If you don’t love it… you will leave it!
I can’t even count the number of times a project gets left undone because of fabric choices.
When a customer comes in to choose fabric for a project, we always tell them: you need to love it or leave it. Projects are hard to finish when the fabric you’ve chosen just doesn’t speak to you. Whether it’s the color, the print, or even the texture—if you don’t like it, it’s harder to motivate yourself to finish the project.
The same thing applies to patterns. Learning and struggling to get something to fit together correctly is one thing—you push through that. But hating the ending, no matter how perfect the points are, is totally different.
Quilting, like any hobby, is meant to be fun, relaxing, and something you enjoy. It can be challenging and frustrating at times, but you aren’t meant to hate it.
If a color or fabric just doesn’t work for you, don’t keep going. Even if you’ve already cut all the pieces. Even if you’ve sewn half the blocks. Take a step back, figure out what you don’t love about it, and change the course of the project.
There is nothing wrong with changing your mind, even if you’ve invested time and (insert gasp here!) money into it. You are far more likely to reach the point of full frustration and quit than you are to finish a project using fabric you don’t love.
Find a new color or print to substitute or to add that will help salvage the project. And if you feel like you’ve gone too far and don’t want to waste the fabric - cut it into tiny pieces, sew it all together willy-nilly, and call it a day, because finished is better than perfect.
Helping you make memories, one stitch at a time.
