If you could rid the quilting world of one problem....
 

If you could rid the quilting world of one problem....what would that be?

I've read several threads today and in so many of them we blast the quilt police. Wouldn't life be more pleasant without them?

We all have to have accountability. So we have quilt police. But we can IGNORE THEM. LOL

Bad habits: loose threads on floor, clutter, non-thought out decisions, clutter, procrastination, clutter, and that's just one....lol.

vague copyright and patent laws

ohhhhhhhhhhh, you don't want to know me!

Not reading the cutting directions correctly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unappreciative recipients of time-spent, lovingly-made quilted gifts. (per a previous thread i just read.):(

Jan in VA

Amen Jan!! Exactly!!

Neatnicks that want me to be one! I sew with abandon...I drop pins, I have threads wound in my chair wheels, I sew til late late late at nite, I don't pick up my project ingredients when I am finished and I don't put the cap back on the spray adhesive right when I am done! I do clean up when I get to the point that I can't step over it any more, I am very very organized (drawers and bins all have labels) and I can put my hands on anything I need...even when it is strewn all over the room...but I don't want to have to think about clean up while I am creating! Leave me alone...let me create...I can clean later (any fool can clean, it takes a genius to create art!).

Fabric colors that run, then I wouldn't have to wash one piece before I cut.

1/4" seams that aren't.

Patterns you buy with errors!!!

fabric that is 'ready to cut' when purchased

All of the above mentioned. Most of all the disdain of those who couldn't make a quilt or any other sewn item if their lives depended on it yet turn up their nose at our creativity.

I completely agree with Jan in VA. Completely.

A predominance of affordable quality fabric manufactured in the US

I would get rid of getting old. Quilters should live 'forever'. there are just to many quilts to make.
peace

Thank you! I have a system, and when everything is where it should be it's nicely organized and tidy, and everything is easy to find, but my system doesn't require me to put everything back the second I am finished with it - everything finds its way back, eventually :) I probably do a once a month binge cleaning job to get everything back in order - it takes me at most, 20 or 30 minutes, and a fair amount of that time is spent rearranging things or consolidating things like needles as they get used up - there's no sense in having 4 packs of the same kind with one needle left in each.

Personally, in the middle of the creative process, I find stopping to tidy up or reorganize a HUGE distraction - I'd rather just keep making progress, and make up for my lack of neatness later :) That's exactly why someone invented those magnetic pin pick up stick thingies, right?

My first response was... expense...

The pattern makers who keep insisting that you must have their new ruler to make their quilt.

The fuzzy, linty, itchy fluff that comes off minky. Every time I use minky, I vow it will be the last time, then I feel it and imagine how it would feel on a new baby quilt.

That was my exact first thought.....expense!

All of the above and rude, uncaring, self center people who think they know the 'right' and 'only way to do something.

Things I would get rid of are those things called "should dos, must dos and have tos." Then there would be time to enjoy the want tos!

Sometimes that isn't you. The person writing the directions has no idea of how to write clearly and how to go from step one to the end.

Oh, I so agree with this one. Just tried a class last week involving 2 "special rulers". Hated it, seemed everyone else liked it, must have been me. This was my second attempt with specialty rulers and what I learned in class is that it is not for me. Please just tell me the size blocks I should cut!

Overpriced fabric and thread! And sewing machines that are too fussy about thread.

I couldn't agree with you more. I am pretty upset with a neighbor. I made quilts for her sons, and I see them hanging in the laundry room in our building. I don't think anyone would walk away with them, but it hurts that she doesn't care enough to bring them up, and put them away .. The nice part of it, is that the labels are showing, and everyone can see that I made them for her kids..

Quilt pattern designers who don't know the first thing about copyright laws,but,think they have the right to tell anyone that buys their pattern what they can and cannot do.

Oh just like a store brought quilt!
No it is BETTER!
I clean up my mess at the end of each project. If you don't like my mess don't look at it. I clean my chair of it threads when it doesn't roll anymore.
I think I am going to make a sign that reads enter at your own risk project in process pins on floor

Oh, this is SO me!! I realize that some people feel distracted or stressed out by mess, but I am the exact opposite! A messy space is a comfortable & creative space for me and clean spaces stress me out!

And, like you, I'm messy yet organized. I know exactly where everything is, and eventually things DO get put away. When I'm DONE with them! Thankfully I have my own sewing room so I can leave things wherever I want to (and that probably goes a long way to keeping my marriage happy!)

MY space + MY mess = MY creative zone! LOL

As to what I'd get rid of...I think I'm going to throw in another vote for "aging". I'm still young(ish) and I'm already thinking I will never live long enough to try all the things I want to try! (Especially if you consider non-quilting things!)

Confusion and misdirection regarding copyright laws.

Broken thread and tangles on the back.

The fact that my fur babies can't help me sandwich anything...I know they think laying or sitting on it helps...:D

Cotton prices.

This would get my vote! That and fabric being so expensive

the empty bobbin

One of my dogs has decided she needs to test drive any blanket I make--------from the top side.

Needing other peoples approval of my art.

Critics who think they have the right to be rude.

Marking pens that either don't disappear as they say they should and pens that disappear before you've had a chance to thread the machine!