What I learned today about quilting
 

Trust yourself.

I wanted a serpentine down each alternating strip of my new quilt top, but I didn't trust that I could do it myself, so I used the machine stitch. It looks nice, but after doing three strips, it just isn't quite what I had in mind, so I took the plunge and did one strip myself FMQ, thinking I can always rip it out.

Well, now I have three long strips of machine serpentine to tear out, because mine looks just like what I wanted. :thumbup:

So, ladies and gentlemen, trust yourself and your skills and your vision of what you want on your quilt and you'll be pleasantly surprised, like I was.

Have a great day!

Watson

How awesome it is that you did better than your machine! Good for you for trying it yourself with results that you wanted.

A giant step

And if it isn't exactly what you one in mind - usually only fabric and time was involved - not like one was doing surgery on a living thing!

speak for yourself bear...lol just kidding. I couldn't resist. Yes I need to listen to my inner quilter when I am inspired.

Sometimes my ideas work out really well - other times - they end up being "a learning experience"!

No stopping you now!

Yay Watson! Great job on stepping *way* outside the box!

That has to feel really good!

I applaud you!! That's how I started, only it was all me from the start. I did a meander all over the background on an "Antiqe Teddy Bear" baby quilt & I just keep striving to improve. :-)

What was it you did not like? Was the machine stitch too tight in the curves, or not elongated enough?

It was too tight and too pointy, not "organic" enough, if that makes sense.

Watson

Your lesson is one that is hard to learn. I often find myself putting off doing something that I will think will be difficult or time consuming, only to find after I start that it's not so hard after all.

One things that I have learned is that my work looks "better" after I have stepped away from it for awhile.

I did my first wholecloth last year as part of our LA group's annual challenge. There were parts I was not so crazy about at the time. But now, several months later, I look at it and say "Wow!! I did pretty darn GOOD!!"

Sometimes our focus is so close, we can't see the forest for the trees... and our forest looks much better than we thought when we were standing next to just one tree.

And some of us get so busy looking at the veins in the leaves of the tree, that we don't even see the trees!

This happened to me. I did a charity quilt with a swirl design. At the time I did it, I remember thinking...I'm not at all pleased with it. Then, later, I was going through and restacking the quilts at church (where I give them away) and I thought, "Oh, this one's neat...did someone donate that one?" Then I realized it was the one I did, that I wasn't pleased with at all.

Often when trying something different like that I will try a test piece using the same fabric to see how it will do.

That is an important lesson that I am still trying to master. Trust myself? Not sure why it is so hard for me at times! And I so agree with the comment about seeing only the veins in the leaves instead of the whole forest. Told myself just yesterday, this quilt is to show my love for the recipient not to save someone's life with pure perfection, not to hang in the Smithsonian as an example of this era's best work...made me feel that much better. Wish I had come to this point earlier, myself.

I used to have a riding instructor who told me that she didn't care if I didn't do something perfectly as long as I failed BETTER than I did the last time I tried. That it (dressage riding) was a journey and it was all about baby steps towards eventually putting the whole picture together.
I think that applies to quilting, too. Each time you attempt something, a new technique or whatever, you might not get it perfect, but you get it a little better. And all those improvements add up to a thing of beauty.

Watson (Who is still ripping out serpentine stitches. Those things are really in there!)

Way to go! I wanted to try my embroidery/darning foot for FMQ all summer and still haven't tried it! :)

Connie

I agree, sometimes it just takes giving ourselves a good talking to, to get our nerve up and go for it.

I just got a HQ Sweet Sixteen sit down quilting machine. I love, love ,love it. It has lots of room for my big quilts. It
gets the quilts finished so much faster. My arms and shoulders are not hurting so bad from pushing, pulling and repositioning the quilt on my Janome. The Tru stitch came with it as a package special but after using it a couple of times, I just FMQ as usual. The owner of the store I bought it at said if you are a FMQ already most people don't like
it but if you are new at it or have a disease like Parkinson's it helps those people to continue to see with hands shaking. HQ store owners came to my home and helped set it up and gave me a lot of information about it. That's
was great. The HandiQuilter.com has lots of videos on YouTube that have great instructors and answer any question you might have. As fas as I am concerned the best service I have ever gotten in 30 some years of sewing and quilting.
Then you can call the company anytime and they also will help you. I wish I found out about this machine years ago.
Lots cheaper than big quilting machines and doesn't take up all the room in your sewing room.

Good learning experience...