If you are a new quilter or think that someone of my experience has smooth sailing through all the quilting ups and downs Think again!!!

I can usually pick out part of a seam and fix the problem and then resew the affected area.

Not today!!!!!!! I feel like throwing the thing as far as I can and starting over!!!

I picked out the seam in part in two places after I tried to tame it with a second seam. I decided it still didn't lay down flat right so I decided to take the seams out .
Well when I resewed after fixing it or so I thought now it looks like this!!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:


Oh I will go back and fix it right but i just needed to vent first!!!!

Take a deep breath! Go do something else for a bit, then go back to it! I hate when someTHING like that gets to me. It does help to vent. {{{hugs}}}

I am ok now. I have taken the seams back apart and will start over here in a little bit.

I had a lady tell me recently that she was intimidated by the perfect quilts she saw on her and by my work. I was thinking if you only knew!!!

So here is the proof I am not a perfect quilter!!! I have more of these moments than I care to admit!!

Perfect or not, it will be beautiful!

Poor Rhonda, we all have good days and bad days. Have an early night and sleep on it. It will seem a whole lot better in the morning.

Ooopps, I just wrote the above because it's my bedtime, but the clock on the left is saying 13.25 - what time is it where you are? If an early night isn't appropriate, then just have a break and if all else fails, eat chocolate!

Thanks, on behalf of us newbies who assume that experienced quilters never have any snafus. It's comforting to know that the quilting gremlins can attack any place, any time...not just at MY house. :lol: :lol:

Love the colors in the block and look forward to seeing the finished quilt in the future.

Well right now it says it is 6:49 pm so I won't go to bed for awhile but I have taken a break and will probably go back and work on it again after while. Thanks for the suggestions! I can always eat chocolate!!

I don't do quilts I make hotpads and small stuff. This is one of 6 hotpad tops I have to make for an order. I willl post them when I get them done.
This lady ordered the 6 tops and I will make them and send them to her and then she will make them into a quilt at least I suppose that is what she will do with them.

Rhonda....get yourself a big mallet.
When the seams don't want to play nice, take the mallet out and show it to the seams. They'll play nice. If not...USE the mallet! ;)

I will definately keep this in mind!!! A little tough love huh!!!

So sorry Rhonda, I know how frustrating that is!!! :( :evil:

This newbie likes knowing she won't be alone with things going wrong once she's experienced. Sorry it happened to you, but I appreciated seeing it.

I'm glad you're okay now. I'm sorry this happened to you.

I am another one who is intimidated by the perfect quilting on this site. It's somewhat hard to share my quilts as I'm a new quilter as well (started in Dec 2008).

The quilts I have seen from the new quilters far outstrip anything I did when I started believe me!!!!

But we are all human and make mistakes. Mine is I hate to rip and I try to only take out as little as possible and this time I didn't give myself enough room to resew the seams I needed to fix. I had to take out the whole seam which I was trying not to do. Oh well I should have known it wouldn't work!
Live and learn!

I feel for you! I just spent 4 days picking out my long arm quilters stitches and let me tell you, those things were teeny tiny! :x

So glad I did it though, hope you fall back in love with this one soon.

When I get so frustrated I just put it down and walk away.. take a break and sometimes a short rest gives you new perspective. If not I agree with Terri.. get the mallot out and show it who's the boss :lol:
Shaon

Love it! Show it who's boss! :twisted: :twisted:

when I do a pattern with a lot of seams meeting I press the seams open and find that really helps

Because I do miniatures I always iron my seams open. It really is a necessity in minis in my opinion. My problem was that I hate to rip and was trying to redo a part of a seam without starting from the beginning. I had to go back and pull all three sections apart and start over. I ended up replacing a couple of HSTs because they were not cut right. I have a friend who does prep work for me and sometimes she is not as precise as I would like but most of the time I can finagle it and fix the irregularity. This was not one of those times.
I was frustrated because I had used differant methods of fixing it and this was the 4th time I thought I had it fixed and it really came out more messed up than when I started!! I found that I had not placed the new seam in line with the original seam so it got pitched twisted.
I had to go back and start all over to get it straightened up. I hate to do that and can usually only rip a small part but it didn't work this time. Oh well. I did get it done.

This is one of 6 hot pad tops this lady ordered. I have 5 more to go.

