I've covered up mistakes with applique before. Once I tore the knee out of my new nurse's uniform. I appliqued a bandaid shaped applique on the hole! I got a lot of comments on it. Rebecca

Here is a link that might be useful: Quilter's Crossroads - check out the free patterns.

I just threw two appliques on a quilt I'm giving to my g'daughter for Christmas. There was a tear inherent to the backing I hadn't caught when I sandwiched and knotted the quit, and then I found a hidden tiny slit on the patchwork, where the rotary cutter had gone too far. It was a crazy quilt, thankfully and the heart appliques actually added to the charm.

My plan is to applique for "visual interest" over the torn area and then scatter 2 or 3 other appliques nearby to make a "grouping" of appliques. That way it looks planned as in .... "I meant for it to be that way!"

Many years ago I made a flying geese quilt for my little nephew. He reminded everyone of Linus (from Peanuts cartoon) because he dragged that quilt everywhere, and would not sleep without it. At some point, there was a little torn place, and he asked me to fix it for him, but of course, he still had to have a hold of it. So he sat next to me and watched while I appliqued a little heart over the torn patch. That poor quilt is now covered with little appliqued hearts, but he still treasures it, even though he has grown up. Fortunately, he doesn't drag it around any more though LOL.
BlueBars

Bluebars-
I love that story.
lots2do

What a sweet story, Bluebars!
TFS
Cathy

Thank heavens for applique. I accidentally cut a hole after appliqueing was done. If you look at the Monster Quilt post, the top left orange monster has a star for a belly button. Guess why.

Oh Toolgranny! That's great! I'm going to post some pics so you guys can help me a bit...

Just shows to go you that great minds think alike. LOL.

Congrats on your creativity! Most of what we fix, no one ever notices. I have a bad habit of pointing out every mistake I make - they seem so glaring to me that I'm sure others will see them too, but really only another quilter would probably notice.

kate

And those star points that are cut off are now "off kilter blocks!" LOL Just sew in a few more stars or HST with their points cut off and then you can say "I meant for those to be that way....they're off kilter, you see."

Teresa

Emergency applique is a very valuable design feature for quilters. I think it may make the end quilt better.

My daughter still keeps a piece of her baby quilt, which has disintegrated bit by bit over 34 years, by her bedside--she calls it "clotie." Not coming from quilters, I have no baby quilt. I do have a few baby dresses and a baby cap that I wore. Carole

Have you not heard that there are no mistakes in quilting, only creative opportunities?
I have so many opportunities that I some times have difficulty being creative.
Jayne

I never did it w/ applique, but did it w/ fancy double lines of stitching. Years ago on one of my first quilts, I used too large a scissors to trim too tiny a thread & oops ... I cut a slice into the outer border of an almost finished quilt. I buried it in a couple of parallel lines of machine stitching 3/8" or so apart in the quilt border & no one was the wiser. Sometimes I look for it & even I can't find the mended & hidden cut!

I already messed up mitering the border corners, and so I just cut it across and stuck on a big blue triangle at each corner. I think it looks great. I posted pics in the other thread, but they're huge so brace your eyeballs.