us are of the "been there, done that" type and know how you feel. I also think that your grandmother will be so happy that you made a quilt for her that she won't notice any imperfections or care if she does.

I *might* notice it from the back, but certainly not from the front. And I'm very impressed by your tiny hand stitches. Lovely!

Aileen, from your description I was expecting a jumbled mess in your corner. It's not!!! From the front it's barely noticeable. It's a little more obvious on the back, but not to the extent I thought it would be. Don't you dare take any of your stitching out! It's fine and you need to get this quilt to your grandmother. I guarantee she will love it!!!

Aunt Lusch used to say, "twill never be noticed on a gallopin' goose!"
'

Is this a lap quilt? If so can you just cut it and make the quilt smaller?

no. it's a queen with a full allowance for a pillow tuck.

aileen

If you had posted the picture or gone into more detail, in the first post, some of us would no doubt have been more supportive. My initial 'non-supportive' feedback was in response to your original post, along with the statement that you consider yourself a perfectionist. I apologize for giving my honest opinion, based upon the given info.

In my opinion, your quilt is absolutely beautiful. I don't see any mistakes, I see the blood, the sweat and the tears that went into every loving stitch. If boo boos weren't meant to be made we would all be perfect in our craft. I for one never try to be perfect as that would make me insane and I would never get anything done. Unless you mention it no one will notice, and if they do just say it was a design element to make it imperfect.

It is beautiful. If I were lucky enough to have a grand daughter and she made this beauty for ME.....I would so treasure it!!!

Aileen, it's a beautiful quilt. We always see the imperfections in our work that non-quilters don't notice. If your grand mother is/was a quilter then she might notice, but if she wasn't a quilter if you don't point out the quilts short comings to her, she will probably never notice them. All she will see is the love and hard work you put into making her a treasure. I would go ahead and finish quilting the quilt, and then if there is time, make changes to the corner that is bothering you.

That's not a bad answer. I put the less perfect quilt blocks on the sides for the same reason.

I agree it would help to see a picture.

I don't see anything so bad when I look at the picture.

I'll bet anyone that would point a finger does not hand quilt. I would be grateful if someone would hand quilt something for me. No matter what they did it would be fantastic. I say leave it.

Well, I looked at it and I still can't see the error, front or back. Looks beautiful to me.

The area you are referring to is not at all noticeable on the front, and only slightly noticeable on the back. If I weren't looking for it, I know I would not have seen it. I think your quilting is lovely! What I am wondering about is if there are some missed stitches showing on the back view in the second cable down from the corner (near the center).

the cable wasn't finished - there was a row or two missing:)

thanks for your kind words. i feel a lot better about the whole thing this morning.

aileen

Your quilt is beautiful and whether or not you take some of it out to correct the error should be determined by how you will feel about it after the gift is given-every time you see it. I think you have undertaken a wonderful thing to do for your grandmother. All of us who are grandmothers are very touched that you would undertake such a project for your grandmother. But remember that learning to quilt is a journey. Please do not be discouraged about your journey. Whether you decide to spend five or six hours changing it should not be a game changing road block in your journey. In my journey I have made lots of 'errors' (mostly that I wish I had chosen a different fabric for some or element or that I wish I had chosen a different stitching pattern to quilt) but I move on. I love to quilt and I want to grow so I keep quilting. I see lots of progress so I will keep going-I generally don't make the same error twice-I find a new one to make!

I'm with grann on this one. I can't see an error either. Your stitching is wonderful. I see no need to rip out anything. Keep going. It will be wonderful. Your grandmother will be delighted.

It will be FINE…Just remind yourself that:

1) There are NO MISTAKES, just creative changes

and

2) Only GOD can create perfection

Enjoy your beautiful work…...