I will never again be so hard on myself regarding this art.

And before I state what I'm about to I AM NOT THE QUILT POLICE.

I'm very much an outside of the box thinker so I don't necessarily follow the rules of thumb so to speak when I create something with fabric.

Anyway for the last several months I've designed or created some blocks without looking at patterns and such. If it comes to mind I just do it my brain shows me how to place pieces of fabric and to my amazement I'm told by those that see it when I do a show and tell that they love it and want to know how I created a piece. So I tell them and some say things like "oh I'd never have the patience to do that" or "I have to have a pattern to follow and still have problems at times".

I belong to two quilt guilds and even belong to a Wednesday sew group and I remember one time one gal from the Wednesday sew group after my being there about 4 months told me "quit practicing and show us something" to which I responded in my still small voice "you can't rush an artist" which shut her up.

I have from time to time posted pictures of something I was creating, started or completed online and shown to some locally and although I sometimes would make remarks perhaps being to critical of my work they'd always come back and tell me "don't be to hard on yourself" or "we can't all be perfectionist".

Yes I'm getting to the point..... I had joined one of the guilds yearly swap and we all had to make 25 blocks of the same so when we traded at the September meeting we'd all have each others block.

I was terrified to create such and actually ended up creating 4 different ones and in the end picked the one that I felt would pass. I had that mother sewed perfectly, ironed and seams straight. The day came when we had our little party for it and we had a blast. We all picked our blocks at the end of the evening and for the most part all of them were cut and squared away perfectly at 9 1/2 inchers. Out of the 24 I receeived only 6 were not squared away which was ok to me because I would use them anyway in some project down the road. What my shocker was that the ones that were that way or at least two of them were from some that I was told were perfectionist, best quilters around, do long arm quilting, etc. One of the squares was not just not squared away but neither was it ironed and smoothed out.

No I'm not the quilt police and I loathe them however I will never be so hard on myself again when creating something quilty.

Like I said I can still use those few blocks in other projects cause for the most part the stitching was nice and don't know that I could have pieced some of them.

I will never be critical of my own work anymore.

You go Girl! :):):)

Great post! I'm with you!!

we all have to be easier on ourselves. we all have our strengths and weaknesses... some are just more visible than others. do your best, create what you like and be proud of it!

See, you were being way too hard on yourself. As far as just creating blocks, who cares if they get into a quilt or not? The creative pleasure you get from the process is its own reward! Now having said that, I would get Sharyn Craig's book "Setting Solutions" . The book explains how to deal with odd sized blocks, odd numbers of blocks, odd colors of blocks etc. To put them together into a cohesive quilt. Should be in the library of anyone who participates in swaps or exchanges.

Well said

Well said, I'm often harder on myself than anyone else would think to be. I'm forever envisioning critiques that never happen! LOL

I bet that will be a huge relief and a great weight off your shoulders the next time you are creating and sharing your work. I have a tendency toward perfectionism too - and get my fair share of ribbing for pulling out stitches that pass muster for others but not for me. The real important thing is that you enjoy what you do and when you look at your work, you are satisfied. We are supposed to be enjoying the creative process, right? :lol:

Me too! My DH and kids say that I should stop trying to look at it as if I were a master and as it was made with love and that usually shuts me up... for a while anyway LOL.

Why do we look at others with loving eyes and not look at ourselfes that way?

In my opinion, there will be never a quilt or something else that mankind will produce, that is perfect. But for those who will receive one of your art creation, it is perfect.

Someone who is cold or needs to be comforted will always see how perfect our gifts are.

Our imperfections will make it unique it also will keep it interesting.

Looking at a drawing of a child, who cares if Mama has green hair, it's perfect, because your child drew it!