bearisgray

I've always thought that "deliberately" putting a "mistake" in a quilt was extremely prideful and arrogant.

GingerK

Bear, I absolutely agree with you. But maybe it's like my DH telling me to throw the snowball at him, when we're playing with the dog. He knows that by aiming at him, I will miss by a country mile LOL! If one is deliberately trying to make a mistake, maybe one gets it right for a change!!

cashs_mom

I'm not convinced that perfection is better by definition. It's better for some people and often those people make the people around them crazy with their perfectionism. This is said by the daughter of a perfectionist who never understood why I had to leave home. Nothing I did was ever good enough because it wasn't perfect After a while, why bother trying?

Leaving a mistake in a quilt is definitely a thing. The Amish are known to do it because of their religious beliefs. They believe that only God makes perfect things.

bearisgray

Leaving an unintentional errorv seems different to me than creating a deliberate "mistake".

JanieW

I guess I interpreted the original question differently than you did. To me if an article is perfect then comparing it to another one that is not perfect , the perfect one is better is what I meant. If achieving perfection is arduous then of course it's better for the achiever to settle for less than for sanity's sake. I get it as nothing I ever did was good enough. I decided to be the one to judge what was good enough. I set high standards for myself as I wanted to do good work but I never did reach perfection.

I believe the Amish and their alleged deliberate built in mistakes practice has been debunked and is considered a myth.

I think we can agree that dachshunds re the bestest breed? 😄

cashs_mom

Dachshunds are the best!

mramsden

I have a friend that is an artist and a quilter. One year she made a stunning art quilt and decided to enter it in our local fair. She didn't want to win a prize; she was just proud of it and wanted it to be displayed. It was judged and the feedback she got were things like "the stitches are too far apart on the back of binding, your points don't meet correctly here, etc." Not one word about the color or design or anything. She read the comments, took her quilt down and took it home. She will never put one on display again and the world will miss the beauty of them. I was furious when I saw the comments. Was it perfect - no. Was it beautiful - definitely. I sort of felt like those people would complain that there are cracks in the paint on the Mona Lisa.

dunster

For several years, I helped the judge at the local fair by laying out the quilt so she could examine it, then folding it up when judging was complete. The rule at that fair was that there should be at least two positive comments for every negative one. There's always something positive to be said, and the person making the most mistakes is the one who most needs to hear what she has done right, before hearing what can be improved.

SuzzyQ

Perfection is highly over-rated.
My quilts are done and beautiful.... good enough for me.
People waste so much time to get "perfection" that they miss the joy.

WMUTeach

I am working on a small quilt for the AQS Guild Challenge.(Eight quilts from 8 members of the quilt that set guidelines and follow them in their own way.) I must say that the pressure to make it perfect is kind of sapping the joy out of the project as I get closer to the end. The pressure is coming from my own perception of a quilt show quality piece.

Have I worked harder to reach the "perfect" show quilt stage? Sure, but aiming for the goal of perfect and hitting the goal are two very different things. I know that I am not a quilt show quilter. I would much rather make donation quilts and give someone a "warm hug" than compete. I can say the challenge has improved some of my skills and that is good. My corners match better, cutting was more exact, squaring up much better and color balance/block placement is better. Perfect, nope! But I am meeting the design requirements for the challenge and I have enjoyed that part of the process a lot. Would I do this kind of challenge again? In a hot minute. It has been a good vehicle to push me to refine skills and that is a close to perfection as I desire to get.