Really Dumb Mistakes-Open Line Friday

88 responses to “Really Dumb Mistakes-Open Line Friday”

1. What an excellent Friday the 13th topic! As I read thru the comments I was saying to myself, yup, me too, uhhuh, another whoopsie I’ve done, and then there were a few that were new to me so thanks for the heads up to watch out for those!! Not that it will stop me, haha. Thank you, Lori, for a good chuckle at ourselves. We are all in good company here. BTW, the noise that happens at my house when these things happen make the cats run and hide. It doesn’t translate well.

2. Well, I did stitch my Supreme Slider to the back of the quilt,…

   1. Been there, done that!

3. Haha, Just last week I quilted part of the backing edge. to the front.

4. lol, I did the same thing, except I quilted one of my quilting gloves to a piece

   1. I HAVE to KNOW … did you trim around the glove and leave it, or pick out? How extensively had you stitched the glove on? I haven’t done this one yet, but it’s only a matter of time.

5. I have done that too. More than once. (sigh)

6. What was the noise? You said you realized wat it was the next day, but you didn’t say what it was. So . . .

7. The most stupid thing I did that I can remember at the moment was trimming a bit off the border of an appliquéd sunflower quilt, not noticing I had it laying on top of the perfectly-created sunflower fabric backing, the only piece of this older sunflower fabric I had in my stash. GRRRR! Now there’s a long satin-stitched repair line across the backing. Sigh!

8. I had done this on a quilt that I was finishing to giving away in the next few days. Fortunately, the portion of the foreign piece of fabric that was attached to the back of the quilt was not that big and near the side edge. I was able to cut out around the sewn section of the foreign piece to detach it and put my label over it. No one but me and my husband knew!

9. I really loke the yellow pice with the checkerboard and flowers. Can you make this onto a quilt-along tutorial? Pretty Please!

10. Darned foreign fabric pieces show up in the darnedest places at my house too!

11. I have to admit to stitching my finger when I tried to do just a bit more at the end of a workshop.

    I have also hand stitched a dressing gown to the back of my project.

    I didn’t bleed on the quilt in the first incident, and cut a hole in the dressing gown so I could pull out the extra (fleecy) fabric.

12. I spent a whole day quilting away on a pretty block quilt. Nothing too fancy, lots of straight lines in an offset manner. Never did hear any funny noises. But when it was finished and it was time to bind, I turned it over to look and half the quilt was perfect and the other half the back was completely wrinkled. So I had to sit with the seam ripper for the whole of the next day. I never did find out what went wrong.

13. I guess we can take some comfort in knowing that even the experts make an occasional mistake!

    1. Generally speaking, the better one is at something, the less mistakes are made. However, when a mistake IS made, it is usually spectacular, takes more time/materials/effort to fix it, and it will always happen at the worst possible time. The mistakes I used to make that could be fixed with Jack the Ripper have morphed over the years into requiring extra fabric, Fray Stop, fusible web, Sharpies, and creative license (aka adding sashing, wider borders, and “I meant to do that”).

14. Lori, I think the extra piece on back is pretty. Can you use it as the label? Fabric marker the info on the flower petals?

15. I have already commented on here once but guess what happened last night. One side of my backing had about 10 inches of extra fabric that for some stupid reason I decided not to trim. That got folded under and quilted in. I’m thread painting on a panel quilt and working on some patches of grass so it is quilted in pretty heavily. I trimmed around the quilting to cut away the extra fabric. There are 3 patches that are quilted in. Haven’t decided yet if I will rip them out or not. It’s just muslin. The main reason I am considering ripping it out is because this is a quilt for my mom’s 90th birthday and I know she will be showing it to a lot of people.
    One of the other comments reminded me of another recent booboo. I was doing a self binding on a charity quilt. When cutting away the batting I accidentally cut into the backing fabric – 4 times! I cut out some little patches and appliqued those on. Ugh!

16. That makes me feel so much better! I have definitely done this before. I’ve quilted scraps of ribbon, fabric, and the folded edge of the backing onto the back of different quilts! Now I try to remember to clean off my table before I start quilting! Last time I heard a weird noise I was quilting the back corner of the quilt onto the back – good thing I actually ran out of thread before I got too far!

17. Well, as I often say, “Experienced quilters (or knitters) don’t make fewer mistakes; they make bigger mistakes faster!”

18. The mistake that I’ve made more than once and I probably will again, is having my cutting mat too crowded and cutting through fabric I’ve already cut up for a quilt. Ugh! I’ve had to salvage what I can and once I had to go back to the shop and purchase more. I have a cramped space and I keep telling myself to put my cut strips on the chair, I’ll learn sooner or later!

19. I have a couple funnies to share. First, I stitched through a small rotary mat. It was on top of my extension table for quick trimming while piecing a block. It managed to get under my picking and then under my needle. Broke the needle and left 3 holes in the corner of my mat. That wasn’t enough of a lesson because I did it again. Yes, twice in less than 30 minutes–I stitched though my mat.

    Second, I had marked the vein for some feathers in the center of a block. As I was stitching up the first vein, I didn’t see the safety pin behind my BSR and I stitched right into it. Snapped my needle into 3 pieces. Since each block had 4 feathers and I had 6 blocks to quilt, I was much more careful about where the pins were after that.

    I have kept both the mat and the pin as my “Don’t do this” trophies to share with classes as I teach.

20. Oh my – so first of all I just received my copies of your books – imagine my complete delight that you had autographed them and added a few of your amazing sample stitched pieces of art! Your hint about taping down the supreme slider made me giggle – I’ve certainly inadverantly stitched through mine when I get carried away with a big quilt. Your books inspired me to add some new ideas to a very large quilt. While I have to admit there is still some meandering – there are also some very cool inspirations thanks to you!

21. I was chuckling to myself when I saw the underside of your quilt! I have done that many times and still have not learned the lesson! Happy picking out the stitches!!

22. Why, oh why, are my booboo’s always happening right before I am finishing up a “perfect” project ?? It has happened so often, I have begun to take a break when I approach the end of something…When the end appeared close, I had always wanted to get done quickly and admire my work (LOL). Now I am happier with my work and am satisfied I didn’t send off a quilt I knew was not my best. I ask myself, Can I improve it or is it impossible to repair? Answer : If I sewed it the first time, I can sew it the second time. If beyond repair, then it was a beneficial learning experience.. Yeah, right !!