GingerK

And Gay, the name of the pattern for my niece's quilt is Magic Squares by Helene Knott. I admit that I had to search a bit because all I could remember was the 'magic' part of the name. The blocks finish at 12, 8 and 4 inches but enlarging the pattern's layout just didn't work. Using it as a starting point, on graph paper, I took 1/4 of the size that I wanted and played until I got the blocks to fit. Then it was just a case of peat and repeat for the rest. Hope this helps.

BonnieJP

Not installing the bobbin case until it clicked on my longarm before starting to sew. Caused lots of problems when the needle hit it.

Anniedeb

Glad I'm not the only one to go brain dead!! I was making two quilts. Totally different on top, but used the same backing. Needed quilt #2 done first, so I was machine quilting that one. At some point, my needle broke, so I stopped, replaced it, took a break, and grabbed a quilt, looked at the back, and decided I didn't like the way the quilting looked, so decided to rip it out. Spend a couple hours snipping, and smoothing....then wondered how the front was looking. Flipped it over, and I was undoing the wrong quilt. No wonder I didn't like the was the back was looking! I decided that it was just too late to be trying to finish, and I think my brain decided to just give up. Still haven't finished #1!

sewbizgirl

Yes, that's the pattern I have. I think I need to redo the whole thing. It's enormous. I would like to get the pattern reduced and then start over. I just have to buck up and do it!

Thanks for the great ideas!

sewbizgirl

Great quilts, Lois!

loisf

Ginger, the pattern is Diamonds in the Deep from bonjourquilts.com. The pattern is available in a PDF format for $15. I thought it was really a cool pattern too.

I just realized that I posted a photo of the unquilted top. Here is the finished quilt.

RedGarnet222

I think the worst mistake was having my hand in the way and putting a needle straight through my thumb nail to the other side of the thumb. It was late at night, and the kids were asleep, so I thought, yay perfect time to make my sister-in-law a denim skirt. Boy I had to find the pair of needle nose pliers to pull it out and then get it to stop bleeding. By myself. I cringe all these years later just thinking about it.

QuiltingPandaBear

I was making a holiday wall hanging as a gift, and was going to turn the back around to the front for binding. As I was trimming the front/batting (using a rotary cutter) I totally failed to properly tuck and protect the backing and slashed through my backing in several spots. Due to the post-quilting embellishments, un-quilting and re-backing wasn’t an option, and I wouldn’t have had time anyway. It was sufficiently busy fabric and I had extra, so I hand stitched patches onto the back to cover holes and consoled myself that it would be packed away for 11 months a year and facing a wall for month 12. Sometimes you gotta let go.

73+quilts

For ALL pre-wash jobs I use the Shout Color Catchers. Best invention ever made for us quilters. If the color catcher comes out the same color it went in----NO fading occurred. If it comes out in any other color--well you know.
I had a black fabric piece for the back of a quilt I made for a friend. It faded so bad that I went to a different store and bought some black fabric to use as a substitute for what my friend had brought to me. Prewashed it and it FADED! Never did put the black fabric in any quilt. I changed it to a nice dark navy blue.