put down the hammer and step away from the machine
 

Ever sense that the quilting gods are trying to tell you something? I received an ugly jelly roll for Christmas and decided that the North Star quilt from the MSQC tutorials would be a good way to camouflage it. I have completed only 4 blocks and have made every conceivable mistake! Sewing the wrong side of the square, sewing wrong side to right side, forgetting the snowballing stage, forgetting the 1-1/2 strip stage. Forgetting to adjust needle position for 1/4" seam foot. I have ripped out more seams in these 4 squares than I have in an entire quilt!

So I thought it would be interesting to ask.....have you worked on a particular quilt that seemed to be cursed?

Yes, I have. LOL I set it aside and come back to it later, like maybe a month. LOL

I have a system from my garment making days that I now apply to quilting. I can't walk away until I have made whatever fix is required. Then I know when I pick it up again I will be able to move forward, not back. Also if I have a project that is not giving me the warm and fuzzies I allow myself to start another one....but every day I have to work on the downer project for a while before I work on the happy project. In this case my goal will be to complete two blocks every day before I allow myself to move on to something else. That way it won't be residing in a plastic bag for the next 10 years!

why torture oneself?

i have had projects that are very frustrating.

the only ones that i will continue to struggle with are those in the "have to" category. there are very few of them in that category now.

cant give up on it....my husband bought me the fabric!

oh my!! many of them ha ha ha ha What I find is that when I have many problems/frustrations it just makes the finished quilt even more rewarding :) or maybe just a relief to have it done ha ha

Oh, yes. There have been a couple of them that just about made me lose my Christianity!

At least every other quilt gives me fits and starts and I've been at it for about 40 years. When I run out of the worse cuss worlds imaginable, I make up new ones. Next step is to walk away, shut the sewing room door and let the whole project simmer for at least a couple of days.

yes, daughter's SAS--kicked my fanny the whole process from cutting to quilting

I tried...I say tried...to make a kaleidoscope quilt from templates. If it could go wrong, it went wrong right from the very start. That, well I can't call it a quilt, that bag of cut up pieces of fabric was cursed from the start and when I went to incorprorate some of the pre-cut blades into another scrappy project, they were just argumentative. I stuffed the whole bag in the back of my closet.
Maybe for yours, now that you've made all the mistakes once, everyone will come together well.

Watson

My best bud at work is a her dad is a preacher type Southern Baptist. We have a stressful job working with "the public." Every once in a while she'll look at me and tell me that some person is gonna make her lose her religion. So, I know what you mean.

The Plaid Obsession quilt was a bit trying, lol. think I actually left one block facing the wrong way.

Jacks Chain was my nightmare. Thus, naming it 'Jack the Ripper'. I just kept Smashing it down with the iron, made my way through it - never again!!! BUT, that little puppy of frustration got me 2nd place in a quilt show!!!!!

'jack the ripper' :D:D Might be a new name for the problem quilts!

Yes! And they usually get donated to Good Will. I don't ever want to see them again! :D

Yes, we have all been here. (I think I said that in a previous comment today). I am glad I redid the quilt I mentioned. I do try to go by the advice cited by Cattitude above. When I make a mistake, I fix it before putting the work away so I don't have to come back to it. I don't want to feel 'dragged down' by problems and mistakes.

Oh Yeah! It's not a quilt but a small table runner embroidered with hearts. I have stitched blocks together 3 and 4 times. At some point, I say good enough and go on.

PS: Place a sticky/stitchy note on the plate as a reminder to set the needle first. Best wishes to you!

Do you think he will remember what the fabric looked liked? DH wouldn't have a clue unless it was one color that stood out. He has learned it's best not to buy me clothes and fabric is a close second. LOL

I was making a wedding quilt for my niece, running out of time and someone wonderful person on here helped me fix the issue. She recommended ripping it up, measuring properly and starting over. It worked. The bride cried. Jack the Ripper.

Me too! It's a one block wonder that has 8 pieces so can't be sewn in strips. And it's turning out very dark.
BUT - I will finish it this year! Just to get it out of my way.

Yes! I have only a few rules with quilting.

1) it is my hobby and I enjoy and love it.

2) when I start making mistakes I correct them and turn off my machine.

3) if I decide I don’t like my project I scrap it.

4) if I am far enough along with it, I donate it. (I like finishing it when I know it is being donated.)

Put it in timeout for a while.

:D:D:D:D Keeping this one on file!

