The Pursuit of Perfect Quilting
The quilting process gives one time to think — which could be good or bad. As I was working on this baby quilt, I had time to agonize over how crappy my machine quilting really is. It got me to thinking about people who are really good at machine quilting. People who make “Show Quilts.” When one embarks on a Show Quilt, how does one know they’re not going to ruin it when they get to the quilting? Me, I can take a perfectly good quilt and bring it down a notch or two just by quilting it.
OK, the funky stitches below are obvious and I’d rip them out to the point where I could tie off the ends and bury them neatly and then start over if this weren’t a utilitarian quilt.
But how about this:
So often, I’ll be quilting in the ditch and I’ll loose concentration for a moment, or the weight of the quilt will shift, or a seam allowance will change, or something (often my fault, but sometimes totally unpredictable) will happen and I’m no longer in the ditch. What really bugs me is when it’s just for a stitch or three. Do you pull out inches or feet of stitching to repair three misplaced stitches?
I really hate toenail catchers like this:
When I use the Stitch Regulator I have far fewer, but they are completely unpredictable when they do happen. Here, I was practicing NOT using the Stitch Regulator and though it was almost imperceptible, I think I could feel when I shifted and made a big stitch. There are more toenail catchers in the center of the quilt where the weight and mobility was an issue than on the outer edges where I could move the fabric more freely (yes, I do have a table in which the machine sits flush).
So back to the Show Quilts. Do award winning quilters have a closet full of “almost, but I messed it up at the end” quilts that don’t see the light of day, or do you just NOT make mistakes? I mean, after the hours of hand dyeing, perfect piecing, trapunto preparation and thread embroidery, how could you afford to make a mistake on the quilting? Personally, I can’t see a time when I could sit down at the machine and say confidently “now I will quilt my my Show Quilt to perfection.” many of my quilts have potential, but along the way something falls short — a poor fabric choice, too simplistic a solution, or less than perfect quilting. I can’t tell you at the onset “this one is IT.”
Of course, I’m not sweating the baby quilt, because It is just that — a utilitarian baby quilt. It is a bit of a practice piece and I’ve used it to note a few things for my more serious quilts, such as going all the way to the edge on the back and forth quilting. I think I started off not going all the way to the verticals because I wasn’t sure I could hit each vertical just right each time. After a row or two, I realized that I could (and should), but if I changed mid-stream it would call attention to the inconsistency. But I wasn’t going to take out the rows of quilting (though I would on my art quilts). So, the red goes all the way across, and the blue stitching does not.
Days like this remind me that quilting is not my strong point. My hand quilting is nice, but not eight stitches or more to the inch and not reliably even. My machine quilting gets the job done, but it’s not reliably consistent either. However, judges like quilting — so to get noticed you have to do it. A lot. So how does one do it? Is the reality that thousands of men and women toil on very, very nice quilts and only one or two make a Show Quilt each year, and it’s just that we see these Show Quilts all together at once that makes it seem like there’s a lot more of these overwhelmingly incredible works out there? Or is it that I don’t have that patient, eye for detail, engineer brain that can be at one with the machine? It’s ponderings like these that led me to start practicing something, anything, each day.
May 3rd, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Kristin, I look forward to comments on this subject. I critique practically every stitch as I machine quilt, trying just to let it go because the overall end result usually looks fine. I cannot accept my free-motion “straight” lines and I cannot follow lines on a marked quilt top. I rarely take out stitches; I do it mainly at the start of a quilting session when I haven’t gotten into the groove of the motions I’m doing (too lazy to start on a practice piece…). I find, also, that the difference between BSR vs. non-BSR stitching is almost imperceptible. It would be good to hear what experts have to say about stitching perfection. And, with that, off to decide which freshly basted quilt I’ll quilt first.
May 3rd, 2007 at 6:18 pm
The backs of quilts has been a topic on the Art Quilt list over the past few days – like does it matter what the back looks like if it is an art qult to be hung on the wall. I must admit that I don’t do many quilts anymore that are pieced or qulted in the traditional manner. I used to think my quilting was hideous, but now I am looking at some of my old quilts and thinking they are pretty good. It is so hard when you are so close to the work, to be objctive. I once got an honorable mention at at quilt show and the judgte said the quilting was perfect. It wasn’t technically perfect, but it was perfect for the design of the quilt.
