Machine Embroidery Designs: No Perfection Required

re: Machine Embroidery Designs: No Perfection Required

vintagecamouflage — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:24:05 GMT

I have looked close at high end machine embroidery projects and found them to be..less than beautiful. Looking at some of the exquisite hand embroideries on custom couture garments..what a difference! The old original machine embroidery (when the sewing machine came out and offered that option) is better too!

I am going to incorporate both hand and machine (using vintage directions) to get the look and quality I want! Just a subtle change in stitch here and there, as well as color can mean all the difference!

re: Machine Embroidery Designs: No Perfection Required

Honeylioness — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:12:15 GMT

Like LagunaVY the looming spector of "Perfection" has kept me from finishing some quilts or entering them into shows. I am trying to get to the point where if I like how it looks and it makes me happy - then that is all that really matters.

However when I have had big errors and had to come up with a fix - those have turned out to be my favorites. I was once making a raffle quilt and in snipping off quilting threads I accidently cut through the top of the design. With only two days until the event I had no chance to redo the top. So I cut out some flower motifs from one of the fabrics and appliqued them over the hole. I liked how it looked against the gridded pattern so much I added another motif on the other side of the top to balance the design.

re: Machine Embroidery Designs: No Perfection Required

mariannasquiltxpressions — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:24:09 GMT

I love the individual creativity quilting arts provides. I don't strive for perfection - I create individual pieces of work that are so much appreciated by the recipients by utilizing free motion, embroidery, embellishment - and a variety of other techniques I create or find online. Imperfections are all part of the works of art. As someone else mentioned, If I want perfection, I will pay to have it long arm quilted but then it's not my own. I prefer to wing it and just go with my inspirations of the moment. Everything becomes a one-of-a-kind-design.

re: Machine Embroidery Designs: No Perfection Required

mariannasquiltxpressions — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:23:52 GMT

re: Machine Embroidery Designs: No Perfection Required

lagunaVy — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:19:41 GMT

What keeps me away from quilting is thinking It has to perfect!!! I am glad to read these posting and know it doesn't have to be perfect!!!!

re: Machine Embroidery Designs: No Perfection Required

terri2009 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:40:10 GMT

I agree with Fiddler2 - if I haven't made an unintentional mistake in my work, I make an intentional one (that hopefully only I know is there!), just to remind myself that nothing and no one is perfect.

re: Machine Embroidery Designs: No Perfection Required

cdlcruz — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:39:01 GMT

If I want "perfect" stitching, I send the quilt out for computer-guided long-arm quilting. For most of my work, my enjoyment comes as much from choosing the free-motion stitching at the end as it does choosing the fabrics at the beginning. My pencil sketches aren't photographs; I don't expect my "needle sketches" to be so either. In this time of "machine-built" everything, the individuality of my stitching expresses the love and thought I put into every quilt

re: Machine Embroidery Designs: No Perfection Required

Fiddler2 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:27:33 GMT

I always add an imperfection to my quilts. I prefer gifts that say: "I thought about you as I made this." Baby quilts are a favorits and I follow the theme of the baby's room. Most of my imperfections on baby quilts have been items that I've fussy cut out of fabrics and hand tacked onto the face of the quilt, sometimes in locations where only I know they are there and my friends know to look for them. Like a small brown coconut tacked onto a jungle themed quilt, or a seahorse on a quilt with a boating theme.For adult quilts I do my imperfections with my stitches. I consider these to be part of my uniqueness and signature for the quilts.