I haven't thrown anything away. I always figure I can cut it up and do some improvisational piecing if I'm really not liking something I've been working on.

For problems with seam allowances that just won't lay flat, I've been known to use heavy starch (stay flow mixed 50/50 with water) and smash them with the iron. If they're still not flat enough for my liking after they're dry, I take the top, flip it over onto a board covered with another cloth to protect the top and use a hammer on the backside to hammer the intersections where the seam is bulky. This is an old tailor's trick for working with bulky fabric like denim, but it works very well with quilt tops made of regular quilting fabric. I do this a lot when I've got a situation where lots of seams come together.

Rob

many years ago i made a grandmother's garden.
i designed and printed the fabrics myself.
i hand-stitched the whole top and then hand quilted it.
the only thing i did using the machine was to attach the binding.
while hand-stitching the binding ... down to the last few feet, mind you, i stuck myself with the needle.
blood all over the quilt.
no way to get the blood out without wrecking the prints.

it went into the trash.

lots of cussing that day.

Heaven's No! I have put something away for a Long time until I figure out how to fix or change it so it is satisfactory to me. I can't afford to throw away my fabric or time.

Oh Patrice - I am so sorry that you could not get the stains out after all that work!! I hope you took pics of your progress at different steps of your project so you could have something from all of your efforts!!

Rryder - That's the way to do it to flatten those fibers!! I LOL when I read your post but I have read/heard of tailors doing that. I collect vintage pressing irons and one of the tailor irons that I have from the early 1900s weighs 38lbs - it is a very large beast and I suppose the weight of it helped flatten the wool seams of many garments.

There's always a 'Plan B'... Unless the fabric is dry rotted, it can be used for something else or given away to someone else who will want to make it into something. My worst UFO is a very old small quilt I started decades ago as a wall hanging for my sewing area. It's rows of bright colored pieced spools on a black background. I had virtually no stash then, and used the WRONG kind of fabric for the background. Started hand quilting it and gave up. It sat forever, but now my cat loves it as her bed, folded in quarters. Great use for it!

Ahhh, so glad to read this today. I have a finished baby blanket with a crooked corner glaring at me from my finished project rack. I hate it. I could rip the seams and start over, but I want to just cut it to pieces and reuse what I can for a different project (and throw away the rest). It’s hard when you’ve spent money on it, but I feel like the reaponseain this thread from experienced quilters has given me “permission” to do so.

I have donated a TON of fabric. Impulse buys (or cheaper quality, before I knew better) that I fell of love with. I’m a fabric hoarder, but only if I love the fabric.

Don't throw it away until you read the Tutorial below. I think it was on page 6 of the Tutorial Section. At least don't act in haste; sleep on it.


hread: Achieving an Accurate 1/4" Seam Allowance

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01-12-2011, 06:35 PM #1
AndiR
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Someone was having trouble today with her blocks not being the correct size. I'm posting this tutorial to help anyone who is not sure how to tell if they are sewing accurate 1/4 inch seams. If this is hard to read, I have a version here:

http://www.andicraftsquilting.com/ac...-inch-seam.htm

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A friend of mine had purchased a rather expensive bag kit at a quilt show. She bought it to make and give to a niece expecting a baby. Well, the instructions were odd to say it nicely, she ended up cutting something wrong, I thought he could work around it with a minor extra seam (she was the one that told me the person receiving doesn't know what it is supposed to be, so simple changes aren't the end of the world). We were in a Vegas time share doing our yearly sewing get together - and she just got more and more disgusted with it. The next morning, it was gone - she had taken everything but the hardware and threw it down the trash shoot. She didn't even keep the instructions. I thought she should have written the designer or go on line and see if others had the same problem - turns out there were a lot of them. My friend felt vindicated - she has made quite a few bags and purses without a problem, so it was very frustrating for her.

But it gave me courage to throw things away and also give them away. I need to make a trip to our local senior center and give them the yarn I have that I can't seem to throw out. They make also sorts of wonderful items with partial skeins of yarn.

I have broken down and thrown out a few projects. They were just things I absolutely hated. Decided I have enough projects to work on and if I dislike it that much, it should go!

I never throw away anything like that. My choices making up donations quilts are not always to my liking so I finish them up and donate. My quilts go to kids that lots of times have almost nothing. I figure there is enough pretty fabrics they may like and they will be warm. A warm quilt to keep someone warm is important to me. I never put my name on any quilts.