So I think it depends upon where you are showing it. If you are entering a quilt in a quilt show, you darn well better have the stitching look very good, but if it is in a juried art quilt show where design and artiness is important, then it is much less important.
As I have been quilting Viola’s Garden this week, I realize that I don’t much enjoy that kind of quilting any longer.
May 3rd, 2007 at 6:21 pm
[...] Two tops got the basting treatment this morning. I took a break (who leaves me home alone with chocolatealmondbuttertoffee?) and read Kristin’s post on machine quilting. How timely. I am usually able to get past my perfectionist tendencies (if you avoid doing it, how can you possibly do it wrong?) where machine quilting is concerned. [...]
May 3rd, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Kristin, I struggle with this question all the time. The last major quilt that I did for a show was really my most technically perfect quilt ever, I think. It was awarded 2nd place in category at one of the big shows, and I thought “heck, how much more perfect does it have to be???” I gave blood, sweat and tears to that thing, and I had high hopes for it. It’s taken other awards, but not the 1st, and not the Best.
Earlier this year, I took a class with my quilting idol Diane Gaudynski, and I was really intent on hearing some personal feedback from her about my technical quilting skills. In a nutshell, she told me that it’s not my skills that are not good enough. My quilting is fine, the piecing is fine. It’s that extra “something,” that special “oomph” that my quilts are missing, that keep them from being first or best.
She took us on a tour of the Museum in Paducah, and while we looked at all those stunning prizewinning quilts, she said “Every one of the Best of Show quilts in the last ten years has been controversial. Think about it.” They all had something new, different, or innovative about them that made them stand out from the rest and grab the judges’ attention. And, like Gerrie said above:
I once got an honorable mention at at quilt show and the judgte said the quilting was perfect. It wasn’t technically perfect, but it was perfect for the design of the quilt.
This is exactly what Diane G. meant: It’s not the technical perfection that makes the winners. Its the whole kit and kaboodle: the design, the fabric choices, the piecing and the quilting, PLUS that “something more” that makes it a winner. Very elusive, that. Granted, Diane G. and I are both looking at this whole scene from a traditional quilter’s viewpoint, but I think the same would apply in the art quilt world.
My thoughts now are that I’ve spent way too much time chasing technical perfection, and not enough time developing the art, if you see what I mean. And, I wonder if I have what it takes in that area to get where I want to go. See, you’re not alone. Hope this helps.
May 3rd, 2007 at 9:50 pm
I usually take a quilt down a notch or ten with my quilting. I would rather have that than send it out, though, because I want it to be all mine. One of the reasons I don’t enter competitions is that I want to enjoy the process and not worry about perfection. Or maybe it’s just that I know I will never be at that level . It’s just not my personality.
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:18 pm
You have asked the questions I have been pondering. I have seen quilts with beautiful machine quilting, and artistically have … well, fallen short and I have seen the inverse. How do they quilt repeat designs or mirror images? I have resorted back to hand quilting on pieces that are to go on the wall. This really slows down the process and is frustrating. I think you are on to something with your practice pieces. (The flower one is wonderful.) I guess it is taking the time to practice – Lord, I sound like my Mother about the piano! I also think there is a part of the brain that needs the exercise. Kind of like when you draw – the transference of the image to the brain and then to the hand – add in the foot pedal for quilting. Now I have the image of me at my sewing chair in a pretzel pose trying to accomplish all of that. Good luck.
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:38 pm
I also want to add my jaded opinion, as name recognition counts. As in any art endeavor, an ok quilt by a ‘known’ person will garner attention, as an ‘unknown’ quilter will have to work that much harder, and as stated above have that jaw dropping quality to get the blue ribbon. That being said, we can over do this, I think. And have technique/workmanship overshadow the other aspects of the quilt.
