Thirteen Spools did a fun blog post where she outed some of her guilty-quilty secrets.
After a couple of my friends had a go (Hi Molli! Hi Cath!) I thought I’d join in… here’s my version:
1. I believe that most sins can be pressed, tugged, eased, or stretched out with a hot, steamy iron.
2. I would huff spray baste if I could, I love it that much. I know air-born adhesives are wretched things for both body and environment, and you have to keep buying it (I’ve had my pins for over 20 years), but I just don’t care. I don’t want to ever spend hours hunched over a quilt to pin it again. Glue rules.
3. What’s with deer heads in all the new fabrics? Is there a secret club that decides the cute-animal-motif-du-jour? First owls, then foxes, now deer. Bleh.
4. I don’t bury my threads. I lock the stitch and cut. And I sometimes don’t trim the back threads off for months, especially if all I’m doing it shooting for a pattern cover.
5. I don’t hold my threads when I start a seam, or use leaders/enders. If it nests a little, who cares? It’s in the seam allowance. And it hasn’t screwed up my accuracy enough to bother me. (I always pull the bottom up to the top when quilting though.)
6. I cut off the mat on anything bigger than about 10”. I figure that if I’m off by a thread or two, then it will press, tug, ease or stretch out with a hot, steamy iron.
7. I will mix straight and bias binding if that’s what it takes to get the job done.
8. I throw away seam rippers the second they start snagging when I try to run them up a seam. I buy them in multiples so I always have a fresh one waiting.
9. I dislike PINK with the heat of a thousand suns. I’m so happy other people like it, because then I don’t have to. And I think it’s great when other people dislike ORANGE because that means there’s more for me.
10. I utterly fail at and hate stitch-in-the-ditch quilting. I can’t stay on the line, wandering back and forth on it unless I slow waaaaay down. And I hate slowing waaaaay down – gotta Sew at the Speed of Sam, baby! So I stitch a 1/4 off the ditch like an outline. And some people think I’m being crazy creative… nope, just lazy!
I never pre-wash… I pray that color catchers work!!
Ditto!
I don’t bury threads either. Life is too short for that monotonous task! Also, I do NOT hand stitch the binding (or anything else for that matter) I do the whole damn thing by machine and I use a glue stick to make it happen. Well, damn, if that didn’t feel good to get off my chest 😉
I never hand stitch anything. Bindings? By machine. Hanging sleeves? By machine. Buttons? By machine. If I can’t do it with technology, it ain’t getting done.
I do like to hand stitch my bindings, but I’m with you on technology. Respect the power tool!
I don’t bury threads, I do more than my fair share of pillow case bindings, I don’t prewash unless it’s red. I despise hand sewing/quilting/applique anything! I love spray glue, glue sticks, monofilament thread, and I sew over my pins ALL THE TIME!!! I’m always buying new boxes of pins.
Brown is another color that can misbehave (probably because of the red that’s in it)
what’s an iron? ;p
Funny girl!
What IS with the deer heads? They were all over the quilt market photos, and I just wonder how everyone knew to coordinate… I’m with you on dislike of pink. I have also been loving orange this summer. I do enjoy that my color passions come and go.
I think the same people that pick the Pantone color are picking the animals. And that we should overthrow them 😉
Yes, what is the deal with cutting? (#6) There are great ways to be more accurate with cutting, and I use most of them. But seriously, a thread, part of a thread… there are SO MANY WAYS to be off by a thread. And most of them can be fudged. Any different stretch to a fabric, a different thread weight in your bobbin, pressing differently, twitching while sewing at the speed of Sam… We have to adjust no matter what. I cut the way that is easiest. Almost always that uses the mat for marking and the ruler as a straight-edge.
Here was my list:
http://catbirdquilts.wordpress.com/2014/08/23/ten-quilty-little-secrets/
your #9 is perfect! Yes… DESIGN matters…. not the name!
I began to write something, then deleted it. I’m not very good at confessing. I will admit that I bought one of those Deer patterns. I’m waiting for groundhogs to become popular.
Maybe something that just isn’t cute. Like baboons.
Pink AND Orange ~ together!
I never ‘square up’. Like it the organic way!
LOL Elsa… I tend to poo-pooh squaring up, too…. but I did that once when I was making a Card Trick quilt…. um… they LOOKED square (enough)… wow… not even close!! LOL
Elsa – I’ve seen your workmanship and it’s lovely… I bet you don’t NEED to square up!
