A Laugh For You - My First Quilt Stencil
 

LOL, I am getting into quilting and bought my first stencil template. It has swirling flower shapes and I knew it was a hard one to start with but I loved it. I've never free motion quilited and didn't even know if I had to for the stencil but I googled and apparently I do. Set my machine up with it's free motion foot, read a lot of my machine's manual and off I went.

The lady at the store had already shown me how the stencil is cleverly designed so that one line leads to another. I was, wonder of wonders, smart enough to know I should practice so I drew good heavy, easy to follow lines and I used stablizer.

Tie off, stitch to end of traced line, tie off, move to next line; tie off, stitch curve around to end of line, tie off; move small amount to next line, stitch next part of same curve, tie off and so on. "Boy", I'm thinking to myself, "It's really not going to be fun cutting out all those little pieces of thread that join each stitched line between the tie offs."

And that's when the light bulb went on, finally. LOL. The stencil only has gaps in the lines to hold it together. If all the gaps were cut out and the lines were continuous the stencil would fall apart. I'm supposed to sew through the gaps to the next line, none of that stopping and starting and tieing off stuff. Needless to say, the last two thirds of my practice piece went a lot faster than the beginning did.

Hope I explained this well enough that you are all having a good chuckle. I know I did. :)

We've all had those moments!!!

It is kinda funny! But you figured it out and that's what counts!

Good story! There have been many lightbulb moments for me. Amazing what can be accomplished when that lightbulb goes on!

You are braver than I am! You tried it, learned how & did it. Good for you!

Too funny! At least you have a sense of humor. Practice helps.

Hilarious! At least you knew to trace the pattern onto the quilt-- as I was reading I was thinking you were going to tell us you tried to sew through the holes in the stencil and wound up sewing the plastic to your quilt!

Good for you, and you did not get very far before you figured it out!!!!!

Join the crowd. We all make goofies! Makes us better people.

It's good we can laugh at ourselves when we do things like this!! Glad you figured it out! I'm sure I've done worse things!

LOL....good thing that is not how it works. I would never get a quilt done!!!!

Hope you are enjoying machine quilting! I love when I get into the "quilting zone!" :)

You've got to write that down in a quilt journal if you keep one! This is a story that will only get funnier with time. Thanks for sharing.

they actually have continous line stencils too. http://www.fulllinestencil.com/Full%...20Stencils.htm
http://quiltingstencils.com/continuouslineblocks-2.aspx
http://www.peppercory.com/quilting_stencils.html

Yes you did, and yes we are...LOL!!
Don't feel bad. Tell yourself everyone does this the first time. And then the flickering light bulb goes back on.

Believe it or not you are not alone....I did the same exact thing! Thankfully, like you, it did not take to many stop and starts to have the light bulb come on and the laughter to start.

You know, I had to re-read your post three times to figure out what exactly you were doing. Just goes to show, I probably would have done the EXACT SAME thing!! Too funny. Thanks for the chuckle this morning!

Thanks for admitting you can make the same kind of silly mistakes that I do!!

You are not alone!

very funny. thanks for sharing your experience....maybe we will learn from it....i hope

Too funny, I definitely got a chuckle out of it. My repair guy just told me a story about a lady that came in complaining very loudly about her janome, said it just wouldn't sew thru her quilt and kept messing up...imagine his surprise when he found her plastic stencil stitched in between the layers of the quilt!

Oh it would probably take me a lot longer to figure that out!

I chuckled along with you. I didn't get stencils either the first time I saw them so don't feel bad!!

Suzy

Isn't it great having an "aha" moment. Have fun now that you know the difference.

A wonderful moment, a great chuckle, thanks for sharing

It's a healthy person who can laugh at herself. Thanks for the giggle!

I sure we all have done worse. Thanks for the laugh/

Thanks for my morning laugh. Those who can laugh at themselves seldom suffer from depression. How do I know? I am always the first to laugh at myself.

ROFL!
(BTW... I would have done the same if my grandmother hadn't pointed that little bit of info out to me when I started quilting! )

Well,that could have happened to anyone.

It's amazing how many people don't know to quilt across the bridges to make a whole design. Good for you for figuring it out so quickly.

I did the same thing until the light went on. I,m sure we are not the only ones that have done this, LOL

Thanks for sharing your moment LOL - oh how many times have I had moments like these!!!!

At least you accomplished what you started out to do! Sometimes it takes us all a moment for that lightbulb to pop on. Keep up your efforts before you know it you will be great at it.

It's like cooking your first turkey and leaving the bag of giblets and stuff in the cavity - you only do it once!!!

Just a reminder to us experienced quilters to never assume anyone knows anything when they are a new quilter. What is second nature to us may never cross the student's mind. Thanks for the laugh. Glad you figured it out!

Good lesson. Thank you

Thanks for the giggle. I love hearing about folks that do dumb stuff like I do. Don't ya just wonder how you made it this far in life sometimes? I know I sure do and I've had 71 years of goofy mistakes.

A "aha" moment. Thanks for sharing. I always remember the "aha" moments and don't repeat that learning cycle (for that one anyway!). LOL

You are smarter then I was. My first ever use of a stencil, I actually started cutting the stencil so the opening would be continuous. I was happily cutting away thinking what a hassle it was to not have the stencil all cut in the first place. When the stencil started to fall apart I realized what I was doing wrong. I know I turned red with embarrassment and no one was around. LOL.