Three Things Machine Quilters Should Stop Doing: How to Improve Your Free-motion Quilting

hi i'm angela walters from quilting is my therapy calm and i just got home from quilt con in austin texas where I had a blast I taught a lot of classes and actually gave two lectures as well one of the lectures was called becoming a better quilter in this lecture was unlike anything I normally do instead of giving them ideas for picking quilting designs I turned the tables a little bit and gave them tips for making their practice sessions more productive show them how to hide quilting mistakes without taking them out and then finished up with three things that they could stop doing to enjoy the quilting process more the response to the lecture was great and I thought it would be fun to share those three things that you could stop doing as well just in case you weren't able to make it to lecture or quilt con at all now when we're learning machine quilting or really any other skill we probably go to books or tutorials and get ideas for things that we should do to make that process a little bit easier but instead of telling you what you should do I'm going to tell you three things you should stop doing the first one is stop comparing your worst to everybody's best we all do this on some level whether unconsciously or whether we're totally aware I think about the times that I get on social media and I see that this lady is a great mom and this other one wrote three books in a year and she finished a hand applique quilt I don't even know how to handle okay it's so easy to get discouraged when we compare where we're at with the best of several other people I think the quote that sums us up the best is comparison is the thief of joy how often have you finished a project let's say a quilt or something like that and felt so proud of it until you got to quilt guild and a lady before you in the show-and-tell showed off even more stunning quilt it can be easy to let that overwhelm you or to even discourage you but the fact of the matter is you're doing your best quilting right now and enjoy the process of learning when I learned how to quilt over 12 years ago I didn't have Instagram and there weren't tutorials and not not even really very many blogs about it in fact it was just me and my husband's grandpa quilting together now that meant it took a lot longer for me to learn how to machine quilt for sure because I was teaching myself and that means I had the worst teacher ever but I also enjoyed it because every step was a mini victory I thought wow I finally mastered the leaf meander and then I could move on to the next one so instead of beating myself up for not being where everybody else was yet I was enjoying the steps along the way so be proud of where you are right now and enjoy that I think about when we go to show-and-tell at guilds right you hold up your project and everybody tells you how great it is that's what it should be like you should be your own cheering squad the second thing that you can stop doing is stop pointing out your mistakes don't point out your mistakes don't point out your mistakes do not point out your mistakes as I travel and teach and give lectures you would not believe how many people will point me point out their mistakes to me and I say I don't care I'm proud of what you're doing this looks great all over so when somebody comes up to you and says I love your quilt or your quilting looks great just say thank you you may know that there's mistakes in there but the thing about it is our eyes see perfection and other people's stuff so when somebody else is looking at your quilt they're seeing the overall package and they're not thinking about those little errors that they don't even know are there it's kind of like the idea that you could take a picture of ten women and show a picture of it to each of the women and they would say that they all look the worst we are our own worst critics but instead of pointing out your mistakes just say thank you now I know that could be hard for some people so if you don't feel comfortable saying thanks say something like I had fun doing it or I'm glad to finally get it finished something like that because when you turn down their neck their compliment by pointing out a negative aspect of your quilt you're kind of telling them that they're not being truthful so don't point out your mistakes whether it's to your family your friends or even your quilting customers and lastly don't forget the purpose of the quilt if you've ever taken a class from me if you've ever read my blog and if you remember nothing else I hope you will remember this do not forget the purpose of your quilt if you've ever been quilting and you're looking two inches from your face it could be so easy to see every mistake and to use that as an opportunity to berate yourself or be proud of what you're doing but instead of focusing on an area that that is that big focus on the purpose of the quilt is the quilt meant to be on your bed and it's a quilt that you finally finish for yourself and it's made out of that out-of-print fabric that you were so scared to use and think about how great it's going to be to use that is the quilt for a two year old boy maybe your grandson or your son instead of focusing on your squares not being so straight think about how he's going to love having a tangible reminder of your love for him and lastly I have some pictures to share that I think we'll share we'll show you how this point works out everybody has those very precious quilts right the quilts that they would be devastated if anything happened to them they're irreplaceable and I actually have two of those as well the first quilt is a tie quilt and it's made from a bunch of different ties and what makes this quilt so precious is that it's the last quilt my husband's grandpa made before he passed away when I look at this quilt all I think about is him coming out of a thrift store with bags of ties and I would say grandpa we don't need so many ties and he would say oh they were only four dollars I had to buy them the second quilt that means so much to me is another one that he pieced before he passed away this quilt he pieced for my daughter and gave me the top two quilt and of course like any other quilter I stuck it in my UFO stash not to finish it now if you look at the quilting of the two the quilting on the tie quilt is very large swirls this is not an example of my best quilting for sure and if you see that cain't that round black circle there that is the camera lens that will give you a scale of just how large his quilting is whereas the quilting on the red and green quilt is a really good example of where I was at the time what I love about the quilting on this quilt is that I didn't quilt it until several years after he passed away but it was actually for a book with CNT publishing about Amish quilts and I love that it shows his style of piecing with my style of quilting and it's our only collaborative quilt that's been published and it makes it really precious to me now when you look at the quilts in the quilting you might think that the second one looks way better and I would actually agree with that as well the quilting is a lot more brought out a lot more specific to the quilt but actually the first quilt means so much more to me you see when he was diagnosed with cancer we knew he wouldn't have long to live and I took that quilt top home the Thai quilt and finished it just as fast as I could and I my grandma bound it and we ran it to him at the hospital and do you think he cared that the quilting wasn't the best that he'd ever seen no he was just glad to see it finished and he said I never thought I would see it finished do you think in that moment that that green and red quilt was more important to him no because it was just a top somewhere else this was a finished quilt and even though it wasn't my best work it was still done and he taught me that a finished quilt is always better than a perfect quilt top now I don't tell you this story to make you sad or make it depressing but the idea is if we're using our quilts is only an opportunity to feel worse about the job we're doing then we're missing the whole point of it at all our quilts serve a much greater purpose and if we can finish them and give them on or use them and everybody's happier so remember this a finished quilt is always better than a perfect quilt top thanks so much and happy quilting

Channel: Angela Walters

Views: 652,134

Rating: 4.9225416 out of 5

Keywords: quiltcon, encouraging machine quilters, angela walters, improving free-motion quilting, angela walters free motion quilting, angela walters tutorials, angela walters rulers, machine quilting for beginners, machine quilting free motion, machine quilting videos, quilting is my therapy videos, quilting is my therapy quilt along, quilting is my therapy panel, quilting is my therapy shop, angela walters how do i quilt it, angela walters midnight quilt show

Id: jGyYSJhk0QA

Length: 7min 57sec (477 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 24 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/touretteski]

I started sewing as a complete novice and only occasionally about 25 years ago. I discovered that quilting was my obsession and ramped up my game only about 6 years ago. This video came out approx 3 years ago, which is when I saw it, and it seriously struck home with me. The message made the entire learning process much more enjoyable and rewarding for me... So I wanted to share it with all the newcomers we've had lately, and anyone else who has not seen it yet.

The only bit/exception that I want to add to her words in the video is on the note of pointing out our own errors. I agree with what she says about 99.9% of the time. But I think if you have someone that you are learning to quilt/sew with or in a community like this one, where you are learning to quilt with each other that it is okay to point out our mistakes in order to request constructive criticism, tips, tricks, advice, etc. so that we can learn and improve, but that being the only tiny exception to what message she gives.

This video is only 8 mins long and so very worth the time :)

[u/speechiespeech]

Love this. Thank you!!