Go Back  Quiltingboard Forums >
  • Main
  • Unintentional intentional mistakes >
  • Unintentional intentional mistakes

  • Unintentional intentional mistakes

    Old Today, 09:42 AM
      #1  
    Member
    Thread Starter
     
    Join Date: Mar 2026
    Location: Marion, IL
    Posts: 35
    Default Unintentional intentional mistakes

    Just curious. Does anyone else make unintentional mistakes in your piecing but then intentionally leave the mistake in the finished top? Maybe I'm just weird, but I have a psychological aversion to perfect quilts. If I make a minor mistake (i.e. turning a sub-unit the wrong direction in a block), I usually undo the seam and correct it. But first I evaluate how it will look in the finished project. If it isn't going to be a huge, glaring distraction from the overall pattern/layout, I'll leave it in. I try not to leave more than 1 mistake; I do care about the quality of my work. And, as any quilter knows, there are sometimes mistakes that we don't detect until the project is complete. So some of my projects have more than 1 mistake but I don't consider it the end of the world.

    My apologies to all the perfectionists out there who are cringing right now. You do you. It is what it is.
    Daren P is offline  
    Old Today, 10:00 AM
      #2  
    Power Poster
     
    sewbizgirl's Avatar
     
    Join Date: Oct 2010
    Location: Mississippi
    Posts: 27,354
    Default

    No problem... it's still a quilt, right? Still warm, still snuggly. If you can live with it, so be it.
    sewbizgirl is offline  
    Old Today, 10:35 AM
      #3  
    Super Member
     
    Join Date: Aug 2018
    Location: Peoria, IL -- Midwest Transplant
    Posts: 7,319
    Default

    I've never had a perfect quilt yet, some have been close... but I've never had to make a deliberate mistake plenty happen on their own. Sometimes the mistakes get left in, sometimes they get fixed.

    I did a scrappy Storm at Sea and it had been quilted and hanging in a guild show before I noticed one of the fabrics was wrong side out. Now, we have two sides to fabric the one we intend to use and the one we did use -- I planned on the other side. I figured I had handled each block about 24 times during just the construction part and never caught it, quilted it all over and didn't catch it, did the binding by hand.

    Short form: had I noticed this one, I would have fixed this one. But no one else has noticed it and the gifted owners never mentioned it either. I feel ok about not fixing it... working with scrappy style I will put in special fabrics with my own meanings for the recipient. Sometimes I put them in without mention, sometimes I let the people know. I think nowadays (20 years after that Storm at Sea) I would say that "Btw there is one piece in there that's backwards -- gives you something to look for when you're sick in bed".

    Iceblossom is offline  
    Old Today, 10:56 AM
      #4  
    Power Poster
     
    Join Date: Jan 2011
    Location: Southern USA
    Posts: 17,912
    Default

    When I get a fabric turned wrong side up I leave it. IF someone points it out, one guild member did once, I said, I know isn't it fun?
    Onebyone is offline  
    Old Today, 01:08 PM
      #5  
    Power Poster
     
    Join Date: May 2008
    Location: MN
    Posts: 25,208
    Default

    I might fix it if it's before the binding has been put on.

    I "cringe" when someone says that he/she "deliberately" made a mistake. Really??

    bearisgray is offline  
    Old Today, 02:02 PM
      #6  
    Super Member
     
    Join Date: Aug 2010
    Location: Central Iowa
    Posts: 2,397
    Default

    Just like me I don't make mistakes I do alterations
    newbee3 is offline  
    Old Today, 02:06 PM
      #7  
    Power Poster
     
    Join Date: Jan 2011
    Location: Southern USA
    Posts: 17,912
    Default

    I "cringe" when someone says that he/she "deliberately" made a mistake. Really??

    I don't cringe, I mentally put them on my ignore anything this person says or does forever.
    Onebyone is offline  

    Posting Rules
    You may not post new threads
    You may not post replies
    You may not post attachments
    You may not edit your posts

    BB code is On
    Smilies are On
    [IMG] code is On
    HTML code is On
    Trackbacks are Off
    Pingbacks are Off
    Refbacks are Off


    FREE Quilting Newsletter