Good Morning, Quilters!
Today I am confessing a dumber-than-average mistake I made. I decided to use this as an “Open Line Friday” post because misery loves company!
Do you remember several weeks ago, I was working on a daily challenge, copying a page from a book? I created several small quilt sandwiches for that project.
One evening, when I was in need of some “comfort quilting” to keep me distracted from the falling snow, I quickly made a large quilt sandwich and began stitching flowers! Big flowers!
I was totally engrossed in my Big Flowers, when I noticed an odd noise…
Hmmm…I changed my needle and kept going. The odd noise returned…Hmmm…
I re-threaded the top and bobbin thread and began quilting. The noise returned but I kept going and just as suddenly the noise went away. I quickly forgot about the noise and went on my merry quilting way.
It wasn’t until the next day that I realized what that noise was!
ARGH!!!!
I’m gonna be a great teacher someday–because I have made EVERY mistake!!!
What about YOU?
Any mistakes YOU can admit to in a public forum?
Any funny noises when YOU quilt?
We’d LOVE to hear!
May all of YOUR quilts be mistake (and noise)-FREE!
Lori
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thanks!
88 comments
Marta
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 !!
Linda McCormick
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!!
Lynn Ehrmantraut
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!
Princessquiltsalot
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.
Dee Morrison
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!
Susan Spencer
Well, as I often say, “Experienced quilters (or knitters) don’t make fewer mistakes; they make bigger mistakes faster!”
Pamela Boatright
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!
Pam Hotle
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!
Geri kuster
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?
Barbara Wrobel
I guess we can take some comfort in knowing that even the experts make an occasional mistake!
Arvilla Trag
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”).
Chris Reeske
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.
Virtual Quilter
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.
Barb williams
Darned foreign fabric pieces show up in the darnedest places at my house too!
Lorraine Doyno Evans
I really loke the yellow pice with the checkerboard and flowers. Can you make this onto a quilt-along tutorial? Pretty Please!
Lorraine Doyno Evans
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!
Maureen B. in B.C.
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!
Jacqueline Lee Lambie
What was the noise? You said you realized wat it was the next day, but you didn’t say what it was. So . . .
Kimberly McNeill
I have done that too. More than once. (sigh)
Margaret Gibson
lol, I did the same thing, except I quilted one of my quilting gloves to a piece
Maureen B. in B.C.
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.
Betty Back
Haha, Just last week I quilted part of the backing edge. to the front.
Marjorie
Well, I did stitch my Supreme Slider to the back of the quilt,…
Maureen B. in B.C.
Been there, done that!
Lauri
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.
Sue
I ruined a Supreme slider the same way. I was so mad!!!
But I’m really famous for sewing blocks the wrong way. I do it way too much 🙂
Arvilla Trag
I had decided to “self-bind” a quilt with the backing overhang. I trimmed the excess battting off three sides (with scissors), went to dinner. When I came back I put my ruler on the quilt and trimmed off the excess batting AND the excess backing. I then had to sew a strip onto the quilt to bind the fourth side.
Then there was the time one of my cats jumped onto an almost finished quilt laid across my cutting table. He misfired and in the scramble to not fall off the table edge, shredded a portion of the backing. Guess where I put the label? I think labels in the center of quilts might just catch on. Maybe.
l84quilting
Lori, I’d be curious if this was the most talked about issue for your open line Friday! LOL…. As we are ALL feeling your pain/laughter, I will tell you that the foot of snow we received overnight has not helped any, so I am making sure I pay attention after all the comments!
Kerry
Well . . . I have seen pieced backs of quilts – you’ve done one better – appliqued the back!
I’ve managed to quilt the extra bit of fabric on the side of the sandwich when it folded underneath.
CarolE
And here I thought I was the only one to make really dumb mistakes! Good to know I’m in really good company!!
carol randall
LOL oh yeah… I was happily stitching away… doing satin stitch applique’ I think.. and I remember thinking that the fabric was turning a little easier than normal ( I don’t have a supreme slider just acrylic table extension). Finished stitching and turned it over… ziplock bag stitched to the back!… Another time, I had a couple of blocks disappear – found them – stitched to the back ( again). Now, I always TRY and remember to check to make sure nothing is underneath that shouldn’t be. I’ve done some other ridiculous things, but nothing compared to these two.
CJ
My quilt mistake involved hand quilting. I had sandwich my first quilt together and based it. Put it in the big hoop and began the quilting. When I moved the hoop and checked the back to make sure it was smoothed out, noticed I had the wrong side of the pieced back out. Had that seam all the way down the back. Just kept quilting!
D. Joy Summers
Sorry, but it is nice to know even those we admire aren’t mistake proof to whoops.
Kathy
My worst “quilting something extra to the back mistake” was I quilted the dining room tablecloth to the back of my quilt! Now I take the tablecloth off when I sew…..
Barb Czarniecki
my dumb mistake is when I turn a corner while quilting the border, and only later learn that I didn’t smooth out the fabric underneath and have quilted in a BIG boo boo! Out comes the seam ripper and I have to try to match the quilting design before and after the mistake! ARGH!!!!!
