I made a wonderful appliqued quilt, a real masterpiece for me, using someone else's hand dyed fabric I bought but failed to pre-wash. One piece had apparently never been washed after dying and it bled all over the white background and just ruined my quilt. It had gone to a real pro FMQer and she did a wonderful job till she tried to wash out the blue markings. I finally got up the nerve to bind it and it hangs in our bedroom where no one can see it but us. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Love his stuff but if the name Ricky Ti... ever comes up I want to scream

I am finishing 3 quilts all made from red blocks. I got all 3 into quilt sandwiches, quilted, and went to put the bindings on - and on 2 of the 3 my backing fabric was short in places - how did I not notice that??? So I pieced more backing fabric on and the bindings are just about finished. I can't explain how it happened, but at least there is a fix.
Karlene

I made a baby quilt last summer and washed it and hung it outside to dry on a beautiful, sunny day and saw a glint. It was sunlight reflecting off a large quilting pin I had sewn into the quilt. I am so happy I noticed that before I gave it for the baby to use. I had to take apart a seam to get it out because of the large, round pin head.

That's not the stupidest thing, however. I sometimes cut out small pieces at the ironing board with my rotary cutter and small mat. I change the ironing board cover often because of spray starching the quilt pieces before I sew them. So, I'd just put on a beautiful new cover I took from my mother's house after she died, becuase I felt near her using it. I was cutting out a piece and noticed I had forgetten to put the mat under it. Of course the cutter sliced right through the cover. sigh.

It got darned, and I have used it over a year by avoiding pressing anything over the darned area. Just brought another cover over from my mother's house tonight. I bet I won't forget to put a mat under it again.

I guess my latest was while I was making flying geese with E Burns method of using 2 different sized sqs.. After sewing them together and cutting the first diag. you have to put them tog. again but don't match seams because you wont beable to have your 1/4" header seam. Ofcourse I didn't read the directions and wasted that set. Luck had it I have enough fabric and only lost the time.

I'm making a king size storm at sea. I had just finished putting the last section on my design wall when I noticed I was missing a sashing piece. I had plans for the day with my girls, but I thought I'd quickly cut the pieces out so I could stitch it later that day. You can probably guess what I'm about to say. I made a quick cut with my rotary blade against my ruler, my blade slid on top of my ruler and right through the tip of my finger. I had to get my son to take my to urgent care. As I'm holding my hand up covered with a paper towel heading out the door you will never guess what I see on the floor!?! Yep, the missing sashing piece was there the whole time, but had just fallen on the floor.

You guys, you're scaring the heck out of me. I thought quilting was a safe, gentle hobby. Now I discover that you can cut the tip of your finger off, threaten babies' lives, destroy family treasures, sew bugs into the quilt (I was reading some old posts), and on and on. Yikes!

Kidding aside, this makes me feel like I'm part of the group. I haven't been quilting long enough to do much more than sew a piece in backwards or cut something short. But I'm sure I will have a story to tell someday soon. Thanks for sharing yours.

I did the same thing as Mzstitch a couple of years ago, except I was home alone and had to drive myself to urgent care while trying to keep pressure on the finger. Of course, by the time they finally saw me, the bleeding had stopped and I felt kind of silly for being there. At least I now have my tetanus shot up to date!

As far as recent dumb moves, let's see...last weekend I cut a bunch of 2-1/2" squares I didn't need. I'm also good at sewing things on upside down and stuff like that. Sometimes it's best to just walk away for a while! LOL

Mzstitch, I hope your finger is feeling better now.

Donna

I have so many it's hard to know which one to post, but I think I need to add 'starting a fire' to loisf's list!

A couple or three years ago one of the monthly lottos was a card trick block that we were supposed to make with a black background and bright 'cards'. I really struggled with that block and ended up sewing the pieces together wrong 3 or 4 times. After much ripping of seams and even re-cutting some pieces, I got my 3 blocks made. I was so disgusted with them that I tossed them onto my sewing table and got up from the chair to let the dogs out for a few minutes of fresh air. When I came back into the room I instantly smelled something burning and saw a tiny column of smoke rising from the sewing table. Yup, I had tossed those blocks right on top of my little Clover iron. That thing had burned me often enough but it was the first time it turned on my blocks! I had completely burned through the two blocks that landed on the iron. Whoever won the lotto that month only received one block from me! I've never attempted the card trick block again, either. (And I tossed the iron!).

Kate

Thanks Donna, fingers better, still tender but it looks pretty normal, so that's a good thing. Kate, sorry, have to admit I started laughing out loud when you said you smelled smoke!! Yikes!! Haven't we all had those days with certain blocks though? Sometimes I just have to get up, shut those sewing room doors, and start another day.

Oh, Kate, I'm sorry - I laughed, too! I hated my stupid Clover iron and got rid of it, too. Got tired of burning my fingers and making little melty spots on my cutting mat when it fell over.

Donna

This isn't quilt related, but has to do with klutzy sewing. Way back when I was first married, I decided to treat myself to a large quantity of real wool fabric and spring for one of those expensive Vogue patterns. (read newly wed students and living on shoestrings). It was a difficult and tricky pattern with trousers and a fitting and silk lined jacket, and Vogue back then just assumed you didn't need much direction.

It turned out really beautiful, but the arms (even though I got them set into the holes perfectly) just didn't look right. When I finally finished it and put it on it struck me I had both sleeves set in backward. There was no way I was going to take it apart and redo it. It looked fine as long as you didn't move your arms. (I felt like an irish dancer with the feet moving and the arms at my side) Needless to say I only wore it one time and then decided I really needed to move my arms and the jacket hit the rubbish bin. Now that I quilt, I actually check my work once in awhile as it is in progress. I also have a little more patience. Quilting does teach one patience and humility.

Calliope, I have done that, too...sewed the sleeves in the wrong holes. And cut 2 of something with the 2 layers of fabric right sides up instead of wrong sides together, so you get 2 lefts or 2 rights, not one of each.

Donna

Oh, here's a really dumb sewing thing. I was a newlywed making a shower curtain, concentrating really hard on all those buttonholes. All of a sudden, I was slammed in the forehead incredibly hard. I evidently was getting closer and closer to my work, so close that the thread take-up lever on my machine hit me really solidly in the forehead. Boy, was I surprised. It left quite a little bruise.

LOL.........never heard that one before! How could one explain a sewing machine gave them a black eye?