From L-J

I had a little whinge to my friend the other day. I told her that I had resigned myself to the fact that I will never be good at binding my quilts. I will always have to google it every single time I start, and I will never understand how to get it straight and neat. She said to me, “don’t be silly, you’re amazing! Your binding is the best I’ve ever seen! Also you have a wonderful personality”

I’m kidding, that’s not what she said at all. What she said surprised me so much I had to reread her text message multiple times before I understood. She said, “Slow down.”

Excuse me? Slow down?! But what about “smashing out a quilt in a weekend?” I have plans. I have a life. I have quilts to make!

So, there’s two people reading this. You are either thinking “that’s very good advice, slow and steady wins the race, quilting is slow and careful business.” If this is you, feel free to continue reading this fascinating insight into how other people work.

Or, you’re thinking “omg she actually said that to you!? I thought you were friends!” If this is you, keep reading because this is definitely the advice you need.

So after receiving this advice the first thing I did was completely ignore it and keep going with my very poor sewing skills. But the next thing I did was very interesting. My task was to quilt a patchwork piece I had been working on, and I decided I wanted to quilt along the patchwork seams (stitch-the-ditch). This was scary because I had never done it before and it sounded like hard work. But I did it anyway. The way I started off was almost certainly overkill, but what am I if not dramatic? I did a whole line without the pedal. I stitched the whole line by turning the manual knob. It was slow and boring but the result was incredible. I cannot stress this enough. It was incredible. And while it was definitely overkill, it was such a valuable experience to show me what can be achieved if you just…chill.

So now, I don’t stitch whole lines manually. It was an exercise. An experiment. But it taught me so much. And it is easier now to appreciate the slow and steady process. Yes, it takes a few extra minutes to keep the lines straight, but they’re straight (or crooked) forever! And it’s definitely worth it.

And do you want to know the best bit? If you practice slowly, then what you’re really practising is getting it straight, and that is a skill you can write home about.

Thought of the day: Little strokes fell great oaks

QuilTerminology: Sandwich: a delicious meal consisting of two pieces of bread and a filling of something tasty like plum jam. Oh hang on, it’s also the term for the three layers of a quilt placed together; the top, the batting, and the backing.

Challenge: When you sit down, take a deep breath and let it out slowly. When you set up your fabric in the machine, take a deep breath and let it out slowly. When you put your foot on the pedal, take another deep slow breath. Try and count the stitches as the machine makes them, and see how it feels to stitch something slow enough to count along with the needle.