(country guitar music) - Hi there, it's Karen Brown
of Just Get It Done Quilts,
and today I'm going to share with you
five beginner mistakes that I made.
You can laugh with me, you can judge me, you can even
put your comments down below and share your own.
But hopefully, in this confessional, we will prevent
some beginners out there from making the same mistake.
So stay tuned.
Okay, so my first beginner mistake that I made
was starting too big.
I mean, I was coming from a logical place.
I looked at my bed, saw it was a king size,
and thought, I'm going to make a king-sized quilt.
I mean, how stupid could I be.
I mean it's like waking up in the morning and thinking,
I have running shoes, I have a map, let's run a marathon.
Quilting is an endurance hobby.
So, for the love of quilting, start small.
When you're a beginner, not only are you learning techniques
on how to make quilt blocks, but you're also learning
how to put pattern together, and learning to put colours
together, and through trial and error, you're going to learn
which ones you like best.
And it'll so much less expensive making those discoveries
on a small quilt.
Did someone say iron?
When I first started quilting, ironing was optional.
There was a couple of reasons.
My iron was downstairs, it was in a major thoroughfare,
and then I'd have to wait for the iron to heat up.
I thought ironing just slowed me down,
and part of me just thought it was unnecessary.
And when I did iron, I'd iron like a shirt,
like swish, swish, swish, swish.
I have since learned that proper ironing
is just as important as straight stitching.
When I took a class at the Workroom with the amazing
Joanna Moscow, who taught me, press the fabrics
like you're playing a piano.
Don't push, don't stretch, and then use the iron to press.
I am going to try and explain this one without laughing.
I feel so silly when I even talk about it.
When I first started quilting, I thought sewing-machine
quilting was supposed to mimic hand quilting.
So I looked at a quilt, looked at how large the stitches
were, and that's what I started sewing at.
My first quilt, my first two quilts, were all made
at the setting 3.5, and I was getting frustrated.
I found my blocks very floppy, I found all my seams
were unravelling, I remember in my first Stitch
and Chat Group, my cousin looked down at me,
saw my stitches, and she very diplomatically,
without making me feel any shame whatsoever,
said, "I think you need to shorten that stitch."
I now know better, I'm supposed to sew between two,
and 2.1 or 2.2 depending on what thread I'm using,
what needle I'm using, and the actual cotton.
My next big mistake was, I waited way too long
before I joined a guild.
I was shy, I didn't think I was good enough, I was
fairly busy, and I didn't think I had the time.
Oh my god, it was a game-changer for me.
I would go to the meetings, I would come home, I would be
inspired by all the quilts I saw, I met new friends,
I discovered workshops, and quilt cons.
I had so much fun, and I've never looked back.
And the last big mistake that I made when I was first
quilting, was worrying way too much about mistakes.
There was so many times when I was obsessing
over edges lining up, and corners lining up,
which was, you can imagine how challenging it was,
since I wasn't sewing with the right size stitch,
and I wasn't ironing.
But I almost always found, ripping something out
and trying again, I didn't necessarily make it any better.
In fact, many times, I actually ripped up the fabric
in the effort to make it perfect.
Our frustrations with these mistakes lead us
to putting a project aside, and it just becomes a UFO.
For all you beginners out there, don't sweat the small
stuff, don't even sweat the big stuff.
Just move on, hopefully you're making a small quilt,
and move on to the next project.
Chances are, no ones' going to notice but you.
And just to illustrate this, I have a quilt on my bed.
It took me about 3 1/2 years to make, and it has been
on my bed for four years, and I have just noticed
a block that's in the wrong spot.
So thank you, for joining me.
I hope you were able to laugh along with me.
Sometimes, we fret over things, we think things,
and we're all beginners once.
And we're all so hard on ourselves.
So, if you haven't already done so,
please give this video a thumbs up, and please take
a second to subscribe to my channel.
Take care, and I'll see you next time.