Ah Sam, you are so kind!
I don’t like pink either and the more pastel and pretty it is the more gag-inducing I find it.
Truly.
I’m not crazy about purple or chocolate. That’s sacrilege to a lot of my quilting friends, but I can eat SweeTarts while sewing — stain free!
I’ll eat your chocolate!
I had not even heard of No. 5. You will have to explain that one to me, so I can also not do it…but by choice!
happy to show you at next sew day!
It’s a date.
‘cringe’ alert! ..Aurifil…I know it is all the rage and I have four spools of it for a special machine applique project but otherwise, I really cannot afford it for piecing and quilting. I like it, though. I do buy quality thread that leaves me with some money for fabric…I love fabric!
I don’t prewash, although, I have in the past. I’m older now and prefer less punative tasks. Life is short.
I do not square my backings before loading them on the longarm. I adjust it on the leaders so that it’s relatively straight. If the fabric is off grain, I toss it in my dog bed pile for the local Humane Society.
I use my quilts, machine wash and dry them. I hope my grandchildren use the heck out of all that I make for them…even the fancy ones.
I stitch bindings by machine…that’s why I bought one with bells and whistles…to mechanically do what I really dislike…hand sewing.
I strive for perfection, my perception of it but never have or doubt I ever will aspire to make show quilts.
Goodness..felt so good to unload that Samsonite; Thanks Sam!
Debra — just a thought. with 1300 meters on a spool of Aurifil, the price is pretty comparable to other decent quality cotton threads and your LQS should be able to get smaller spools if you use a lot of colors in smaller quantities… although smaller spools are significantly more expensive per yard (that’s true of any thread!)
Thanks for the info. I use cones as much as possible. I purchased the smallest spool for my applique project. I checked with my lqs… Cones are $55. 1300m are $14; doable for a special quilt
If I get in a pickle, I just put it away until Sam shows up again!
Truth!
I’m right there with you on all the animal motifs. I’m not into any of them. Of course I have to wonder what will come next. If it is hedgehogs, my daughter will want bunches of it. Aggg!
Hedgies are already out there…
I have a hell of a time with striped fabric. Once I sew and press it, they’re always a bit wavy.
Also, my batting is usually scraps pieced together! These days I have more time than money and I can get a large piece of batting out of 2″ strips if I zig-zag in front of the TV.
A charm square-sized piece is, to me, yardage! I routinely use very small pieces. 🙂
i confess to using my left over bobbins from the long arm for piecing thread regardless of what color they have on them.
Oh, I love the conversations that go like this” what do you think is the perfect color thread for piecing this fabric? My reply is always whatever M sized bobbin I have left over from the last quilt job! The backs of my quilt tops are very colorful!
I keep a lot of colored bobbins around, but mostly because I match my top to my bottom, regardless of the color of the back of the quilt.
Oh dear…I always prewash my fabric, knot and bury every thread when I’m quilting, square everything from blocks to backings…and I am a terrible thread snob and will only use Superior Threads to quilt with. Oh, oh, I know, except for show quilts, I always sew my binding down by machine!! I despise hand work and I positively loathe Sunbonnet Sue! (Naughty Sue or Dead Sue is all right though!)
Dead Sue is the best Sue!
I’m sure I could easily think of more than 2 if I tried, but these come to mind immediately: 1) I NEVER bought in to the “must pre-wash” rule! Sometimes I buy fabric just because it’s pretty and it makes me happy. Besides, I’m never gonna hand-quilt anything I make so why strip off that great finish? 2) If I have to cut off a point to square up a block, I don’t even wave by-by to it! I’m working on accuracy, but it’s ongoing. I’d rather have straight and true than “pointy”!
I think I love you!! 😉
The heat of a thousand suns – you’re so funny!!! I think I feel the same about brown – poo-poo color! And I am SO not into civil war, ditzy, little, dark fabrics. The brighter the better – it makes me smile!
I concur… one teacher once called me the “crayola color lady” and she didn’t mean it kindly (all her stuff was country flavored).
I love these postings — I’ve started one myself but love reading all the other things that other quilters are putting up because I’m like yeah i could add that. Love all of these except for the comment on pink — but that’s how i feel about yellow so it all works out
This 10 secrets thing has really been fun. I like going to the different blogs and seeing some of the different outlooks on quilting. It is very liberating. I actually had some trouble narrowing it down to just the ten. Thanks for sharing.