Do you remember that long-ish ago saying? I sure do and unfortunately I really felt like that last night. I finished up the binding yesterday afternoon on a quilt and during the process Sunshine kept checking on me in my studio and asking if I was going to sew her "kwilt". Poor little thing has been practically begging me to finish it for her. I promised that if it wasn't too late after I completed the binding, I would definitely do it. Here are a couple of the pictures from when we pieced it together last March! This has been hanging on my design wall ever since waiting for me to find make the time to complete it. (Note to self....don't wait this long to make my baby girl happy ever again!)
The binding task on the other quilt was completed before 5pm so I picked out a backing fabric, cut a layer of batting from my scraps, put in some basting pins to hold it all together (way too cold and damp outside to use the spray), selected thread and set to work.

With my newly gained knowledge learned at Free Motion Quilting class last weekend, I figured this would be a perfect little piece to practice on. She certainly wouldn't care one iota if the quilting was perfect or not. Since I love swirls and it would blend well with the fabrics, I briefly thought of doing that but instead I decided to do something simpler, an easier meander with loops.



Well.........once I snuggled in the chair an hour later with my little missy while she ate her typical pre-bed snack of grapes and drank her milk, I read through the instructions for my new Supreme Slider. Yes I got one for Christmas and No I didn't use it this time as I hadn't even opened the package before then. So lets see...it says to use a large table to support your quilt (check!), be sure your chair is at the right height for me (check), lower the feed dogs and attach the free motion foot, etc.

Whoa! Hold it right there! That it was. Right there in front of me in Black and White. That smack-me-upside-the head moment. That was the problem with this mini quilt. I had totally forgotten to LOWER THE FEED DOGS! Duh! Double and Triple DUH! I had quilted her entire little piece with the feed dogs raised. No wonder why it was all jerky feeling and not smooth at all.

I felt like a real jerk. A huge (though not catastrophic) rookie mistake that I probably might not have made if I had actually taken a moment to read back through the booklet from class and mentally checked off the "To Do" list before I started. But let me tell you it is one that I'll definitely never make again. This gal only needs to learn a lesson like this once.

So there you have it...a true story and my confession to the Quilting Gods that be. Could I have kept this little secret to myself and have no one the wiser? Sure I could have. But not everything or everyone is perfect and that is one thing that I love about the quilting community. Most people aren't afraid of showing their mishaps, even the professionals some times, and it helps us to realize that we are all human and as long as we learn from our mistakes, it is ok to share with others and hopefully keep them from making the same boo-boos. Now go ahead and have a chuckle on my behalf and then double check that you remembered to lower your feed dogs. We wouldn't want the quilting world barraged with loads of similar confessions in the coming weeks.

And on a side note....the sign ups for the Modern Mini Mystery Round Robin 2013 are still open for a few more days so submit your name before time runs out....plus I'm inching ever closer to having 300 followers and when that happens I'll have a little giveaway. I'm off this afternoon for my 2nd Free Motion Quilting class and I promise to report on that hopefully later today or at least by tomorrow morning.