Wow! That's a compliment. Right? LOL

I'm at least as bad as everybody else when it comes to seeing the mistakes in my work. It's a struggle to just let others enjoy what they're looking at without pointing them all out. That requires keeping my mouth shut. I sprained a jaw muscle once it's so hard for me to do. LOL

But ... oh yeah ... the popularity of shabby chic, country, and artsy-craftsy decorating styles are absolutely great hiding places for the mistakes. "No, dahling. Not full of mistakes and all out of wack. RUSTIC and folksy. Do you know nothing at all about art?"
:mrgreen:

Patrice
You hit the nail right on the head.

Patrice the best advice I got was to say when your sig other complained about sewing expences especially machine cost, memind him about the toys in the garage, better yet do not tell what you spend if you can get away with it. What they do not know will not hurt them. I paid as much for my last machine as my son spends on vacation, mine will last longer. LOL

The best advice I've ever gotten, was something I told myself.

Quit your job that you hate, and do something for yourself that you love.

Now I have a successful business doing what I want and I can work in my jammies!!!! Life is good.

Also the perfection thing as you all have said. I think everything has to be perfect, but have found others don't even notice those little imperfections.

The best advice I got was this:
There is no such thing as a perfect quilt. If you strive to make every aspect of it perfect you will be disappointed at one (or two) little spots. You may or may not be the only one to see them. Try to actually ENJOY the quilting process and remember it's not a race to get it done.

Actually from my son. He came in one day when I was struggling with the BOM. I was cursing and threw the pieces. He said to me " I thought this was your hobby and was fun. That looks like work" so I admire your BOMs but its not for me. I like traditional the best and I have a lot to learn still. Like some of you say I'm not making an heirloom........none of mine have labels either. I'm enjoying my hobby.

Ruth, tring is the important part, my 1 few attempts were beyond discription, but as you go you improve and learn. Keep it up, and something that helped me in the eairly stages was just studing the blocks and breaking them down in my head into sections, most of the basic tradtional blocks break sown into 1/4 sections. With rotary cutters came strip quilting and the "quick" methods. But to begain I feel that working with the old patterns and learning to see how the big blocks are really small sections put together really helped me. I can anilise a block quickly and decide if I want to do it or not, and am much less afraid of the more complex stuff.

My mother told me "never point out your mistakes. No one but you sees them anyway."

I also like the pony advice....Hang it on a fence and ride by on a galloping pony, if you can see it fix it, if you can't see it don't worry about it.

DD

This wasn't advice so much as an observation I made while walking through a quilt show and looking at the antique quilts. Our ancesters did not make perfect quilts. (Ah-ha!) They didn't have perfect quilting stitches either. Looking at the antique quilts I realized that I too could do that. Perfection, while a goal, is not the focus of the process.

Bottom line, if you're enjoying it do more. If not, toss it aside and find a pattern you do enjoy. I have several 'hot-pads-to-be' from blocks I could just tell were not going to be fun! You never know until you try!

Ruth, take a look at the patterns each month and pick and choose. You don't have to do them all. Really! :wink:

The best advice I ever received was to let myself be just as open to the quilts I see as I am to those around me....the art of discovery and understanding is sometimes subtlely presented....and needs plenty of practice.