Once I gave up on absolute perfection, I became a much happier and calmer person. Much to my DH's delight. He's working on the same issue for himself and me. We both have many slip ups, but we catch each other and have a good laugh. Don't get me wrong - we still always strive for the best we can do. We just agreed that pefection is no longer the goal. Quilting is too much fun to make myself stressed about it.

If I had to quilt to perfection , then I shouldn't quilt cus I haven't had a perfect one yet!!! LOL. But I have fun and that's what' important to me!

I shoot for "the best I can do" which sometimes has some corners cut off. Perfection is self-imposed. Do your best AND have fun - that's my motto.

Me again, adding to my prior post. One quilter on this board told me to lighten up on myself and I decided it was very good advice so I decided to take it. :)

I strive for perfection, but if I have to take a seam out, it is a cold day in h*ll. I always go by the galloping horse rule- if it looks OK from a galloping horse, then it is OK with me. I also strive for done!

You don't have to be perfect. also there are patterns that are way more fogiving. Maybe read books by Gwen Marston to get the fun back into quilting.

http://www.amazon.com/Liberated-Quil.../dp/0891458786

I heard she put a new book out that is very similar to the first book. I have a friend reading the book right now she had a similar complain about quilting. To me the meticulus aspect is calming and part I like but I could see it could bother also.

Indeed!

I definitely have to quilt for fun, perfection is way to stressful. When I look at the hand quilting done by borntohandquilt, I get very excited and pay very close attention to what I am doing. Then I start paying attention to what is on tv and realize that my stitches are a little less than perfect. I also only give to people who care about me....they are always appreciative and love that I made it for them...So I continue to look at the pictures here and keep everyone as an inspiration and just do the best I can....

What I love about quilting is the ability to be imperfect I learned this week that what I saw as a mistake turned out to make the quilt.

I gave up trying to make the perfect seam a long time ago. Now I quilt just for fun and no one will ever notice a little mistake here and there. If we are up tight about things being perfect it takes the joy out of quilting. Life is full of little mistakes.