It was too tight and too pointy, not "organic" enough, if that makes sense.

Watson

Your lesson is one that is hard to learn. I often find myself putting off doing something that I will think will be difficult or time consuming, only to find after I start that it's not so hard after all.

One things that I have learned is that my work looks "better" after I have stepped away from it for awhile.

I did my first wholecloth last year as part of our LA group's annual challenge. There were parts I was not so crazy about at the time. But now, several months later, I look at it and say "Wow!! I did pretty darn GOOD!!"

Sometimes our focus is so close, we can't see the forest for the trees... and our forest looks much better than we thought when we were standing next to just one tree.

And some of us get so busy looking at the veins in the leaves of the tree, that we don't even see the trees!

This happened to me. I did a charity quilt with a swirl design. At the time I did it, I remember thinking...I'm not at all pleased with it. Then, later, I was going through and restacking the quilts at church (where I give them away) and I thought, "Oh, this one's neat...did someone donate that one?" Then I realized it was the one I did, that I wasn't pleased with at all.

Often when trying something different like that I will try a test piece using the same fabric to see how it will do.

That is an important lesson that I am still trying to master. Trust myself? Not sure why it is so hard for me at times! And I so agree with the comment about seeing only the veins in the leaves instead of the whole forest. Told myself just yesterday, this quilt is to show my love for the recipient not to save someone's life with pure perfection, not to hang in the Smithsonian as an example of this era's best work...made me feel that much better. Wish I had come to this point earlier, myself.

I used to have a riding instructor who told me that she didn't care if I didn't do something perfectly as long as I failed BETTER than I did the last time I tried. That it (dressage riding) was a journey and it was all about baby steps towards eventually putting the whole picture together.
I think that applies to quilting, too. Each time you attempt something, a new technique or whatever, you might not get it perfect, but you get it a little better. And all those improvements add up to a thing of beauty.

Watson (Who is still ripping out serpentine stitches. Those things are really in there!)

Way to go! I wanted to try my embroidery/darning foot for FMQ all summer and still haven't tried it! :)

Connie

I agree, sometimes it just takes giving ourselves a good talking to, to get our nerve up and go for it.