I always find that after a night's sleep things don't look so bad in the morning. And besides, I wonder if any of us would even see the things you are seeing as so bad. Don't be discouraged and just keep on quilting :)

you are not the only quilter in the world who is better at one phase than the other.

there are those who can't join a point or a straight intersection to save their lives. yet, their freemotion is so beautiful you can hear the angels sing.

i'm usually pleased by the results of my piecing. the quilting? yoiks! you can hear the angels laugh, cry, and sometimes call ralph! but they surely do not sing. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I think every quilter has felt this way about some project we've made in our quilting history. I have a quilt a triple Irish Chain quilt all pieced and ready to be quilted that I made while taking a class at our LGS several years ago. I've made two attempts to quilt it; the first was stitch in the ditch, but I 'ditched' that idea after wandering out of the ditch too many times. I tried again another way, but quickly stopped. I took it to quilt bee and got the opinion of some of the other ladies, and that helped. I hope to successfully finish it soon. Sometimes things can look bleaker when we're tired, especially at night. I've often found things look better the next morning. One more thought, I found a special stitch in the ditch presser foot is well worth the investment. That plus a thread that will blend in helps a lot, but it is still tedious. Machine quilting is the hardest part for me, and I too feel so inadequate. But I'm determined I WILL get the hang of this machine quilting thing if I keep at it:-) Let's just keep quilting!

wavy lines are great. or echo quilting 1/4 inch away from seams or pieced blk sections. keep trying, you'll do fine.

This is one of those areas of quilting that just make you want to scream. Don't be so hard on yourself, know that there are many 'seasoned' quilters and those that consider themselves experts that use a seam ripper more often than they'll usually admit.

I am the first to say I 'rippit' a lot some days. There are classes fmq, hand quilting, and lots of things but it all comes down to practice. What looks imperfect to you will look beautiful to someone else.

Enjoy it, relax, shake your shoulders frequently, and most of all go slower than normal. You'll get it. We expect ourselves to be able to do everything perfectly the first time we try and it's just not feasible. Learn to live with upside down/wavy lines........you'll truly enjoy your quilting more!

Hugs

everyone is bad at first, there are very few people in the world who can just sit down and stitch beautifully right from the beginning, instead of beating yourself up put together some small quilts and start practicing on them start small (like a 12" square) you can make it into a potholder later...as you get good on ones that size make a 15" or 18" square and keep practicing, making your practice projects a little bigger as you master each size. you will be pleasantly surprised how quickly you are quilting queen sized beautiful quilts.

Do not be so hard on yourself. I made a quilt and to this day I still do not feel comfortable even attemting to quilt it. I have practiced on potholders and oh my !!!! I cannot even follow a line I traced..

You may want to try stitching a 1/4" from the ditch, I like this much better, I can't sew a straight line either. I usually FMQ with a large stiple, after you wash and dry it it will look okay. Look at it across the room and it will look good.

Been there. Oh how I wish I didn't understand but I sure do!

I used to take my quilts to the longarmer until I got one myself. I couldn't quilt those big quilts eighter, don't feel bad.