By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador

I’m quilting my scrappy Gypsy Wife right now on the HQ Capri stationary longarm and it’s not going especially well. This is a sampler design by Jen Kingwell with many blocks in many sizes and lots of long, skinny strips.

I thought it was busy enough to hide a multitude of sins (i.e. less than perfect machine quilting) but I was wrong. Here are some of the blocks that I’ve quilted partially or fully and what I think is wrong with them.

I was fine with this framed square until the end when I quilted that long curve toward the bottom of the center patch. Now that’s all I can see.

The double curvy lines above aren’t horrible but they feel empty to me. They look lonely hanging out there alone and I think I need to connect them somehow. I thought about quilting circles between them but that might look worse.

One of the most problematic areas is this star. I only quilted the corners and the background triangles because it was getting worse as I went along. I will probably decide to rip these stitches out (also known as frogging because…rip it, rip it).

Just above, I did quilt circles between the double wavy lines but I don’t think it enhances the area in any way. And yes, I did put that selvage into the quilt on purpose. 😊

How do you decide when it’s bad enough to take out and when it can be left in without utterly destroying your credibility?

I’m not sure, so I’m asking what you think and hoping that my friends and colleagues at Handi Quilter will weigh in, too.

Here are a few areas that I think are working out all right:

This little pinwheel has okay quilting that can be left in. I wasn’t super creative but it will hold its own. Done.

This block is so busy with prints that the quilting is hardly noticeable. A peek at the back reveals that I did all right on this one, so it stays in as well.

This sharply-pointed star isn’t perfect but it’s good enough. Consider it finished.

I quilted some…I don’t know…bumps? Hills? Thumbs? Maybe that’s the problem. They don’t really look like anything. But they’re understated enough that I will leave them alone.

I know that ripping out machine quilting doesn’t make you a better machine quilter. It’s practice that makes you better! Nevertheless, I want my quilts to be reasonably well made and that includes the quilting. So…

The struggle is real!

When should I frog it, and when should I resist ripping it out?! What do you think?

In the meantime, quilt on!