Perfect Idioms for Quiltmaking
Sewing Idioms and the Quilt World
The literary world is filled with similes, metaphors and idioms! So many of these old adages apply nicely to the masterful creation of a quilt. See if any of these resonate with your quilting efforts!
Sooner Begun, Sooner Done
Even though visualizing, gathering fabrics, planning, drawing and measuring are all an important part of the quiltmaking process, ultimately nothing happens until we actually jump in and get going! Sometimes, the daunting prospect of beginning a new project can lock a person up. The stack of purchases from the vendor booths at a quilt show induces guilt. The sewing machine seems to cry out to be used. And the great leveler – time! – threatens to stifle the creative urge. But if we take action and start in spite of the elements of the unknown, inspiration lights the way and ideas bloom and grow. The sooner we begin, the sooner the quilt begins to evolve!
A Stitch in Time Saves Nine
As a child, I never understood this old saying. But the longer I quilt, the more it makes sense from a quilting point of view: stitches done in a calm, organized, purposeful manner are executed correctly. Rushing through the stitching to “save time” often ends up with poor quality work leading to the dreaded seam ripper picking out the errant stitches. Thus, working carefully “saves nine” stitches from having to be removed! Any time I haul out said dreaded seam ripper, I ask myself if I could have avoided its use by more judicious stitching in the first place!
Haste Makes Waste or Measure Twice, Cut Once
This saying is a corollary of “A stitch in time saves nine” and can be applied to all the non-sewing tasks that go into the completion of a quilt! Borrowing from carpenters, measuring twice before cutting can catch many miscalculations before they are cut out wrong.
My personal best for “Haste makes waste” was using a hot iron to fuse an applique shape into place, realizing too late (and with horror!) that the shape had the fusible coating on the top side rather than the bottom. Instead of getting fused to the background fabric, it got cemented to my iron. After a lot of scrubbing with an iron cleaner, I resolved to double check before fusing anything into place! 😊
Waste Not, Want Not
This is another idiom I never understood as a child, but which makes sense now, especially from a quilting point of view. If you don’t waste things, you will have enough on hand and you will never end up having a “want” or need for them.
This is true in the fabric world, especially in the creation of scrap quilts. Each of us has a limit for the size of scraps we will keep and realistically be able to use. Some of us enjoy a more planned look even in scrap quilts so we may get rid of tiny bits of leftover fabrics. Others are innovators who incorporate novel ways to use even the
smallest scraps. Methods like foundation piecing can help odd-shaped morsels of fabric get used meaningfully. Crumb quilting is a whole style of quiltmaking devoted to the use of miniscule scraps.
The Internet contains a treasure trove of online tutorials, patterns, and YouTube videos focused on the subject of scrap quilts, not to mention the many books available for this style of quiltmaking. Leftover fabric doesn’t have to be wasted!
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Non-quilters often marvel at how quiltmakers manage to finish such huge, intensely time-consuming projects! The answer is often in consistently allotting time to the project.
While many of us fantasize about spending day after day at the sewing machine, life usually gets in the way of such devotion to needlework. Instead, making time to sew on a regular basis and breaking a project down into smaller parts often helps move the project along, until one fine day, the finished quilt is ready to be celebrated and used!
So while quiltmaking may be a long-haul project, it definitely responds well to steady pacing and meeting milestones along the way!
The Moon and the Stars
Okay, this is not an idiom, but there is a saying I love seeing on posters in schools: “Aim for the moon! Even if you miss, you’ll still be among the stars!” I love the positivity behind this message. It applies well to quiltmaking, too! Let’s aim high as we expand our skills, try new techniques, explore increasingly intricate patterns and attempt innovative construction methods!
