So slow down already!
 

I teach piano and tell the kids frequently: the secret to success is SLOW practice and ... there's no such thing as too slow. But today I had a revelation in my sewing. SLow down already! I tend to Zippity Doo Dah through things and .. then have to SLOWLY rip. So today - as I sewed rick rack on an appliqued block and appliqued on those blocks I FINALLY learned that it goes so much better when I sew slowly. Sigh. Such an easy lesson - why am I such a slow learner? :)

It's just kinda like the whole world is today ... fast, fast, fast! One of my favorite sayings, and my family hears it a lot, is "if you don't have time to do it right the first time, you sure don't have time to do it again!" So yes, slow and steady gets it done!

I have to tell myself that sometimes too. :)

Sometimes we are our own worst students. I think most are in a rush to get things finished but then get frustrated because it didn't fit together right. I have always gone slow because I am so overly critical of my own work.

well, i am a careful cutter, and extremely careful about matching points, corners and edges.... and when it's all in the right place, i go as fast as the foot feed will go...am on my second foot control for a 10 yr old machine and had 3 for the last pfaff.... this one will last longer as i piece everything i can on my serger.....now that's fast! to each his/her own! enjoy... we should all love quilting just the way we do it.....

Someone on this board told me to slow down and take my time, that there was no rush in making a quilt.
As soon as I followed her advice my quilting was much improved.
It was the best advice, and I received a lot of good advice from all you quilters.
Thank you all.

I'm the same way at times! With a lot of things. DH always telling me to slow down!

Yeah My husband has a habit of telling me to slow down too and sometimes I will get mad and go FASTER!!!! Because I am aggravated at him for telling me to slow down...lol

I have never been a "speed" sewer, but my sister is !! The first time we ever got together for a long weekend sew-a-thon, my head popped up in SHOCK when I heard her machine going.....on applique mind you,......no wonder her stitching was a mess...She could never understand why hers didn't look like mine. I had to find a really nice way to let her know how much it would improve if she would just slooooowwwww down. She's doing better now but occasionally she needs a gentle reminder.

That's funny.....my husband is always telling me to speed it up. LOL Anytime we go shopping or to a sporting event I have to almost run to keep up with him. He just can't understand that I am short with short legs and my stride is NOT as long as his.

As far as sewing too fast. That used to be me too...always in a hurry to see the finished project. I've slowed down considerably; and if I don't quite understand something I don't just go ahead and hope for the best. I'll read the instructions many times and if I still don't understand then I will start searching online. The worst feeling is when you complete your project and it looks horrible. It gets stuffed in a bag and put away in the closet to be "fixed" someday.

I learned the hard way too and now have slowed down and don't need to rip as much. When I do have to rip, I know I've gotten tired so I rip and resew and take a break. "Slowly but surely" is something my grandfather use to say.

"SLOW down" - this should go on the "official" tip page - I know I can use the reminder - LOL

My first boss told me that over 40 years ago....and they're words I've tried to live by ever since!

I am learning that too, it really is so much better to not have to unsew.

thanks for the reminder on slowing down

My husband is always telling me to hurry up. I'm always tagging along way behind him. I don't try to sew fast; I have more control sewing at a medium to slow speed and I don't rip very much - I hate to rip! Happy quilting! :)

We all have to slow down sometime!

Good lesson learned. I have a friend who always strives to finish first and often ends up ripping because of it

I do my stitching/cutting work slowly. It doesn't bother me but I know that in some classes, the instructor becomes frustrated because I go slowly. Oh well!

I am a slow sewer but still have to unpick a lot. I can't imagine what it would be like if I sewed fast.

I am trying to heed that advice. When I do, my projects are much prettier!

Someone once said to me that no one ever says, "What a great quilt; it took you only 3 hours to complete!" Instead they say, "Look at the beautiful, carefully planned and sewn quilt!" or words to that effect. I have learned to slow down.