May 4th, 2007 at 1:48 am
Kristin, Do you have a table by your left arm to support the quilt as you are quilting? Your table should be L shaped and that will prevent a lot of those long stitches because the quilt won’t get caught or drop suddenly.
As far as your quilts are concerned, they are very artistic and I think they need their own brand of quilting, not some perfect designs and shapes. I think your fabric and design stand on their own. The quilting should be holding the layers together but not taking over and disguising your wonderful art. The quilting is very distracting in too many quilts. I have been quilting for 49 years and always hate the quilting when I finish it. Then I look at it the next day and wonder what I didn’t like.
May 4th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
A very timely thread. I was just looking at my first free-motion-quilted quilt. It’s awful. Actually, that’s an improvement. Switching from the #29 foot to the #24 foot on my Bernina (no BSR) made a HUGE difference. I went from truly horrendous to just plain bad in 30 seconds of quilting with the new foot. But still, I found it stressful, boring, and tiring, and the last of the quilting looks almost as bad as the first. Even with the feed dogs up, I make all sorts of mistakes, albeit smaller ones. I think this must be at least partially genetic—I’m a terrible typist, too, and no amount of practice or motivation gets me past 38 words per minute.
When I’m feeling particularly frustrated with my quilts and quilting, I pull out my Quilts of Gees Bend book and remember what it was like to see these quilts in person. They took my breath away, and yet many were technically poor—covered with huge, uneven hand quilting stitches and multiple knots right on the top! My white bread American quilter point of view got stood on its head that day! Those women just made the quilts they wanted to make, with the materials at hand, and they’re full of life (both the quilts and the women), not to mention art. Another book I like to look at over and over for a jolt of a different point of view is Signs and Symbols: African Images in African American Quilts (by Maude Southwell Wahlman). I love the energy, symbols, and (for lack of a better word) realness in these quilts (as well as the serious documentation of African influences). Technical perfection has a very different definition and role here.
May 4th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
I’m tagging you.
The rules start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself. People who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog. Then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment to tell them they have been tagged and to read your blog.
May 5th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Great conversation…I’m really feeling like I’m missing a lot by not reading the blog ring more…
on quilting… PRACTICE. Nothing else, alas, will do as far as technical improvements. For managing the bulk better in the center, do the mountains and valleys / puddle thing. Have ALL of the quilt on the surface, not even a corner of the quilt hanging over the edge of the table. If you have to, stack up boxes around the back and side of the table. A corner half the size of a piece of typing paper falls over the edge, I can feel the pull of gravity on the quilt in the center (and I’m not exaggerating… I can tell…when I feel that pull, I stop as soon as conveniently possible and pull the quilt back up on to the table and start up again).
The comments Diane G related about “that extra something” are key….even Hollis Chatelain (one of my quilting idols…amazingly, not everyone likes her work, but I love it) makes mistakes…. she said on Blue Men she picked out the stitching in the one face FOUR TIMES. She’s much more perfectionist than I am, but it makes a difference. And it also shows that even the best among us make mistakes and fix them. Not every one, not every quilt. But, you get the point….
Also, having a BSR does not change the fact that you still need to get your movements down to the point they are fluid…. I use the analogy of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or the old married couple…when they take to the dance floor together, they move as one, anticipating the movement of the other. That’s what your hands and body do. The more they do it, the smoother and better they get….. Personally, I have to admit I detest the BSR. I don’t WANT the stitches exactly the same…in a tight curve you have to have shorter stitches for the curve to be smooth. But then, I drive a stick because I like to be in control LOL!
Hope some of this helps, and OH…. Ricky Tims DVD (borrowed a friend’s) about quilting is really good for showing how to manage the bulk of a large quilt. Cheers, Sarah
May 8th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
though i am not a quilter – i completley understand the anal-ness of the stitching. Especially when i am making something that i know will be looked over very closely by someone else. Of course there are many things i make in the theatre that have that same little error i would never let happen in real life…”twenty feet away on a moving horse” i always say!
I have also worked with costumers who measure your BASTING stitches and if they are not 1/4″ long and exactly on the line- they will rip them out!! BAsting i tell you!!!
we all have our moments