What was your worst goof up?
 

Yesterday I was feeling blah but decided to go ahead and sandwich my quilting project together. The backing wasn't wide enough so I added a piece in. Ok....that works! Proceeded to spray baste and pin only to get down to the last 5 inches and found I was about 7 inches short on the backing! What?? How had that happened? I know I had held the top and backing up together and had enough backing so what happened?? Had to stop and add another piece to the backside. It will deffinately be a patchwork when completed. What was your worst mistake?

I'd say it is the time I ran out of background for one of my first pixel quilts. The flimsy is on the wall in my workroom. I order plenty now!!

Marrying my first husband. On the quilting related side: when it took me so long to finish my son’s quilt I had used the remaining fabric that was supposed to be binding for something else. Since it was only a two color quilt, it took me forever to find a binding that would work. From this mistake, I learned to put the binding with the quilt if it wasn’t getting bound quickly.

This has happened several times: When I put a quilt on my longarm, I tend to put it too close to one side of the backing. Then I hit the clamps when I get to that side of the quilt, so I take the clamp off, and pull the backing by hand to try to keep it taut. Lots of times, I end up with a pleat in the backing, so I have to take the quilt off and "frog" the stitching. Aww, nuts!

My worst mistake in sewing was when I was in college. I was making a skirt and was in a hurry as I wanted to wear it that evening. I was finally finished as I put in the zipper. It was perfect. The best I had ever done...a perfect zipper, but in the hem of the skirt. Oooops...as my mother would say "haste makes waste".

My worst ever was the running red that bled and spoiled a quilt. It was a bad fabric, I had prewashed it. It never stopped bleeding and turned a sophisticated Blue, Maroon, Silver and White project into an orange (the faded maroon) and baby pink monstrosity. To make matters worse, a few pieces of a white cotton/poly blend had made it's way into the quilt and those pieces remained un-pink...

The only major dye issue I've had in 40 or whatever years -- it was a major one!

I've had other things, like the queen-sized Storm at Sea, I had put on all the pieces for one step incorrectly (the narrow triangles around the diamond). I do like do all of a step at a time but I've learned to double check. After taking them all out and dealing with the bias edges and everything I put them on again, this time on another side of the diamond -- and I again put them all on wrong! You have to learn to laugh at yourself, and it helps to vow to never make the same mistake again and learn from it.

Picture is of the bad fabric. The blue I had was from the same set, no problems. It was a reputable name bought from a quilt level shop. The darker fabric is from the actual quilt, it had been prewashed before use and a couple of times after. The lighter fabric is the same pattern as my blue, it has been washed at least 7-10 times? I found it at a thrift store and instantly knew why it was there. I was putting in safety pins to count the washes but after awhile I needed the pins :p It has never stopped running.

There are too many to list! lol

I did something similar but I didn't realize it until I was down to the bottom on the quilt frame and then I realized why I had so much backing on the sides. I'd attached the backing sideways instead up and down so I had to take the whole thing off and add a piece. I have another quilt just like it but I made sure I had all layers on correctly this time. GEESH!!!!!

I hit the clamps when I get to that side of the quilt

I saw a video about how to not bump into the bungee clamps. I think the quilter put a ruler or yardstick across the rails raising the clips. Something like that.

I was in the middle of my over-confident intermediate quilter years. Finished top, all HSTs. Picked out the perfect backing from my stash. Layered and plunged into my first try at spray basting, quilted nearly all of the quilt with my best attempt at meandering. Not bad, acceptable. Then I turned the quilt over. Yikes! The back was all covered with tucks. WAAAY to many to ignore. I wept internally, grabbed my Clover seam ripper and picked out ALL of the quilting for days and days. Pressed the top and back, re-layered with spray baste, double checked that the back was a smooth as the front. Lesson learned. Went back to practice my meandering and it was nearly perfect, I found one tuck near the edge and picked out just a tiny little bid of my work, restitched, buried the tails, added binding and Ta-Da, finished. I would say this is my most loved snuggle quilt. Guess that is because I spent so much time with it, pick, pick, picking.

I just looked at the label on this quilt and I named it "Patience". Tee-Hee-Hee