All I see are stitches.

I did read somewhere that you shouldn't quilt for 12 hours a day. I know why, you stop and you can still see stitches and a slight shake on everything. This is the second day in a row I have just quilted solidly. My desk is showing the strain, it is covered in paperwork, mail and the detritus of meals grabbed too quickly. The mugs and cans really do need removing.

The quilt on the frame is my first wholecloth. It is proving to be a bit of a stretch both for me and the machine. I have cleverly chosen a totally unforgiving combinations of fabric (black cotton sateen) threads (thin bright cottons and metallic silver) and designs. I even skipped the busy back. Now repeat after me, always use a busy back, always use a busy back.... but plain black would look so much nicer, if I could keep the tension perfect, yes it would. Bit of a tall order on a large bed quilt. Oh yes and having carefully tested the Hobbs 80/20 to be sure it wouldn't beard on black fabric (three times in fact) it is bearding. Doh!. Yes I have finally learned my lesson, there is a bolt of black wadding on it's way to me right now.

So I have a quilt which from maybe six feet away looks great on the front, close up it is OK, the back is just a train wreck. It was intended for the MQS show and for the Festival of Quilts. About lunchtime I was wondering if I should forget about entering it. I mean it does have more issues than Rolling Stone Magazine. Having thought about it some more I am going to send it. I think it is a good design (I would it's all mine). I've put a lot of effort in and I want to show it off. It is interesting, as you might expect from me doing something traditional. I don't really have an alternative I want to make for the FoQ. Most importantly shows are full of perfect or near perfect quilts. I know I don't learn much from the bits that are right, I know what I am aiming for. I learn more from the errors, from things that would have worked better a different way, and from seeing where I have already mastered something that is evidently not easy. So I am putting quilt into shows for this reason. Hopefully people will learn from my mistakes and feel inspired and encouraged (believe me a lot will be able to look at this and think they can do better tension wise). I think that is worthy in it's own right. It has also changed the quilts name, it was Guide me Home, it is now simply Guide Me. I have learned a lot from it, and it has indeed guided me.

The other concern I have heard a lot is about letting out a substandard piece of work. Will people still want me to quilt their quilts or will they think my tension is always this bad. My first though when I considered this was thank goodness this wasn't a customer quilt. I can choose to accept this mess on mine but I would never leave it on a customers. I would have had to take out all the problem quilting and keep trying until I got it perfect. It is a relief that it is only a show quilt. Daft maybe but that's how I see it. However prospective customers won't know that will they. They will just see the quilt on it's own. I can write this sort of information in my statement, but will they read it? I do see this is a concern, but I don't think it is a huge risk. If they are a customer I was really likely to get they will have seen my other work, and know that this is not normal. If they are a customer I enjoy working for they will have already know that this quilt breaks a lot of my guidelines and has done everything I warn them about, so in fact it proves I am telling the truth. The few who do look at it and think me a terrible quilter, would probably never have been my customers anyway, and I suspect I would not be the right quilter for them. I discovers a long time ago that my name is great for preselecting jobs. Those companies that don't like it and don't want to see me are the same companies I don't want to work for , we just don't gel. The customers who judge that quickly are not the customers I am going to gel with either, we would both be happier with someone else. As such i am going to take my chances. It could be that it is striking enough from the front to get picked up by magazines, and in a photo it will look just fine.