I do it for my enjoyment. If I had to be perfect I would hate it.

We all seem to be our own worst critics! My BFF has turned out some fabulous quilts that I truly marvel at. To me she is so talented I envy her. One day we were talking about quilting, and she told me how she strives to make quilts like I do! She thinks mine are far and away better than hers. We got together, with a few quilts, and showed each other their flaws, imperfections, and had a good laugh. We both are really critical in our own work. We talked a lot about using that session as a wake-up call to just relax and really enjoy the process. I still struggle with my perception of what it should be, rather than being OK with what it is. I try to avoid quilts with squares, because no matter how carefully I cut, things don't line up without fudging!

I started quilting about six years ago. Mostly I took classes to learn different techniques and often for the socialization. As I was focused on my points in the latest venture of making a medallion quilt in a virtual class, I picked up one of my very first quilts (made too soon to give as a gift) and to my pleasure my current points are pointier than the earlier one. The earlier one hangs on a quilt rack in the rustic family room and keeps us warm in the winter. That spells success for me. And visitors do not check out the points.

ummmm....I have a good one....for a laugh. I have been quilting for years but never good at free motion quilting...so I took another class, this time on zoom. I loved the class and really got inspired by the teacher. So I am working on my little practice sandwich..she said practice 15 minutes a day...and it will come. So I am happily practicing away...I go to pick up my practice piece...but...it is heavy..hugh???? OK, so I stitched my paper sample sheets to it....is that a problem?...tee hee. all six pages stuck to my practice quilt. Yep....I took out the old seam ripper ...rip...rip...rip...

I am in the middle of struggling with this very situation. I recently tackled a Roundabout quilt, I thought given my background I would be able to do it without a problem. Unfortunately, it didn't come together properly and I ended up ripping 56 blocks apart, trimming them up, and sewing them back together.

I just finished piecing it before this past weekend, I still have to put the borders on and then I can call it completed, but I had to step away from it for a while. This was a quilt I should have had done in no time, but I let a little bit of ego come through, used a brand new machine, and didn't check my quarter-inch seam. Had I used my old girl, I wouldn't have had an issue but I thought I'd be okay with the new one. Obviously, I wasn't.

When I finished piecing it, I threw it on our bed and my fiance ranted and raved about it, even though there are still a ton of mistakes, mainly seams not matching. But then I looked at it and realized all the mistakes seem to fade away when I was looking at the overall quilt and not the blocks with mistakes.

I'm spending the next week or so getting a hand-sewn GFG going, my long-term project, and not going to think about the Roundabout. If I get a few moments and need a break, I'll tackle the borders, but not a moment sooner. Honestly, there hasn't been another quilter that I know that hasn't run into this kind of problem before, and trust me, I questioned if I should even be quilting in the first place. As much as the Roundabout hit me, I'm not perfect and I love to quilt. It may have made me step back and think about things, but challenges will come up, no matter if every seam in the quilts before were perfect. I like to problem-solve my quilts and learn from them because the next quilt will be even better than the last, because of those mistakes.

I'm also a major glutton for punishment. I have at least four more quilts that are ready to go and one of them is another Roundabout. I pushed that one to the very end of the line, I was going to tackle it next but I'm not that crazy, lol.

This is going to sound a little simplistic but often I find I can step back from "my own worst critic" (me!) By using my cellphone to take a picture.

Somehow, when I do that it just looks better.