I was driving along the road, and passed a yard sale/flea market type place and there was a booth set up with quilts. Needless to say, I did a u-turn and went back. One of the quilts was outstanding from the road, it was an appliqued nine patch with coal miners on it. Done in all white and black. This is the coal capital so, anything with coal mining is huge.
Lots of people were buying her quilts anywhere from $150-400. She had several that were panels with borders added, one was the footprints panel I'm working on.
Once I got to looking at them close, the machine applique wasn't very good at all. They looked about like mine! I've been very aggravated over my machine applique, feeling like it's terrible, etc.
None of the people noticed any imperfections at all. They were going crazy over them, and I overheard several people make comments like "hand made quilts are the best, thats all I ever buy, etc" .
So, maybe , I've been being too hard on myself? Maybe it IS ok that my quilts aren't perfect? If people are happy to pay money for quilts that are about the same skill level as mine, then I must not be too bad, huh?
It really made me think. I don't think any of those people would have cared if the seller HAD pointed out the imperfections. I think they would have loved the quilts, just the same. It was the "handmade-ness" that was so special to them, not whether the seams matched or the stitches were off.