Quilting Bloopers

[SummerK]

I'm a firm believer that we all choose our attitudes and those choices effect our moods, feelings, and even health. With that in mind, it can get really frustrating when we make mistakes and have to take out stitches and start projects and pieces over, so I do my best to laugh at my mistakes.

I often tell my husband that there should be a bloopers reel for quilters, so I thought we could do that here! We can laugh together and take more joy in what we do...even our mistakes.

Here are my latest bloopers...

1. I finished quilting my D9 table runner, and while trimming it, discovered that one end is almost a full inch wider than the other end! Sheesh! There's no good way to trim it down, so I'm going to bind it anyway and let it be wonky!

2. Working on another project...I finished my 9 patches, cut them, and was sewing rows when I found I had one fabric, wrong-side up! It was only one square and didn't take too much to fix, but I had to chuckle at myself for the silly mistake.

So what funny mistakes have you made? Please share with us, so we can all enjoy.

[RFREE]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

Me and my 12 year old daughter just finished a backpack bag for her on new years eve midnight (her first time sewing on my machine) I had put a pocket on the inside [B]before[B] she quilted it before we put it together, You should have seen her face when she turned that side over. Sewed right through the pocket. We were so tired we just sit and laughed about it. So funny.

[Sandy Navas]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

I'm working on a lap quilt for my husband's favorite aunt - I sewed tubes from a solid color and a print and cut to size, then cut diagonally from right to left to make triangles when opened up. Everything went well until I started piecing and noticed that I had cut one tube upside down and while I cut diagonally from right to left, the print is on the wrong side when opened up. Well, as Mom used to say . . . you can't see it on a galloping mule. And it always happens when I don't have scraps big enough to repair.

[debinmalaga]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

My most recent (of many) is my appliqued hearts table runner, which came out bowed. Lesson learned - leave plenty of fabric, so you can correct for unexpected curvatures of the quilting :-).

[jrchapman]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

I was rushing to put these blocks together for the block swap last year and I zooped the last seams together and rushed to the ironing board to press them. Was really excited to see that they were all turning out so well until I got to the last one:



It wasn't even the last seam that went wrong, I have no idea how that happened!

[SummerK]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

Wow, thanks for the giggles this morning, ladies!

Since I'm very new to quilting, I blunder on a daily basis!

Yesterday, I worked on binding for the very first time. I followed Jenny's sympoz tutorial, took my time...it was lovely, really. As I'm handstitching the back of the binding, I finish pinning the last side down. I turned it over to get a preview of my beauty...and found little green stitches poking through several different places!

I also managed to literally pin my finger to the runner and didn't realize it until I tried to move my hand... My 9 year old loved that one.

Keep your stories coming! I love knowing I'm not the only one!

[jrchapman]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

I've had many bloopers but it's all part of the learning process I suppose.

I made an owl tea cosy for my mum for Christmas. I drew around a plain tea cosy, added ears and cut it out. I didn't think about adding seam allowances until it was all sewn up and then it didn't fit on the teapot! Mum just laughed when I told her and bought a smaller teapot.

I've had that problem with sewing the binding too. Not enough attention paid when hand sewing in front of the TV.

[Sheila1946]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

I once read that every quilt should have a mistake in it, because only God is perfect, that is why when I do something like some of the bloopers I have read here, I remember that.

[chrina2]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

My 2nd quilt.....TOTAL BLOOPER!

Reason for all the mistakes: I did not have ANY quilting materials (cutting or measuring tools at the time......)
I used pieces of cardstock to trace and then cut by hand my material - and none of them were proper squares. I put it all together and started to quilt. There were HUGE puckers all over the front of the top, but I kept going.

Finished quilting the three layers together, and then realized how HUGE my mistakes were. I sat there and then decided to trace circles from plates, sewed those together, flipped right side out, and quilted the circles on top of my larges puckers.

In the end, my 'scrappy' quilt is awesome! Lots of little mistakes, and the majority of the quilt is squares/rectangles of various sizes with large circles in random spots over the top.

I really should post a picture one day....It was so much fun to figure out how to 'hide' the mistakes!

Chrina2

[Dragonfly]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

It was so much fun to figure out how to 'hide' the mistakes!
Chrina2

There are no such things as mistakes, just lots of opportunities to be creative. Even after 20 years I still give myself creative opportunities and when it happens in a class it's amazing how much it allows the students to relax. The benefit to making mistakes for me is then knowing how to fix other peoples creative happenings.

I love your solution to the situation and would love to see the result.

[Sandy Navas]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

ANOTHER ONE. I am prone to be a true blooper. I finally set my mind to finishing my lap quilt top this morning. I think I was being a procrastinator because I have having problems making my triangle points line up correctly. I finally decided I'd just go for it, put in some sashing and it wouldn't appear so obvious. That worked fantastic!! I got all the strips sewed to the sashing, joined the sashing to the next row, set my seams, pressed. Ah, satisfaction. I pinned the final top to my design board and stood back and admired it. Maybe not perfect, but I thought it looked great considering my level of competence. I walked away, peered at it again and decided I needed to take a couple pictures. Click, click. It didn't look bad at all.

And then it jumped out at me. One row was put in UPSIDE DOWN. And it is in the middle of the quilt top. Now, I could remove the sashing and turn that row over and no one would be the wiser. But, as my husband often tells me - it is a DESIGN FEATURE - and I chose to leave it. Maybe no one else will ever know it.

Left my camera downstairs but I'll try to post the pictures later this evening and we'll see if anyone else spots the BIG BLOOPER...

[Dragonfly]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

Sandy I really love your husbands perspective on it and what's more historians absolutely love these design features. It gives them something to study and consider...did the maker intend this, why didn't they fix it etc, can't you just see it, what fun.

[feetfirst]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

Who knew that sew-on snaps have an outi and an ini? On the package the two snaps look just alike! So when I sewed on one side of the snap on the cell phone cutie strap going one way, and the other side of the snap on the cell phone holder going what looked to be the right way, imagine my dismay when the two snaps would not go together no matter how hard I pushed! My husband helped me take out the multitude of stitches - he couldn't believe how many stitches I had put into those little snaps.

[Texsam]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

Lol Sandy I'll have to remember that with my next blooper!

[Keepstitchin]

Re: Quilting Bloopers

Sandy, I love your husbands perspective!! I will remember that!

I have read that the Amish purposely make a mistake in their quilting because only God is perfect. Well, I don't have to do it on purpose, it just happens!

I made a wreath type of wall hanging, and one set of squares is upside down, but it took me forever to see it....after it was quilted of course! Will post a pic later.
I have a table runner that has one tiny square wrong side out!!

My old quilt instructor said if you can't see it 18" away, then neither can anyone else and don't worry about it!