HA..but at least you learned...ehhehe
I taught beginner sewing & quilting for years in Alaska. I will never forget this one older lady that brought her machine to class so I look at it..she says to me " it sews fine at first, but then it just gets all balled up and breaks the thread"....ok...set her up, unthread it, remove the needles, remove the bobbin and lets start over...put it back together, and then had her sit and sew...sure enough..it sewed fine for the first 39 seconds...then off she went...

I started laughing...and asked her to stop...I gently said, " Ms. Becky, this is a sewing machine NOT a racecar! Perhaps you need to just slow down a bit and it will be fine"..we ended up making a box her pedal went it and it had a "STOP" block so that the pedal could only go down so far...what a hoot!

Thanks, that's advice that I needed to hear! A friend told me about 2 weeks ago that I sew too fast, and I thought I was going pretty slow as it was!

As humans we are great at giving advice, but terrible at taking our own advice. LOL

Sometimes I let the excitement of the next project or even the next step "pressure" me to work faster. I need to remind myself ... it will still be there.

I do go slow but sometimes I hit the pedal just right and machine goes very fast. I try to keep edges even and slow is the best way for me to do it. To each his/her own.

Oh yes. I needed to slow down. I could get a quilt top together in one day but I was always telling myself "Its good enough" And it was. But since being on this board and seeing the kind of things that were being turned out by people who took their time .... I decided it was no longer "good enough" , It had to be right. Now it takes me days and days to make a top. LOL

I have a speed adjuster on my Janome. I found out almost by accident that if I set it towards the slower end I enjoy the process so much more. Isn't there a song that says, "Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy."?

I saw your topice and my reaction was "have you been talking to my Mother?" She tells me this all the time but ya know what? I enjoy quilting, its my peaceful down time of each evening (when I get to sew). I look forward to each step and really enjoy it.

My DH looked at a set of blocks that I finshed yesterday and he commented that all the corners and points met perfectly. I told him that I slowed down and paid attention to every step. I call it my tortoise approach. Funny how we all come to the same conclusion (and all hate the frog maneuver - rrrrrrip it!)

I am a very impatient person and have paid for it with having to rip out seams in my quilts! I try to slow down but it's not easy for me. I'm 64 and you can't teach an old dog new tricks!!!

My grandfather's favourite saying-"The hurrier I go, the behinder I get!"

Not only do I need to slow down, but I need to learn to put it down. Once I get going on something I get whacky and can't make myself stop. My husband will come in at 2:00 PM and pull the plug on my machine. I think there is something wrong with me!

A very good reminder. I needed this. Thanks for the uplifting advice to pay attention to what I sew.

I'll never forget the one workshop my DD and I took together to make the bowls with the clothesline and fabrics. she said "Mom, that's the slowest I ever heard you sew. Is something wrong?" :)

Oh boy, that is me! Last night, my sister-in-law and I were both sewing in her basement. She was sewing at a sensible, conservative pace while I was pedal to the metal! Is it any wonder that her quilt tops are awesome? And, in spite of the difference in sewing speed, she has completed MANY times more quilt tops than I. Good thing I like quilting and don't mind doing her binding! ;) Good thing she doesn't mind sewing a quilt top for me now and then! :)

I teach quilt workshops sometimes, and I've noticed the people who can't seem to get the blocks sewn together right are the ones who stomp the pedal all the way down to the floor! Their borders are not straight and their blocks are wonky. . . they can't sew a straight seam. . . their "quarter inch seams" range from 1/8" to 1/2" or more . . . 'nough said.

This is too funny and I agree with you. I am a slow person in the first place, I don't zip around doing much of anything, just the way I am. Everyone would say "you are slow". One time a 4-h friend cut out my dress for me because she thought I was going too slow, well what a mess she made of it and I thought to myself, I would rather go slow and do it right the first time. I hate to have to rip out and I try to do it well so that I don't have to rip. Just the way I am.lol However, yesterday I was ripping right along, it seems like just about anything I did I did it wrong:mad:

Hehehe....do as I say......not as I do.

I love that saying! I'll have to remember it when I'm zipping along with my sewing. I'm not good enough to speed through this process, and I know I do better if I slow down. I've taken to automatically reducing the speed of my machine when I start it up.