Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Embracing My Imperfections

I have a confession. I hate the fact that when I start a new project or learn something new I'm not immediately perfect at it. Now I actually don't know anyone who is perfect the first time but I sure would like to be! But I'm not and I'm trying to embrace that part of me that's not perfect and giving myself a little slack in the process. So here's a little sneak peak into one of my imperfections. I have never quilted by machine, only by hand, which means that it's takes years for me to finish my quilts. In an effort to up my production my gracious and loving husband bought me a new machine last year so that I could machine quilt. I quickly pieced together a "tester" quilt, quilted three lines with my walking foot, gave up and put it away. This past week I've been organizing my space and decided to clear out some of my "to do" projects. I grabbed the "tester" quilt and quilted another line. To say the least I still didn't like it and thought of just giving up and tying it. But instead I decided to stipple stitch freehand instead to see if I liked it any better. Since it was just a quilt to practice on I didn't worry too much about the fact that I'd already done some stitching in the ditch and then moved to free hand quilting. At the beginning of the freehand I hated it just as much. But after awhile I got used to it and finished the whole thing but the binding in three hours. So this is where I'm really putting myself out there. I'm posting a picture of what my stitches looked like at the beginning. Nope, I am not perfect. There's another one where it is getting better, but definitely not perfect. There's probably 1,001 mistakes on this quilt. But I'm going to embrace it and cuddle with it on the couch and know I made it 1,001 mistakes and all. The beginning That's a little better All done..for better or for worse

2 comments:

jacquie said...

good for you!!! i'm so much like this too...i ripped all the free motion quilting out of my mom's quilt because i was so disgusted with it...never should have. so glad you joined project improv. drop me your email address when you have a minute. thanks,
jacquie

sarah said...

I am the same way - I am always afraid to start things, knowing it may not be *perfect*. I am trying to get over it, too - how else can I learn?