Austinite

1- poor quality batting sucks. when my el cheapo batt fell apart and destroyed my project I learned my lesson!! I spent good money on the fabric but cheaped out on the batting and paid for it in money, frustration, and heartache! After that I went and got the baby/craft sizes of various brands and tried them until I found a consistently good quality favorite within my budget.

2- change your needles! I like to change about every project, maybe after a couple baby blankets or a few times during a bigger quilt. when I started sewing nobody mentioned about changing the needle and I must've overlooked it in the books I read, I'm ashamed to say I used ONE needle for my first year of sewing! when I figured it out sooo many issues disappeared! I get needles bulk on Amazon, way cheaper than JAF.

3-if you get upset or frustrated walk away from your machine! I yanked too hard at a birdsnest and ended up messing up my timing...expensive lesson! plus my shop was backed up so I was without my machine for nearly 2 months! If only I'd relaxed and then come back and rethreaded, etc....

4-don't listen to downers! I like bright fun fabrics and sewing/quilting teachers and classmates can be very rude about my fabric choices, I'm much more selective about classes and I've learned to ignore the haters, I'll do my art with whatever fabric I like

5- have a cup of tea and a favorite film on for FMQ, really makes a difference. Ripping out half a twin size FMQ sucks...

bearisgray

I think log cabin blocks and pot holders are "tough" first time projects. Although the log cabin block is a great place to learn where one can get cumulative error - cutting, sewing, pressing -

Bree123

It's never a good idea to pull a quilting all-nighter. Morning light will come & reveal a multitude of mistakes.

When measuring with a ruler, make sure the lines on the ruler are thin because if they are too thick, every cut will be off by 1/16" and that adds up across the width of a quilt.

Yellow Ultra Clean markers are the hardest to get out of fabric. I use all the other colors. (Also, one of my earliest mistakes: when you are a beginning quilter, do not mark your quilting lines with the air-erase purple marker because they will disappear before you get the entire project quilted.)

If your quilt is marked with FriXion pen & it gets ironed (not saying by whom), you can bring back the marks by placing the fabric in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Color Catchers can solve most any problem that involves ink or dye running in the wash. Don't overload the dryer or dry on medium/high as those promote crocking.

Dryer sheets are very bad for quilts, but very good for cleaning fusible webbing off of irons.

And, the most expensive mistake I learned: do NOT iron completed embroidery with an iron on high heat. It will melt the (rayon) embroidery thread & destroy your iron... and then, unless you own an embroidery machine, you will be paying someone to re-do all that beautiful embroidery work.

bearisgray

Why are dryer sheets bad for quilts?

Jeanette Frantz

I can't speak for quilts, but I did have an experience -- I was a member of a professional association, and a convention was being held in our city. The theme of the banquet was "Southern Belle", so I made a Southern Belle dress. I washed it (it was completely washable polyester crepe), used dryer sheets -- dress came out of the dryer with spots it didn't have before I washed it. I washed that darned dress three times, used two cans of shout spray. I ultimately did learn some fabrics just don't like dryer sheets -- the dryer sheets will leave spots! Suffice it to say, I don't use dryer sheets any more -- Dryer sheets will also, I've been told, stop up the screen in your lint filter on your dryer -- stopping the air flow can be dangerous -- another reason I don't use them!

bearisgray

Some more things I've learned -

If/When offering to make a quilt for someone - be specific about what you are willing to do. I was thinking about making a couch size quilt - about 60 x 80 - and the person wanted a king size quilt - to the floor, no less! We compromised with a quilt that covers the mattress and dust ruffles.

I've learned to be aware of the replacement cost of the items I'm making.

I have also learned that it's okay to say "no" - in most cases, a "no" with no further explanation seems to be the most effective. Sometimes I have to say "no" to me when I think I want/need whatever.

If someone specifically asks to have a quilt made - would they be willing to trade their professional expertise hour for hour with what it will take you to make a quilt? I don't care if the person is a $1400/hour lawyer or a $8/hour whatever pays that - my time is valuable to me - and my skill level is high. Why not value it properly!

There will be things that are so-so at best. And some things are duds. I still have not come up with a good way of dealing with the duds.

I mostly write them off as "learning experiences". Sometimes learning how not to do something is as valuable as learning how to do something.