That's not the quilt police...it's your own ambition. Why on earth would you want to stiffle it? Grab ahold with both arms and embrace it, it will take you far. Aim high, as they say! There is absolutely nothing wrong with striving for excellence, or with reaching it. Do you really want to settle for 'good enough' as your goal?

My husband taught me a trick to solve this. When I get stuck on a quilt and don't know what to do, that night when I go to bed I tell myself to dream about that quilt. Sometimes an answer comes to me in a night or two, sometimes it's a week, sometimes it's during the day. I think our brains come up with more creative solutions while we're asleep. I keep paper and pencil next to my bed to write ideas down.

Telling yourself to dream about something sounds crazy, but it really does work.

I agree whole-heartedly.

I choose to live on the wild side and ignore the quilting police. I call my quilts unique especially when they are a mess.

yup. i think we all suffer from this at one point or another. like "they" say, "the enemy of 'good', is 'better'." sometimes, i just walk away for a few minutes, and when i return, things don't look so awful or bad. amazing what 5 minutes can do for perspective!

Words of wisdom to live by!!! Thank you so much!! I was a little down and out! I feel better!!

Ladies, don't be so hard on yourselves! We can only strive for "excellence", knowing that we've done our very best at the time. Don't beat yourselves up over an imperfect point. None of us will ever be perfect, so let's be satisified with "excellence".

Jeanette Frantz

I agree....we are not perfect.....so our projects be it quilting, sewing, cooking or cleaning will not be perfect.....so my personal moto is ...."LET GO....AND LET GOD WORRY ABOUT IT"....I do the best I can with the brain cells that I have at the time (some times more .....some times less).....Why oh why worry about the small things......Just do the very best you can, be it with quilting, husbands, a job or children..... JUST THE BEST YOU CAN....and not lose sleep over it :o

I agree. I rarely do anything perfectly. I can count on both hand the few times I've done a project that I really think came out perfect. If I had to wait until I did it all pefect....I'd probably never begin!

I have a friend who says regularly, "perfection is highly overrated." I got past that perfectionist point. I know people who have been quilting much longer than I who never have. .....and BTW, I get more way blue ribbons than they do. If you don't allow yourself to fiish, it does not matter how perfect you are.