Mistakes happen, especially when you’re a quilting novice. Most quilts take hundreds of hours to complete, from start to finish. No one wants to rip their hard work apart and start over, so knowing how to hide mistakes is a skill in and of itself. Whether you’re looking for quilting classes in Albuquerque, NM or just need some quick tips to hide your quilting mistakes, read on. The Quilt Works Inc. can recommend a class for you if these tips don’t suit your particular design, or if you just want to brush up on your overall quilting skills.

Unevenly spaced rows

Sometimes, when you quilt the top of the blanket, you find yourself with unevenly spaced quilting rows. If you find that’s the case, try using clear or color-coordinated thread to add an extra row where necessary. Clear thread ensures that the fix won’t show up, but you’ll still have the same uniform texture after you wash and dry the quilt.

Avoid poor piecing

Piecing your quilt together not only takes a long time, but it can be a shock when you realize all those meticulously cut pieces don’t actually fit together. Here are a few techniques to fix that:

• Try a block first: Before you piece together the entire quilt, piece and sew just one block. That will help you determine where the problem areas might be, so you can make adjustments as necessary—before you spend hours sewing the pieces together.
• Embrace appliques: Sometimes the piecing turns out uneven. Even if you’re the only one who notices, it’s frustrating. Appliques can hide this mistake easily. Whether it’s one large applique or hundreds of tiny ones to cover up a consistent flaw, you can add them on top of already-stitched blocks.
• When in doubt, Sharpie it out: Sometimes tiny mistakes are going to bother you forever, but they’re so small it isn’t worth quilting appliques or ripping out your stitches. In that case, grab a Sharpie in a matching color and carefully even out the mistakes. (Be careful—the ink may not be as colorfast as you’d hope.)

Running out of fabric

Nearly every quilter has started a quilt and made major progress, before realizing they don’t have enough fabric to complete the job. If that’s happened to you before, you probably know to get entire bolts of fabric, especially if it’s a pattern or shade you particularly love. Be sure to compare the dye when you’re using the same color or pattern from two different bolts—the dye lot or printing may be different.

Embrace the mistakes

Our best tip, however, is to just embrace the mistakes. Handmade quilts are more likely to have errors, simply because you’re human and not a machine. Those “mistakes” are part of the charm, especially if your quilt is a gift to a loved one.

If you want to brush up on your skills and learn new techniques, try one of The Quilt Works Inc.’s quilting classes in Albuquerque, NM. Reach out today to learn more and sign up!