I don't think there's anything wrong with STRIVING for perfection as long as we realize it's not something we can ever really attain, at least not full time.
I think the phrase, "Finished is better than perfect" should be emblazoned on every sewing machine!
I, too, have to resist pointing out each and every mistake on my quilts, especially if someone exclaims about how "perfect" it looks. Now I just smile and say something like, "The mistakes are there if you look for them, so don't look for them!"
I DID recently bring out my first quilt and show it off to a group of ladies from work that I'm teaching quilting to. A couple of them were hesitant to even get started for fear of "ruining" things, so I pulled my first quilt off of our bed and held it up for them to admire it, then brought it up close and started pointing out all of the mismatched and crooked seams, the quilting that went way off course, my wobbbly and flat binding, the puckers on the back... My point being that even with ALL of those flaws and mistakes (and there were
lots, I had no idea what I was doing when I made it), the quilt still looks pretty good and nobody noticed
any of it until I pointed it out. That seemed to help get them over the hump and lose some of the fear.
My rule of thumb is that if it survives a trip through the washer and dryer without falling apart, it's perfect. Perfect enough, anyway.
