At one of the guilds I belong to (Assiniboine Circle) we had a guest teacher hold a Quilter's Academy today. It's like beginner school for quilters following the tips and techniques that Harriet Hargrave uses in her books. I figure that I'm a pretty knowledgeable quilter and I was positive I knew how to do the basics like piecing and pressing - wrong. Today we were shown the proper way to make sure our fabric was on grain, proper cutting tips, the right way to press, how to achieve accurate 1/4" seams and so much more. We were shown little 3 inch finished lemoyne star blocks that were perfectly flat with no lumpy seams and so accurate they were little works of arts. There were 9 patches where every square was exactly the same throughout the quilt.
When I came home I looked at my little 9 patch blocks and wasn't as happy with them. They just weren't treated right. At this point I have to warn you that if you are sensitive, you might want to skip the next paragraph.
Some of my seams and blocks were tugged and pulled into submission. They had been stretched, picked at, poked, ironed to the point of smoking and even mercilessly ripped apart at the seams. In fact at the risk of being reported to the authorities, I'm ashamed to admit that some were even verbally abused, then thrown heartlessly into the garbage.
Okay, you can read the rest, the abuse is over.
I'm going to take what I learned today and try to be a better quilter (notice I said better, not perfect). I will treat my fabrics and subsequent blocks with
Happy Stitching!
corina
