Quiltingboard Forums - Quilting Pet Peeve

okay, as a longstanding seamstress... for all those with 'freebie friends'... there is a wonderful way to fix this... the minute someone asks me to hem pants, make a free (or nearly free) quilt, or fix alter anything...I say, "Absolutely, I don't have a price list with me but if you like I will bring one in tomorrow." Then if they still want to talk about it (trust me, most don't...they'll say yes, but you will never hear about it again)... put those prices right where they belong... and if someone wants to pay you $10-15 a seam (that's right, $20-30 to hem a pair of pants)... then you just hem happily while planning what that $20-30 will buy for your sewing room. and no one will want the quilts at a decent price, mine start at $100/baby, $200/twin, $300/full, $400/queen and $500/king. This includes NO supplies, they furnish fabric, batting, backing and thread. And NO, that is not too much. and if they want to pay it... you will get to make an entire quilt with no cost to you, lots of fun and have some pocket money, as well. If your response to this is that you don't want to charge your 'friends' that much, then you don't mind as much as you think you do. and if you don't want to hem pants, even for $20... then make $30 the base...just raise the price till they go away. They can take them to any dry cleaners in town for alterations. And the embroiderers? no problem...when they blanch because you begin all embroidery work with $20 thread charge and then $15 per motif....you say, "my machine cost $XXX thousand dollars, I have to recoup the original cost".... that's them, the people leaving quickly.....

bobbin sensors not working? make sure you close the bobbin door...the sensor has to have 'dark' to work right and if the door is open then enough light comes in to mess it up... for those without enough scissors to have one on every surface in your sewing room...go outside and count your husband's screwdrivers... and then go shopping... for little stuff, i have those school or party packs of fiskars kid's scissors, just for clipping threads and little stuff and they are EVERYWHERE in my house, every pen/pencil cup, every junk drawer, every sewing basket and bag.... and my purse (they are round on the tips, they won't hurt anything). Having these means I can hide my 'good scissors' where the family won't find them... I find tupperware to be the ultimate hiding place, no person in my house is gonna open something that means work for them. put in fabric to camoflage...

and for the youtube problem....this one is so easy to enjoy... the double bar on the left black sliding bar is a 'pause' button....wait till they get to the part you want to see, use mouse to click on the double vertical bar and then study till you are ready to click on the 'right facing arrow' (play button), to start the video again...

For the young mom...why do you think most quilters are grandmas? I have been quilting and sewing since I was a kid and my available time came and went with the stages of my life. When i was single, i could go home and sew till 1 am if i wanted... but when there were little boys at my house, i sewed after 8:30 or during naptime, you can vacumn while you talk to a little person (or give them a ride on the vacumn) but you can't concentrate on matching points and be nice to them at the same time. the only answer is giving him two pieces of fabric and teaching him to sew them together...he will either join you in your pursuits or get bored and go build something from legos.. (which is why the legos lived in my sewing room for most of my children's childhood years). But the hard part is that he will only be 5 this year... for one year... there is no answer to that.

and the BOM? well, now we have arrived at my pet peeve..... kits, BOMs, mystery quilts and pre-cut fabric squares, strips and triangles.... I don't want to make someone else's quilt. I want to make mine..with my choices and my color palette and my block choice and layout ideas. Nothing wrong with any of these things for people with no time or who are just beginning, or who want the social experience of doing something with a lot of people. But where is the right place and the right time to take off the training wheels... I get ticked when i go to a quilt show and see the same quilt over and over because someone gave a class and did not encourage her students to branch out with their own color choices even. i mean i see the EXACT quilt...a lot...who wants someone else's quilt on their bed/wall? we have been using the same blocks for centuries and there is still a way to make them our own with color and texture and quilting designs and border designs... why are we giving away our choices? Knock off the training wheels... yellow is the complementary color to a royal blue....knock out EVERY yellow piece of the blocks you haven't made yet...replace with the complementary and you will have a subtle, yet colorful block with your own stamp on it.... do you like orange? replace with that... still the same type of contrast, but not yellow.... want it more subtle? go with white in every yellow piece.... why would you let someone else choose a color for your BOM? it's YOURS..... enjoy... they have much to teach you about construction and piecing and handling seams...but the colors are YOURS....

okay, i hope i did not offend anyone with my pet peeve or my advice... i'm a fixer and i cannot resist when someone tells me they don't have enough time to quilt or tools or money (no one is cheaper than me when it comes to buying EVERYTHING on sale).... if your dishes are done and your kitchen is tidy, you just spent your quilting time on something else... you can't complain about no quilting time if you spend all your available time cleaning up after someone else rather than making a new mess yourself... and if you just can't sew till everything is tidy....fine...good choice, just realize it IS a choice. My dishes get done when I get stiff and have to get up from the sewing machine and move around for a few minutes...and my floor gets vacumned when one of the kids does it or one of the grandchildren asks for a ride...whichever comes first...