Quilts are fascinating creatures with stories all their own from why they were made, to what went wrong while making them., or what went right while making them. Often when I tell the story of 49 Pieces of Chocolat the focus is on the what not to do with wool batting or the sewing room vortex of it all.
Today it’ll be the character of the quilting. You see it’s not incredibly good. Oh snap! I just did that.
I Always, Always, Always give my students the most important thing I learned from my first machine quilting class, “Show people what you did, don’t point out the flaws”
Sometimes my students show me their work, and try showing me where the quilting is not up to the competitive level of quilting that beginners should achieve right out of the gate. If I were one of my students the conversation would go something like this:
Jeanne* “my quilting isn’t very good
Teri, “it’s quilted isn’t it”
Jeanne, “yes but it doesn’t look like…”
Teri, “I’m the teacher. I don’t remember giving you permission to diss your work.”
Jeanne, “I know.”
Teri, “So, if I like it, and I’m not pointing out the ahem “problems”, then you don’t get to either.”
Jeanne, “okay, okay, I get it now”
*names have been changed to protect everyone involved
I don’t know if you’ve ever notices I can be, shall we say, a bit snarky, so I’ve had the “oh you’ve been free motion machine quilting for about 6 minutes! so you should be perfect with every stitch now.” conversation.
As we stitch and make some quilts with great character we develop our quilting character. Fun isn’t it! Should be experience shame when we’re learning? NO. Amiclearenoughonthat?
MJ Kinman – Go visit this site. Do not pass go. Do not collect a minimal amount of cash funding.
Now go quilt something,
Teri