Cattitude, I do the same, fix my mistakes right away. So they don't get to thinking that's gonna pass muster. Then they're put in timeout for me to decide later whether they should be used or tossed. But often, when I pull out the blocks later to evaluate, they really aren't that badly beat up and miss shaped after all.
Do I have quilts that seem to be cursed? Only every one of them. :) :)

I too quilt for my own pleasure. No deadlines, etc. When I make one of my many mistakes I just rip it out and try and fix it. My moniker is Stitchnripper for a reason!!

I am like catitude no way will I stop until I get it figured out. Just the way I am. Quilting is my favorite pass time. I give away or donate most of my quilts, if I don't finish them then I can't make anyone feel warm.

I am so much different than others. I bought my fabrics to use and that is what I am doing.

Oh my yes!! I hear your pain!! For me it was a wedding quilt for my niece. The fabric was all Northcott Stonehenge--painfully expensive--and I messed up cutting the first (and largest) element. Thank goodness I only cut half the pieces 1/2 inch too narrow. I went back to the store. Sold out. I searched online. Found some at an American site. Did I mention 'painfully expensive'?? By the time the replacement fabric arrived I had calmed down.

I think I'm going to put these rules up in my sewing room. As well as a reminder that everyone else struggles too.

Was at it again today. Thought maybe the problem is there is too much stop and start on this quilt moving from one element to another. I am easily confused after all......Hard to chain piece but I organized little piles and did four blocks at a time, one element at a time. Work d much better....only one seam ripped out!

Onebyone asked if my husband would notice if I chucked it....maybe not but there’s a story behind this gift and I just can’t do it! I think this will be a case of “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” as often is the case with a quilt. The fabric is Stonehenge Woodland from a couple years ago. Not the bright and colourful fabric I normally go for.

sometimes it is better for me to stop making mistakes for the day and either go to bed or something away from sewing.

oftentimes i get an "aha" moment that helps me figure out what the problem is and how to solve it.

sometimes it does keep me awake, but when i am fatigued, i make more mistakes.

sometimes I put it away for a while like a month or two or if the mistake is not too bad...like points not matching completely or other alignment problem....I live with it....quilting for me is a hobby...I do not sell my stuff and I like designing and working with colors more than actually piecing and quilting so even though I am hard on myself, I am not a true perfectionist, and can live with the fact that everything does not turn out the way I intended. I always finish and if not to my liking my dog, Todie, does not care. He loves a new warm bed...lol.

Thanks for this thread. I'm not the only one having a great deal of trouble, and not to mention that it is minus 17 degrees F. It should warm up a little today.

I'll show you mine.[ATTACH=CONFIG]607662[/ATTACH]It's just awful. I did not get one quarter inch seam in the whole thing. Nothing lined up, the seams did not nest. The pattern is from Laundry Basket Quilts and is really cute, but confusing at the same time. I all him the pixilated giraffe. And yes, he was not supposed to have knobby knees. I haven't trimmed anything off the sides. He needs to be blocked, but I do not know how to do that? I have a border cut, but would like to block it first.

Yes, I have dated "Jack the Ripper" on this project, but it just doesn't seem to help. What can I do???

I see that it is out of focus. I can't even hold the camera. He is just so puckery. Will that quilt out?

My crazy frustrations usually occur when I'm making a bag or purse. I've been known to wad them up and throw them against the wall.... literally ready to put it in the trash... The next day, i go back and move forward. One purse in particular nearly became garbage 4 times. Now it's one of my favorites, and I've made the same pattern several more times.

I have thought about throwing certain quilts away or burning them. It seems to be the easier patterns where I make the most mistakes. I guess it is because I'm not paying close enough attention to the instructions because it is easy. Fix the current mistake and walk away for at least a few days. I have also learned to mark the pattern where I left off. Sometimes I have walked away for a couple of years.

The next time you get an ugly jelly roll as a gift, Make a rug.

My rule is that if I've made 3 mistakes in a row, then the quilt gets put aside until I can rethink it. By the 2nd mistake I'm saying "pluck a duck" under my breath. Substitute a common curse word for pluck, as I do. My most recent nemesis was a jelly roll rug - lots of ducks plucked on that one and it's still just a pile of rope. Prior to that it was Jenny Doan's Disappearing Hourglass - only ever made 4 blocks of that one and those were enough.

I was doing a house block pattern for a wall hanging...wasn't going to be what I had imagined...so wound up cutting the rest of the fabric into 5" squares, now I have enough to make an orange peel block quilt...so that fabric won't be wasted on something that I didn't like into a wall hanging...