Quilting Pet Peeve
 

I was wondering what is everyone's pet peeve for quilting. My #1 pet peeve is seeing the little tiny threads lying around I cannot stand that and pick one up whenever I see one. My #2 pet peeve, and I know none of you have this problem, is ripping out what I just sewed. Someday I will learn to pay more attention to my sewing!!!!!!

My pet peeve is when someone borrows my scissors and doesn't put them back where they found it.

make a mistake when cutting, then not having enough fabric to redo

~ when i'm rushed everything I do is wrong...
~ when no matter how many times i read the instructions I still cant make it right..
~ when I cant find one of my 10 seam rippers when I need it
~ when I run out of bobbin thread and don' notice till I think Im done
~ When i really want to sew but in in such a funk that i cant stay on task and work on a millions things and nothing gets done

I saved hard and went with out lots to buy a fancy embroidery machine
and some one who says Oh you can make this for me you have
that fancy machine and can do it much nicer than me.....of course never
offering to do anything for you of offering to pay . Really makes me angry .

I seem to be really good at un-sewing. Guess practice makes perfect!!

piecing a square or quilt top only to realize it was not sewn into the correct position, usually because I was not paying attention!

co workers who think I have nothing better to do then hem their pants!

Chained sewed 40 HSTs together; went to press them and they were ALL sewed on the wrong side. I had 40 larger triangles--rip, rip, rip!!!

Mine are:
Running out of bobbin thread without knowing it.
Sewing under pressure ( I don't work well under stress)
People coming to me and asking me to mend, alter, or make their clothing.

When everything looks right but it just won't go together right or won't lay flat when finished.

People who think I can make them a queen-size quilt for under $100!

A day when I just want to happily sew and the phone keeps ringing. Even if I don't answer it I still have to listen to the ringing.

the quilt police --- you may have met them --- relatives who don't know up from down about basic sewing let alone quilting who pick apart the project you labored hard on. They are why I make quilts for the little ones and hang the adults! LOL

Running out of bobbin thread. I have the Janome 6500 and ity has a seperate motor for winding the bobbin without unthreading your machine. Never can get it to work. The 2 threads just tangle so I'm still unthreading to fill the bobbin.

My pet peeves:

Designs that are not printed straight on the fabric

People that assume the way they were taught is the ONLY way to do something. For example, I never saw a seam ripper until I was 13. I tear up more stuff with a seam ripper than I do using scissors to pick stuff apart.

And....this one is dumb, but.....yellow fabric. I hate the color yellow for the most part. There are a few exceptions but I am stewing over this because I signed up for a BOM at the LQS and it has more yellow than I think I can handle. I know....I am crazy. But, it is okay. The people in my little world know me and accept me. LOL

My biggest pet peeves are:

1) laying something down and not being able to find it (scissors etc.)
2) dropping my needle and not being able to find it (biggest pet peeve of all)

My pet peeve is cheapo quilters who won't buy the specialty tool or ruler for a class but show up and expect to borrow it from those that do have it and have the instructor say that's okay, I'm sure everyone will share. I have to go tracking down my borrowed items when I need them. I go to a lot of classes and workshops and this seems to be a very common thing.

Dropped pins. I never know that they have dropped until my DH finds them. I think he is an expert in finding dropped pins. He always steps on them. I never step on any--just lucky i guess.
Sue

Designs that are not printed straight on the fabric. Running out of bobbin thread but finding out after you just finished A 3 yard strip. Also my embroidary machine, people how think you can do thier embroidary for next to nothing. Also who people order quilts then don't pick them up, long time friends as family, people you trusted not to put a down payment on.

I hate it when I chop off points or can't get my corners to match up.

- Bobbin running out. My Babylock is suppose to have a sensor but it rarely work.
- My fabric getting eaten by my sewing machine. (A new staletto has helped some)
- My DH using my cutting table for his projects because it is bigger and less cluttered than his workbench.
- Finding fabric on sale a week after I've bought some.
-Sewing needles that break in the middle of a project.

working with pinwheels and not being able to get the points to match.....finding the perfect fabric in my stash and then realizing there isn't enough for the project.....men who know absolutely nothing about sewing who want things fixed and then try to tell you how to do it......trying to find a pattern that will work with the fabrics in your stash because the budget won't allow new purchases

My pet peeve is when DH sneaks in and gets one of his screwdrivers, the calculator, one of the permanent markers, as well as the kitchen scissors (he does the cooking now that we are "retired") AND ACTS LIKE HE HAS A RIGHT. Imagine how much quilting time is lost getting those things back!!!

