Perfection Or Imperfection...Which Is Better?
 

I see those close-to-perfect quilts in the shows and fairs and I honestly do admire them. I really do. I think that they are made with "engineer minds" that have a knack for perfection.

That is certainly not me.

I've learned to not only accept my mistakes and errors in my quilts, but to love them. I think that I actually prefer imperfection.

I've never been able to do "perfect" and it doesn't bother me at all. I had a sister-in-law who was such a perfectionist that she was never, ever satisfied. I remember not wanting to be like that. And I'm not.
I've noticed with quiltmaking that I try my best and don't like mistakes but once the quilt is finished I tend to forget about the mistake/s I made. It all seems to pass once it's washed and used. I usually forget where it was after awhile.

Perfection is needed in many things, but quilting isn't one of them. A quilting friend of mine will redo a block several times to get it perfect. I realized that is her passion, having it perfect, not the actual quilt making. Honestly it is off putting to others listening to her telling how she had to redo the block because one point didn't have a teeny tiny space from the point to the other piece. So if you enjoy being a perfectionist don't talk about your redos to get it.

Because fabric has only so many threads per inch, one can only get "so close" to an exact measurement.

My and your "good enough" may or may not be the same. But It if each of is is satisfied (or can live with) the results, why fret about it?

If you want a "perfect" quilt, you need to buy it at Walmart, where they are made by machines.

The imperfections I don't want to live with are too-narrow seams. I want my quilts to stand up to multiple washings because they are well used. Seams that are too narrow are subject to coming apart. I've also learned to use good fabric for longevity.

All this said, I still have lower quality fabric that sometimes finds itself into a quilt and there are times I find myself considering how scant is scant or just not enough.

To me, DONE is perfection in itself. I am getting too old to create more UFO's in the hope of finishing them 'someday'.

Yes, done is better than perfect!

I won’t say that I “love” my imperfections, but I’m very okay with little mistakes. No one notices those except for us!

I can look at the photos of stupendous quilts seen in shows, but know that I started too late and with too many physical limitations to be able to achieve such amazing quilts. Happily, the quilts that move me the most are the ones stored under the heading, 'simple patchwork,' in my saved photos. So while I can marvel at amazing quilts, I don't aspire to make what's beyond me. Perfection I don't worry about, I just try to do my best with every quilting task. And of course, our best gets better over time.

My goal is to have a quilt, a crafted useful object, at the end of projects. I don't do art meant to be looked at -- in which case my points and everything should be perfect if you are going to be looking at it. But my quilts are machine pieced, machine quilted, and machine washable and don't matter so much if a point or two are chopped off because their goal is for warmth and comfort.

Still, part of the joy in it for me is the math and having things go together well and easily. Part of the joy is putting together the fabrics and colors and patterns and having them go together correctly. I use art concepts and while I will challenge myself to use fabric that may be "ugly", the goal is to have something that rises above or elevates the basic concepts to find beauty in the humble.

We each have our own goals and desires and reasons on why we quilt. We each have our own journeys, I have vision issues and I feel my best days of quilting are behind me, but that I still have a future and presence in quilting and will continue to quilt while I can.