Avoid Quilting Mistakes : A Beginner's Top Flops and Solutions

With the fast pace of today's world, homemade items are growing in demand. One of the crafts making a comeback is quilting. The intricate pieces and exquisite small stitches beckon the most world-weary to a simpler time.

Anyone who has seen a quilt must at some moment have wondered about picking up the craft themselves. It is no wonder that in their eagerness, beginners can make mistakes that may cause them to quit quilting. This article will outline the top five mistakes beginning quilters make and how to avoid them.

Difficult Patterns

The most common mistake of beginning quilters is strangely the reason that attracted them to the art - the pattern. While visiting a museum or flipping through a book, they see a quilt that astounds them. They want to make that quilt and they want to make it now.

Unfortunately, the quilts that inspire such love are also the quilts that take the most skill. Choosing a difficult pattern, such as a wedding ring ,will only lead to frustration.

Solution: Choose something simple in the beginning. A good bet is to choose patterns with squares that can be strip-pieced like a Log Cabin. The web site quiltville.com has excellent beginning quilters patterns.

Gifts

Nothing can frustrate a beginning quilter more than planning their first few projects as gifts. This is because gifts should be perfect. Instead of concentrating on the process and the thrill of learning a new skill, the quilter is worrying about getting the points exactly right. Instead of picturing the quilt, they instead picture of the face of the recipient.

Solution: Let your first few quilts be gifts to yourself. You will appreciate the effort you put into the project like no one else can.

Time Limits

Time limits go hand in hand with gifts. They both put unnecessary pressure on beginners for no good reason. The truth is that beginner quilters do not know how long it will take to finish something. You can estimate that you can put the binding on in a day. Once you get started, however, that last bit of work could stretch out to a week.

Solution: Until you become familiar with your own particular quilting rhythms, give yourself plenty of time.

Fabric

Another mistake is buying fabric so expensive you will not cut into it. Perhaps you have read you should buy high quality fabric. So, you get your pattern and order your fabric. You may even have washed and pressed your fabric. The problem is that it just looks too good and pretty to cut into it. You do not have the confidence to cut something and you are concerned that it may not turn out like the way you would like.

Solution: In the beginning, go cheap. Check out the clearance section of fabric stores.

Being a Perfectionist

As we get older, we forget what it is like to try something new. Being a beginner means making mistakes. Your first quilt is not going to be perfect. It's going to demonstrate exactly your skill lever. More than that, it is a reflection of who you are at this moment in time. The pattern, the fabric the quilting design all reflect who you are right now. Included with that are your mistakes. Love them. Appreciate them. Without them, you will not be able to see your growth.

As you can see, beginning quilters can make mistakes that will turn them off from the hobby before they even begin. Learn to enjoy the process of learning to quilt and you will have a hobby you can enjoy for years.