I call this Rollling Stars I know it has a name but i don't know what it is so I named it what I wanted.

Wow! That turned out GREAT despite your frustration. I was showing the gals @ quilting my Dresden plate top the other day. UH OH! The corner on point square was sewn differently than the others. Sooo... I spent the time yesterday taking as little of the border out as necessary, then ripped all 4 seams out and when I went to put it in the CORRECT way. It was not ON POINT anymore!! WHAT THE HECK!!!! Turns out I didn't get the PLATE part going the same direction as the other 15.. Soooooo, had to take THAT all apart, too! I HATE TO RIP!!! I would get the mallet out BUT this WAS "quilter" error and not "Fabric" error!! And after all--- who is in CHARGE HERE.. Who's the quilter and whos the FABRIC, right???? Nobody is perfect so why do we try so hard to be???? Still frustrating.. I am sooooo glad I noticed this before putting all the borders on and QUILTING it..... Would have been a RAG for sure....

I have done that! Got the hotpad all done and quilted and then realized something was out of place or didn't fit right!! By then it is an oh well moment!!!LOL
One time I went to clip a thread in a triangle on a hotpad that was all done quilted and everything and I clipped the fabric and created a hole! I can't sell it this way!!!! So I couldn't take it apart without spending a week picking out seams so I made another triangle and ironed the seam allowance under and appliqued it on over the original triangle! It worked and you couldn't tell unless you looked for it!! I appliqued it on with a blind stitch so you couldn't see the thread. Saved that goof! On to the next one right?

Love that pattern!! I hate days like that.

I used to have problems with HST till I used El burns method. Now I get perfect HST that have no bias edges. They go togather perfect too.
Her methods are so simple and always come out perfect.
Her triangle square up ruler is a must. Saves so much time and squares up a HST with one cut.

I prefer my own cut down method. My friend Dorothy does alot of my prep work. She makes me hundreds of them at a time. I make lots of hotpads and use alot of HSTs I call them half squares. I don't use anything but a template. No paper to buy no special ruler just the same template I use for everything.
I think it is quick and easy but not everyone likes the same things.

Rhonda, I feel you grief/pain/whatever we quilter's call it. Your finished piece there is great & she'll really like them.

Wish I had a nickel for every seam I've ripped in my life. Right now I'm having a hard time working on anything since my Viking has been at the dealer's for cleaning for over a month. Long story, but hopefully they will be in better health soon & can get it done.

Take care & stay cool.

Half the battle of getting a quilt to look good is the experience of knowing what to do to save a boo boo. It turned out brilliantly, so good for you.

Nice to know we are not alone in the "it just won't work out department". Also good to know...persistence does pay off. Love your work!

thanks Earthwalker. I am a bit of a perfectionist with my work but sometimes you just have to say oh well and live with it! LOL Most of the time what I was fussing about other people won't notice anyway!

Yes, I know how you feel. I am doing the Bow tucks bags. My cousin wanted one, and I (God only knows why) said I would. I decided to "ruin" some remnant fabric and learn how to do it. That bag is done and looks great. I have started on the "Cindy" bag and am already fed up with it! :evil:
I plan on fixing the mistakes this weekend and getting it done ASAP!... (I guess that should read As slow as possible to avoid any more mistakes!

Happy quilting
Susan

I was so frustrated with hand quilting this a.m. and I'm ok now as I decided to quilt my lone star by machine. I just can'tremember beans on the hand quilting and I knbow I'm not perfect either. I'm not good enough to enter a quilt in a contest and such. Too many quilt police I guess and with all the hard work we put into our quilts, it can be a pain when some one says some thing isn't right. I just think well it's my quilt, I'll do it MY way! Well I have two points all quilted on my lone star and I'm stitching in the ditch around all the little diamonds. One of the ladies posted a video on hand quilting, but there was no sound and there were flaws in the videos as they were sketchy. I do plan on getting a book and practicing on smaller items. Keep up the great work we all make mistakes,, that's why they put erasors on pencils. Huggies, Fay

Make that one into an oven cloth... then start again... good luck...

has it been pressed yet? that always does wonders.

That was last year and it was a hotpad for an order. It went out to the lady who ordered it. these things do happen from time to time! I hate to rip and I hate to have to fiddle with it but it is worth the time spent! LOL