Being in the mood to quilt and can't because I have some other project around the house that has to get done first. Like pay bills, clean house, laundry. Or run the dogs.

---not being able to find something I know is in my sewing room (usually scissors or seam ripper)
---chain piecing smaller pieces without pinning - and finding that every 2nd or 3rd one is off enough that I feel the need to rip the seam and re-sew.
---bobbin thread running out - yet I don't notice until I have sewn for some time after (and am excited that I got a section, or a long strip, done)
---probably my number 1 pet peeve right now - no matter how carefully I cut, press, piece - darn it all if some of my squares are slightly off. On my current quilt, this will be my first try at squaring up my blocks before assembling the top.

My pet peeve is not having as much time as I would like to have to quilt.

When I put something down and can't find it when I reach for it again.

When I've got the "fat finger" syndrom and drop that darned bobbin I've just wound, only to watch it roll across the floor undwinding itself.ARGH

"Painting myself into a corner" by having everything close by and having to get up , only to have one thing slip, followed by the others.

You'd think I'd learn not to crowd myself.

The pet peeve that drives me very batty, is when my husband comes to me with an elbow out of the sleeve. And he thinks that I can fix anything. Most of the eblows do not have any fabric that can have a patch attached to. He has told me that all I have to do is bring the fabric together and sew it up. I love him and have told him that I would give him a needle and tread to do it himself, he just walks away and tries later to get me to do it.

My main pet peeve is being interrupted by family members when I am sewing. I don't get much time to sew and when I do, I guard it like a dragon does treasure. I get an endless stream of interruptions and usually they are at a critical moment of stitching or cutting and I HATE that! (how do you kindly tell your five year old to get lost??)

I guess after that, my other main pet peeve would be making careless errors. It is one thing to do something wrong because I don't know better, but man does it bug me when I DO know better and still goof up!!

I would have to say my #1 is running out of bobbin thread and not knowing until the entire side of binding is put on.

#1 pet peeve: my own sewing skills: after measuring and measuring and sewing carefully and measuring, then cutting off excess only to find that the piece is too small. and I keep doing it!
#2 pet peeve: being told that scrappy quilts and quilts for dogs are not REAL quilts ... and ... "When are you going to do a whole quilt?"

Someday I will grow up enough to wear my big girl panties and let things like these go ... until then, I'm here!

To all the others I would like to add:
1).Missouri quilts on Utube!!! It doesn't have a stop button, so I can really take a good look at the quilt block I am trying to put together. I get so frustrated, going over and over the same small section.
2).Spending hard earned money on a ruler and finding out that it isn't exact!!!
3).Fabrics that bleed and bleed and bleed after repeated treatments. And the time spent trying everything to stop the bleeding, and then it still bleeds.

Okay, I think I have had all these pet peeves at one time or another! I guess my biggest one is just wanting to quilt and having my time monopolized by a hundred other things. Arghh!

Persons who critique (really I mean criticize) my work, my color choice or my technique in a mean spirited way and just about every one of them has never produced a quilt that I have seen. They talk about the many projects that they have made but I have never seen one of them.
(thanks for letting me vent that!)

My number 1 is fabric that bleeds.... As my Mom would say ... "if we can put a Man on the Moon....." ! It just amazes me that in time we still have to contend with fabric that bleeds. And maybe its just me but it really feels like it happening alot more than I ever remember it ... even some of the top manufactures still have this issue.

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...

Just read all the threads, wow I thought I had peeve's, guess not.. lol ..I get mildly bothered by the empty bobbin thingy, awww shucks all of your peeves are the same ones that make me call my machine silly names , or toss some things around the room hehe All part of the FUN ;)

Why does my machine know when I am in hurry? If itinerary is tight, the bobbin will run out (and I won't notice until I've chain pieced an additional 30 units), the thread will tangle, the needle will break, the feed dogs will eat the tiny triangles..and we haven't even gotten to the 40 other things that will go wrong with FMQ.