It's Time to Quit When...
 

It's been one of those days. I kept putting the pieces in the wrong direction, or so I thought. Then I ripped them out only to find I had sewn them on the correct side the first time. After 2-3 times of doing that I just said enough is enough!

Been there done that. Most of the time I lay a block out and sew in stages to keep pieces straight.

I feel your pain. I'm setting here ripping border strips that I sewed one right side to one wrong side. 3 sets! It's time to quit.

Oh gosh, how many times have I done that? Too many to count.

wow i am glad i am not the only one that gets good use out of her seam ripper. lol

That usually happens to me when I'm sewing when I'm tired and fog headed. It used to be that was late at night, so I called it the After Midnight Curse. I've done some spectacular mess ups after midnight. These days, I generally quit for the night at 9, and I still have made some frustrating mistakes.

My latest episode of twitter patedness was to copy the templates for a block from a book, only to fail to recognize I'd moved off of the 12" block pages, and on to a 9" block page... :thumbdown: Felt fairly stupid about that. THEN I realized that not all the templates were correctly sized anyway. I'd copied them correctly, but once piece just wasn't right at ALL. I quit and went to bed. Got up the next day and got out my grids and drafted the stupid thing from scratch! It's a fairly annoying book anyway, and has NO assembly instructions for any block, so you're on your own. Which isn't always best for me!

I do that sometimes too. Maybe that's why I like batiks so much!

YIKES! glad you had sense to step away.

been there - done that far too often...

It is time to quit binding when you have sewn the project to your shirt. It is time to stop FMQing when you realize that after 10 minutes of meandering and fighting the machine, you never dropped the feed dogs...

I understand. I have been ripping out a lot today as well. I finally said enough is enough put it down and walked away. Going back to it in a little while.

You have my sympathy! Things will go better tomorrow though!!

Dina

Bless your heart. I feel your pain and frustration. At least you didn't break your seam ripper... :shock: :o

Yep been there done that!! Time to put it down for a while and regroup!!!

I have another one. Sewing along chain piecing up a storm. Bobbin thread had run out. All little pieces flutter to floor unseen to mix with each other. Pick them all up,match them together again phone rings and have to help a friend.Come home and sew them again,without the bobbin thread AGAIN. Luckily not as many went through probably because I noticed the full bobbin sitting to the left of me sigh

How about a glass of wine and a book! When I get that way, I prep the next step and go do something else. And of course I check my work before I sew when I get back! lolol

Spent Tuesday morning ripping out nearly all I had sewed together on Monday afternoon. Discovered that the diagnonal rows with directional blocks were flipped backwards and didn't even notice when I put it on the design board. While ironing another block for an experiment, because I had a little time before leaving, I glanced out of the corner of my eye over my shoulder and thought "something doesn't look right". Took me a minute to realize what I had done wrong, Turned off the lights, unplugged the iron and left for the night. That was enough for one day. That's what happens when I had laid a the quilt out in three strips and didn't DOUBLE check to be sure that I had them in the right order. Now fixed and on to the next. Very obvious when I thought about it. At least it didn't involve life and death. A seam ripper and little time fixed the problem. While putting the rows together with many points to match, I finished sewing and discovered that I had run out of bobbin!!!!! Just not my day to accomplish much. Thanks for letting us know that we all have our little moments! Enjoyed all the anecdotes.

Sometimes, I just leave the silly blocks the way I messed them up but make sure I turn the rest of the blocks in strange directions.

OH! I LOVE this one! I did it just the other day!!

I have days when I rip....but I hate to give in so I keep trying to get it right.

I have learned thru the years if I make a couple mistakes in a row, I am tired and need to do this another day. I usually don't give up. My UFOs come from seeing a bright shiny new quilt pattern.

Done that too, I just put it down and come back to it....

Yes, I did this the other day too! Sewed about 10 blocks together before I realized there was no bobbin thread. Fortunately the pieces didn't fall on the floor though and stayed together.

Must have been the moon. I went to a new Small Piece Quilts club yesterday. After everyone had ripped out at least two sets of pieces, we decided the club needed to be renamed The Rippers.

In high school (a very, very long time ago) my Home Economics teacher told us during sewing class that when things were going well get up and walk away from it for awhile. She said when you try to force it you make mistakes. I've come to realize on several occasions how right she was. Sometimes you just have to walk away for awhile. When I do that and come back I'm usually amazed at how well it goes.

Oh, boy, I have done some of these too. You have to walk away now and then and just let your brain re-set itself! I usually get out of the house and walk the dog. A little cardio seems to help. But, then again, not at mid nite....
Good luck getting back to it.

Me too! All of the above. Sounds like old Murphy is alive and well. Better luck next time!

Happens to all of us at one time or another...just need to step back and finish when your a bit fresher. Have a good day!!

A little hint. I have a piece of cardboard about 15 inches square, I covered it with flannel. I can lay my pieces on it beside my machine. the pieces stay in place and is easier to keep the right pieces in the right direction.

It happened to me on Monday. I am beginning a scrap quilt using civil war repro fabrics. The four squares are Bear Paws and they are turned in different directions. It literally took me two hours with all the cutting, sewing, pressing, trimming then more sewing...then I noticed I had put them in the wrong directions. But after ripping and resewing I am fine with it and loving how it is coming out.

So I've been there done that too!!

Been there done that last night. Spent the whole day cutting and marking for hand piecing. Settled down on the couch to watch TV and hand piece. First row in my 5 inch finished Ohio Star went great. Second row had to rip and resew, patch backwards. Third row had to rip again, star point facing the wrong direction. Went to piece all three into a block and thats when things went very wrong and I went to bed. Going to try again today!

Time to quit when I am tired and need to use my rotary cutter. No cutting when tired!

Yes, we have all been there. I know that last week I was busy doing some machine quilting and kept having little things happen like thread breaking, a needle break, a knot on the bottom thread, sewing crooked. I just put it all away, I was tired and the errors were gaining the advantage. I got home and looked at my quilt and I am now picking out all of the diagonal quilting that I had completed. It just detracted from the pattern. Does heavenly intervention include knots in my bottom thread? Could be! :)

Time to walk away grasshopper and do something else .. Clear the mind and the quilting will come back to you , then you will be one with the machine ...LOL

my quit time is when the instructions which were on the sewing table got caught under the quilt and then sewn to the back! Had to tear them off back and try to figureout which piece went where. It was like trying to piece a jig saw puzzle with no picture to follow.

Been there, done that so many times I've lost count. Usually when things start going wrong I walk away or start another project and if that doesn't work, well, I leave the room and do something else. We've all been there at one time or another.

Some days I have to do the same. If it doesn't work in my head, it's not going to work on the machine. I feel for you

It's hard to get yourself to quit...but everytime I do, everything falls into place the next session....can be very frustration!!!

Oh, I hate when that happens to me. And I know then it's time to quit!!

Or, the bobbin is empty . . . .