We asked you to let us know about some of your quilting disasters, allowing you to share your pain and experiences with other quilters who may have experienced the same. Here are just a few, there will be more to come. Remember, you are not alone.
I sent out a quilt to be long-armed as I was in a hurry to get it completed and mailed out for a fifth. After my quilter called all proudly getting it my rushed timeframe, I went to her home to retrieve it. The quilting was beautiful and perfect. The only thing was that it wasn't my quilt. Seems she had been working on a few in the last week, and someone else picked up my quilt. After a lot of phone calls and searching; my quilt was returned to me; missing the date of the event it was to celebrate. – Tracy May
Many years ago I had taken a class from Ricky constructing a primitive patchwork quilt. I had four of my best quilting buddies over one afternoon and was showing them my finished top. I put the top over a small tv in my sewing room. I had lit a candle in a jar for a nice ambiance and an edge of the quilt was partly over the jar. We were talking and one of my friends noticed my quilt smoking. There was no major fire, but I had a pretty good burned spot on the edge of my quilt. (I shutter to think what might have happened). My dear friend Teri sat and removed all of the scorched pieces for me to replace saying that I probably wouldn't do it right away. I repaired the quilt and always think of that incident when I look at that quilt. I have not burned any candles since that time. – EmmaD
I have gotten very good at disguising mistakes over the last fifty odd years of sewing. Latest one was cutting a slit in my trouser knee as I didn't bother getting up to get the cutting mat while I opened up a buttonhole with one of those little slitters. Have a little flower embroidery on it now. I have done lots of things, - sewing seams the wrong way round, mismatching patterns, Works on wallpapering too. Lost count of the times I have stabbed myself with a needle or pin. Probably my best effort was when I fell over a cushion which was waiting for its new cover I was making, it was leaning against the wall near the kitchen door, and was out of the way, or so I thought. I swear I had gone past it ten times or more without any problem. It just fell over as I went past it. Broke my leg. My foster kids were upset as I had promised to take them to the East of England show, so I went anyway, I had an electric wheelchair at the time, as I have foot problems, so I took them anyway. Brilliant day out. – Susan Nash
I took a completed quilt top to a new long arm quilter. It was my sister's Christmas gift. I told her I wanted southwest motifs on it (howling coyotes, cactus, Native American symbols, etc.). She called me three weeks later to pick up the quilt. She told me, as I was unfolding my precious quilt, that she didn't really know how to quilt howling coyotes, so SHE DREW THEM ON THE QUILT WITH BLACK MAGIC MARKER! She wasn't a very accomplished artist. The quilt was ruined; I recommended she call a customer if she didn't know how to quilt something; and I did not pay her. For Christmas, I cut the quilt up and gave my sister a southwest vest. – Gonnahappen
We have had several quilting disasters. But the most traumatic actually happened to my oldest daughter. She had just finished the binding on a queen size quilt that she had made for her good friend. The wedding was the next weekend and my daughter was the maid of honor. My younger daughter had recently gotten a new puppy. I bet you know were I am going with this. My oldest left the newly completed quilt on the living room couch. Puppy had been let out of her kennel when my youngest got home and she was not paying much attending to what puppy was doing. I received a hysterical phone call from my oldest when she arrived home to discover that a fairly good-sized hole had been chewed in the quilt. Not on a side but two blocks in and about two blocks up. When I arrived later I began removing all the quilting and the damaged block from the quilt. My daughter made another block. Luckily, and I use the term loosely, the back had been pieced. I was able to open up a seam and cut out the damaged portion. Before fixing the back I sewed in the block for the front, whip stitched in a piece of batting and was able to hand stitch in a section for the back. We then made a large quilt label and placed it over the back to hide the patch. Since this all took a couple of days to do my oldest was now calm enough to load the quilt back on her long arm machine and re-quilt the repaired quilt. We wrapped the quilt and gave it as a wedding gift. Never mentioning the dog incident. It was the only time she ever chewed on a quilt. The two-time quilt chewer award goes to my own dog. But that is another quilt disaster story. - regahn
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