That is the beauty of quilting. Nobody can tell you, you can't do it that way. For me, I like the slow and steady route. I like seams to match up and points to be present. Does it always happen, no, but I strive for it to. I think when things do match up and I do follow a pattern it makes it easier and more enjoyable in the long run. Quilt making is a process that builds on itself and if you take care of the details along the way you won't have to stress how to make it come together in the end. My friend is fast and casual and I am fine with that. She is happy and I am happy.

Are you kidding?! No quilt is perfect! I'll even bet that the fancy ones hanging in the best quilt shows have a few mistakes! Relax, enjoy the process of making them, and the warmth and love the bring.

The word perfect isn't in my vocabulary and I'm really glad. It would take the fun out of so many things for me.

Some of our quilting ancestors were so good they probably could have made a perfect quilt. But that would be challenging the creator so they included deliberate mistakes. I personally never let perfect get in the way of good enough.

I've been told there is no "perfect" quilt which I'm glad to hear about but I do try to be as perfect as possible. I know I can't stitch a straight line to save my life but I do the best I can and make it work. I quilt my own quilts and I have robotics but from time to time I don't make accurate moves or choices, still no problem but I do try to work around it and better my techniques with every quilt I make. Of course my quilts will never be in a quilt show and that doesn't matter to me as I make my quilts as gifts to others and I know they will be happy to receive it knowing all the work that went into it. They won't look for the flaws........which is good to know, they'll look at all the love I put into it to make it special just for them. That's what matters to me.

Heavens No! The Quilt Police will tell you that you do and the competitive people who quilt for Shows will tell you that you do. But the joy of creativity overwhelms the critics. Like Nike commercials, Just do it. Have fun. Watch a few Jenny Doan tutorials and you will see how to have fun with it.

One of the ladies in my small group is an improvisational quilter. Her blocks are similar but do not exactly match. Depending on what she is doing, her seams don't necessarily match. She has a great eye for color, loves to have a sense of movement, and her quilts are always gorgeous.

I'm a bit more precise/perfectionist/OCD whatever you wish to call me. But I'm also dealing with progressive vision loss. My best quilts are probably behind me, but I have years of quilting ahead of me (I hope!). I'm trying different styles like string quilts where matching isn't so important. I use techniques now that I used to call "fabric wasteful" like making half square triangles by taking two squares, drawing a line down the middle and sewing on that line, cutting off the excess, instead of cutting triangles and piecing them together "properly". Because I can't read rulers well any more, I make a lot of templates and what I call "snubs" which is a template of what to cut off rather than what to keep.

But my biggest advice for new quilters is to work really hard at a consistent seam allowance. A basic 9-patch is probably not what drew you in, but it is a great thing to use to work on those matching seams and seam allowance. I really stress what I call "driving practice" to new quilters. Learn your machine, develop your hand/eye coordination, and learn that seam allowance! You don't get to drive the Indy 500 with a learner's permit. When I first started quilting I was self-taught, it was before rotary cutters, I came from a garment construction background and I used a 1/2" seam for years as 1/4" seemed so impossibly tiny.

Been quilting some 40 years now, and while some projects have gone together easily and well, I've never made a perfect quilt either. I believe I can/could... but LOL never had to add a mistake, those just happen naturally. But what I've learned is how to work around those issues and make a quilt of lasting beauty and comfort. For me the end goal is a usable quilt, not a wall hanging.

Realize that being close up with your project magnifies its flaws to you. Step back, let some time pass and it will all be just fine. It's that thing Sandy said early in the thread, if you can't notice the flaw from 6 feet away from a galloping horse, there is no flaw! And as one of my other small group members says friends don't look for flaws, they look for love and they see the love :)

Why do you think that? That mindset is crippling. If I let the thought of not doing something perfect stop me then I'd have a dull life for sure.

An Amish person told me that was not true. No Amish would ever presume they could make something as perfect as God could so no deliberate mistake was needed. She had no idea how that myth got started but she has heard it all her life and no Amish wants to be perceived to others as they think they can be perfect.

Some of the best workmanship in quilts I have seen have been made by Japanese quilters.