Rookie!

I was so happy to have finally finished my t-shirt quilt top over the weekend and was actually excited to sit down yesterday to start the actual quilting - usually my least favorite part of the whole process.  Unfortunately, little did I know, that a series of seriously rookie mistakes were headed my way!  Don't get me wrong, I don't consider myself a quilting master, or anything, but really ... really ... I know better!!

• Rookie Mistake #1 - thinking that quilting a 65" x 80" quilt on my cute little machine with a 6" throat would be no problem ...  piece of cake, right?
• Rookie Mistake #2 - thinking that I could  free motion stipple the entire quilt top ... Yeah right.  This quilt is so flippin' heavy that I could barely move maneuver the bottom corner around. But believe me ... I gave it my best shot.  Cue hour #1 of unpicking threads.  Sigh.
• Rookie Mistake #3 - sitting down for an hour to quilt some straight lines without a plan, in a pissy mood because of mistake #2 ... and not noticing until this morning that my thread tension was completely off.  Cue hours #2 and #3 of unpicking threads.  Double Sigh.

• Rookie Mistake #4 - spending another hour pouring through the internet for tips on troubleshooting machine tensions ... when all I needed to do was change the needle.

{Channeling my best inner Chandler voice} - could I be wasting any more time?

I'm happy to report, however, that {with the help of a giant bag of red vines} I am happily back in business.  In the process of re-quilting my straight lines, I realized that I really didn't like my previous {unplanned} quilting scheme, and switched gears a little bit.  I'm really happy with the progress (and my tension looks beautiful, if I do say so) - hoping to have finished pictures to share in a day or two ... provided I can avoid any more rookie mistakes!

Hope your sewing is going a little more smoothly than mine has been!  If you're in need of a little sewing inspiration {or cheering up}, stop by Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story or WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced to check out some of the great projects out there in blog-land.