Top Ten Quilting Mistakes

I've made all of these mistakes while learning to quilt!

1. Using sheets for fabric. I've cut up white sheets-recycling-and tried a fancy designer sheet for the back of a quilt. Don't do it! The high thread county makes for difficult stitching.

2. Putting away a Work In Progress in order to work on something else more urgent-such as a birthday gift needed this weekend. I've discovered a few of those WIPs years later while cleaning closets.

3. Along those lines: getting into the habit of starting a new project before finishing the old one.

4. Not checking my 1/4" seam allowance for accuracy. It turns out that my presser foot edge is not anywhere near 1/4"! This has created quite a few wonky blocks.

5. Sewing one project on different sewing machines. I have my workhorse in the sewing room, and a portable hand crank machine I can use in the dining room when friends come over to sew. The presser feet sew different 1/4" seam allowances-and I end up with different sizes of blocks.

6. Thinking I can finish a king-sized quilt on my home machine. Seven years later I found a long arm quilter to finish that baby!

7. Using polyester batting. Those little white tufts that poke through the fabric are so annoying!

8. Cheap thread. Remember those 5 for $1 spools way back when? Throw them out! It's not worth the aggravation of broken threads and knots.

9. Not changing the sewing machine needle often enough. After 40 hours or so, those needles get dull! And, if you're like me and speed sewing over pins, they get bent.

10. Trying to save money and using that rotary blade for one more day, even though it has a hitch in its gitalong. Switch it out!

What mistakes have you made? Share with us, and enter our giveaway for a bag-0-scraps! Ends July 15th.

Organizing 101

I love this post by Bonnie at Quiltville. She has some great organizing tips for quilters. Here is one that I have already tried: Pin together 10 blocks at a time. No more counting one by one to learn that you have 77 blocks made, 23 to go!

P.S. These scraps are becoming an Ocean Wave quilt.