What's the silliest thing you have done while quilting?

[karen f.]

Please can someone find my printer for me

Sometimes when I can't find something big like that, it turns out I gave it to one of the kids. Is that a possibility?

[Marion D.]

well, I can't SEE my printer right now, because it is buried under all the bills that get paid on the first of the month. So I can understand losing a printer.

[Rita C.]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Wendy that printer is going to show up as soon as you buy a new one. :lol:

[Rita C.]

Recently, I broke a brand new needle while trying to zigzag using my straight stitch throat plate. ops:

Also, I broke a new plastic free motion foot and my last size 11 needle just before finishing the quilting on my first quilt using the foot. They broke because I did not have the foot tightened enough, such that the vibrations loosened it. When the needle hit the loose foot, both the foot and the needle broke. The lesson learned is, when changing the foot, to always tighted the foot with a screwdriver and not just by hand. :idea:

[Lotti D.]

When I put things away in a place so safe I can't find them again, I blame my mom! She's been doing that for as long as I've known her, so either the trait is inherited or imbibed, and it's all her fault. of course I also lend things (big or small) to everyone and anyone, and am then surprised if they are not around, or, as in some cases, they never come back!

[Lotti D.]

I haven't produced that many finished projects... so this is what I can recall right now. Using a blue pencil to painstakingly mark the quilting patterns onto my first quilt, in 1983, only to still have those marks visible today! Can't remember if it was me, or the lady who quilted it... but somebody ironed over those pencil marks. ops:
Promising my 12 year old nephew that I'd embroider his name on some jerseys when we visited at Christmas, only to pack EVERYTHING I needed, EXCEPT my Pfaff HOOPS! How painful, to have to explain to him why I couldn't do it, and had to take his jerseys home with me...

[Lotti D.]

oh, am I happy to see this thread today! I've been working (well, was working, now taking a break to do school exams/have my boys do their school exams) on my son's comic strip quilt -- first big quilt I've done. So far I have:

-accidentally had the backing sort of fold over and get sewn over on itself at the outside edge (3 different times so far......)
-broke the Free Motion foot, not sure why (maybe not tight enough, like Nancy says?).
-tried to FMQ with a regular foot, but then I had to have the foot in the up position, which after I sewed (noticing that it was all loosey-goosey, but not sure why...), my sewing mentor told me that meant the thread wasn't on the tension thingy, and sure enough, that whole section has to be done again b/c of bunchy-ickiness on the back
-zig zag stitched my 1/4" foot to the quilt, but after reading this, thankful my 1/4" foot has a little hole over in the needle left position so at least I only sewed the foot down, didn't break the needle....

and, not on this project but on my first quilt ever I pieced the backing from 2 widths of fabric -- fabric with a semi-directional print. You guessed it, did not pay attention to that and sure enough, the 2 halves of the back go in opposite directions. ha!

Oh, and once doing an all white mini-quilt (small small, like 12" square I think it was), a single Cross & Crown block, I managed to get *one* triangle in wrong-side-out. Of course way in the center. Of course not noticed until the whole thing was together. I left it like that, as it was barely noticeable, and once quilted over it was *really* not noticeable.....

So glad I'm not alone in these!

[Rita C.]

And Heather the reassuring thing is that you don't need to be a newby to do any of those things! I managed to get a great fold into the back of a small Christmas quilt I was making this last Christmas and with so much FMQ work on it there is no way I am unpicking it. So it got thrown into the pile that will become cat blankets. But such is life. I suggest that you pin, with safety pins, around the very outside of your quilt to stop the edges from trying to sneak back under.

[Lotti D.]

Yup, heather, you are definitely not alone... And I love the term 'bunchy-ickiness', I've managed quite a lot of that too! :roll: :wink: :roll:

[Constance G.]

Yup, heather, you are definitely not alone... And I love the term 'bunchy-ickiness', I've managed quite a lot of that too! :roll: :wink: :roll:

Me too!!! "Bunchy-ickness" definitely needs to be added to the Webster's Standard Quilting Dictionary!

[Constance G.]

And Heather the reassuring thing is that you don't need to be a newby to do any of those things! I managed to get a great fold into the back of a small Christmas quilt I was making this last Christmas and with so much FMQ work on it there is no way I am unpicking it. So it got thrown into the pile that will become cat blankets. But such is life. I suggest that you pin, with safety pins, around the very outside of your quilt to stop the edges from trying to sneak back under.

dare I admit it was the excess backing that hangs off? the edges are pinned, but that excess (you know, 4" extra all way around.....) folded over, bunched back to the quilt itself and got caught in the edge when I got there. Luckily was easy(ish) to fix......or small enough to decide that it will likely be cut away when I square up the quilt in the end! LOL!!

[Lois B.]

Heather, Sorry for your difficulties, but just as the rest have said, it doesn't only happen to newbies! And besides that, it was just good to hear about how the work on the comic quilt is coming along. Keep at it. I am so, so sorry to hear about your FMQ foot to have gotten broken. Hope you get a replacement real soon. BTW when the pressor foot is in the up position the tension disks are not engaged. That, I believe, is standard in all machines. Good luck.

[Lois B.]

Heather, Sorry for your difficulties, but just as the rest have said, it doesn't only happen to newbies! And besides that, it was just good to hear about how the work on the comic quilt is coming along. Keep at it. I am so, so sorry to hear about your FMQ foot to have gotten broken. Hope you get a replacement real soon. BTW when the pressor foot is in the up position the tension disks are not engaged. That, I believe, is standard in all machines. Good luck.

no replacement yet, but super glue is holding it for now

[Lotti D.]

Three cheers for Superglue!

[Rita C.]

Hurray, hurray, hurray!

I know that with some of the older machine you could actually take the foot off and FMQ that way, but mine won't let me do it. Worth a try?