The dumbest thing I have ever done....

[Margo]

I had to share this with you guys, no one in my immediate circle of friends could grasp the magnitude (or the humor) of my dumbest act to date.

I recently finished a wall quilt (Flirting with Erte..its in my profile). It took me several weeks to complete. I used Ricky's piped binding technique. Those of you "in the know" know that Ricky suggests that you use water soluble thread in the first step of the piping process. Works great. Love the technique. Its also the only time I ever need water soluble thread.

WELL, I had several bobbins of this thread in my thread stash from a previous quilt. I finished piecing my current quilt and went on to the machine quilting and turned out beautiful. I then went on to the piped binding. It ALSO turned out just perfect.

Pleased with my project (and myself) I decided to block my quilt as I have all of my other quilts. I usually submerge them in hot water for a few minutes, spin the water out of them in the washing machine then block them so they are square.

WELL GUESS WHAT? What I THOUGHT was regular bobbin thread was actually WATER SOLUBLE THREAD and had used to to quilt the entire quilt. My first thought was "okay, you are a total doofus and have no business around a sewing machine!!!" I then went on to rant incoherently for about 15 minutes. [At this point I thought about trying to blame Ricky, he is after all the one use suggested the water soluble thread. ( I know, I know, I really couldnt make that leap of logic either). So, in the end, I was the only one left to blame.]

Once I was calm again and no longer hyperventilating I assessed the situation and decided to requilt the piece using REAL bobbin thread. As it turned out, all was well, you really wouldnt know the peice was quilted TWICE unless I told you.

I now color my water soluble thread bobbins with a red permenant marker so I won't make this mistake again.

I guess it's just I good thing I make quilts and not swim suits!

Hope you had a good chuckle.

Drew

[sewengel]

OMG!!! - look at this way you didn't have a whole bunch of little threads from unsewing to pick out. LOL javascript:emoticon(':lol:')
Laughing I would have had a really good cry over that one.

BTW your quilts are wonderful -- the tip about red markers is a great one -- that is probably how most of our tips happen from our mistakes.

Hang in there -- it really is a great quilt, especially sewed together. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Sharon in Colorado :lol:

[Stinki]

Too funny Drew... although at the time I am sure u didn't feel so. But look at all the lessons u learned thru it!

Carla

[Stinki]

Yes, I learned that water soluble thread really IS water soluble beyond a shadow of a doubt!

Too funny Drew... although at the time I am sure u didn't feel so. But look at all the lessons u learned thru it!

Carla

[RobinQuilts]

Drew,
I think it might have taken me several months after a screw-up like this before I could even get philosophical about it, let alone laugh. I guess you can just think of it as getting more practice with your machine quilting. The quilt is beautiful, by the way; I, too, love Erte's stylized work.
Robin

[RobinQuilts]

Look at it this way. YOU FOUND YOUR MISTAKE...not someone else. That would have much more embarassing. Think about it. "some quilter, one washing and his quilt falls right apart." Much more embarassing.

[snowplow3840]

Drew, your quilt is beautiful. maybe the quilting got better with your "practice quilting"

I love the water soluble thread for so many things- basting, practice quilting, experimenting with a design to see if I like it and on and on. The way I make sure that I don't get the threads and the bobbins mixed up, I put the spool of thread and the bobbin in an empty pill container that I have marked with a permanent marker. This solves two problems - I don't get the spools mixed up and the water soluble thread does not get exposed to humidity or the stray spray when I spritz something to press it (or heaven forbid the spilled beverage) also because I sometimes have to purchase a different brand, I put the instructions for use in the pill bottle too so there are no guessing games as to which instructions to use.

I didn't have quite as bad an experience but a store owner talked me into fusible thread. But she didn't explain that it really didn't fuse anything but pretty much acted like water soluble when the piece was ironed. Since I was working on a chantelle which took a lot of pressing I discovered my mistake before too much damage was done.

Ann who is getting ready to travel Whoo Hoo

[snowplow3840]

:lol: Thanks for the giggle, Drew! All I can say is I'm glad it was you and not me - I would NOT have recovered as quickly :lol:

[QuilterLynn]

Great story and great ability to laugh at oneself--and then to share it with the rest of us! Shows a healthy psyche!
Lynn

[QuilterLynn]

Yeah my psyche is healthy NOW, Lynn. You didnt get to see the part where I was running around in circles babbling incoherently! LOL
Drew

[kfstitcher]

I'm so glad to hear that because that would have definitely been my reaction. I was wondering how you could take it so calmly and laugh it off. Having to quilt the same thing twice is too much.

[sandytn]

That's kinda a "oops did I just delete 10,000 records from my database" moment. It's funny now but at the time I said a few things I never permited my kids to say. It is a beautiful quilt.

[sandytn]

I am relieved to hear that I am not the only one who has these moments. Although I do not buy disolveable thread...(my luck I would be wearing the dress I just sewed with it). Thank you for all the info. Perhaps your oops will prevent the same for many others.
Besides I didn't know there was disolvable thread. Now I will diffinately keep an eye out for it. The absence of this knowledge could also be very troublesome ops: . Keep laughing Rachel :lol:

[sandytn]

Actually, you should get some water soluble thread, it can come in really handy..that is when you are aware that you are using it.

Drew

[WandaM]

Oh Drew, thanks for sharing! I needed a good chuckle! This would have taken me months to get over. I'm glad you were able to recover! Love the quilt!