Pam Hotle
Have to say I have never sewn a quilt sandwich into my quilt…..just odd bits of fabric here and there. You have to admit it really did show off your beautiful quilting. My most recent one….the quilt reached down into my trash basket and pulled out a big glob of thread that I then quilted into the quilt.
Jenna
I couldn’t work out what the wierd crunching noise was that my machine made, despite checking everything (nearly). Tried again, and again…then realised that I’d forgotten to change the foot, which was incompatible with the zigzag stitch that I was using. I still didn’t realise when the needle went through the punched holes in the plastic foot the second, third (etc ) time. It didn’t quite make so much noise, but still!
Lorna Joy
One time I was at a quilting retreat, someone bought a piece of fabric from me and handed over a five dollar bill. Later on in the day, I lifted up the quilt and saw the five dollar bill quilted into the back. We all had a good laugh about that.
Brenda Perry
I have loved reading how others have made the same mistakes that I have (Yes, misery does love company) although I have a mistake to confess I haven’t seen yet: I placed my final doodle paper nearby on top of sewing table for easy reference while quilting. Then happily quilting along – eventually don’t need to refer to doodle paper as much – keep quilting along even though machine began to make a slightly different noise – not much different, but different enough that doodle paper was quilted to back!
QuiltShopGal
Yeap. I have done that too, more than once. But I think I can top it. One time I found a card (like a credit card) that I had stitched to the back of a quilt. Good lesson to have a clean sewing space, as well as to stop and trouble shoot those odd noises ASAP. They do tell us something is wrong.
Mrs. Plum
My latest “shake your head” moment was quilting half a quilt with the bobbin spring inserted incorrectly. I had tension and thread break issues, but could not figure out why. Thank goodness for You Tube videos available 24-7 to help me figure out what was wrong! FYI, to keep from stitching through a Supreme Slider, tape it with masking tape on either side to your sewing machine and work table.
Judi
I’ve stitched over part of the quilt a time or two but my favorite oopsie was satin stitching a flower pin head and never broke the needle. I still use the pin.
Lynn
Hmm, what shall we call that? It’s not exactly reverse appliqué, perhaps “sandwich in a sandwich”? My fav faux pas is getting some of the quilt itself under my quilting.
Pat in WNY
From these comments, it looks like every quilter, me included has done the same thing – sometimes more than once! What took you so long to join our exclusive club?! Hehe
Holly
Oh Lori…I feel your pain. Been there… done that…TOO many times. I believe we learn best by the mistakes we make. Always enjoy your stories :>)
Rosemaryflower
I enjoyed reading the stories above, of course in the spirit of mutual significance.
I have made so many mistakes, and I am old enough now that I have forgotten them, some I make again.
Most of our goof ups we can laugh about even though they are frustrating and sometimes irritating or humiliating.
Let’s not ever get into a discussion about cutting mistakes ????????(not injuries, just measurement cutting) ….. unless you want to share stories about those efforts of recovery, revision, for example sewing pieces together perfectly so you can cut the right size. hahaha
Val
I had several blocks that were relegated to the BACK of the quilt because the ruler slipped or I measured wrong!!
Janette
Ya……guess that makes us all the same, stitched my slider to a quilt. ????
Just means we are human,???? we make mistakes . Lol! Very nice to know that we share so much! May the sun keep shining ???? Lol
Phyllis
Oh yes. Have sewed that extra that got folded under on the quilt. Just makes you want to hit your head. Thanks for letting us know you too make mistakes!!
Maryann
Eleanor Burns did that on either YouTube or one of her online classes. Was funny to see one of the quilt world icons make the same mistake as us mortals. If you don’t make mistakes you don’t learn
Marsha
I stitched the instructions to the back! I think we should all stop and investigate weird noises. Probably would save us a lot of grief!
Aileen
LOL! I didn’t see the problem at first. I have done this as well. On the good side, it was only a square of fabric and was able to cut it off then wiggle out the remaining threads. On a even better note, because this happen to me I was able to help a fellow quilt salvage her show quilt. She had sewn a piece of fabric into her quilt. We wiggled it out! SMH. LOL!
quilter1522
I’ve done the same, Lori, as well as too-many-to-count other mistakes! Call it an improv design!
Cheri
Well, yes, I will admit that has happened to me too, however one time, actually recently, my machine made a noise that was odd, I stopped adjusted “things” and then kept on going, only for about four stitches and then my needle broke! Never have I had that happen before! That break left a hole in the quilt! NO! Every thought went thru my mind, what am I going to do with this hole? Ended up stuffing the hole with stitch witchery, lightly ironing, then fraycheck and then the light went on how about an embroidered butterfly! You see this quilt is for Prior Crossing who works with 18 year olds who were in foster care, and didn’t get adopted. They each get a quilt for their “new adventure” into the world. Many of them have little or no belongings. My quilt is for a young lady. And I hope she can understand the one lone butterfly on her quilt.
sheilaoxley
Oh that’s wonderful! I think you should embroider a butterfly on all your quilts for Prior Crossing!
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