I Used to Think That Quilting Was All About Perfection...
01-27-2016, 10:00 AM
#61
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Central Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA
Posts: 7,695
Some folks buy those cheaply made, cheesy looking, barely blankets, and believe they have a quilt. Anything I make is better than that because mine are made with love, and mine can survive being washed.
01-27-2016, 10:06 AM
#62
Power Poster
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Outside St. Louis
Posts: 38,213
I keep trying to make a perfect quilt. After 165, lots of comforters, biscuit quilts. I still have not made one perfect. Some close to it but, still not perfect. Now I am sure there isn't such a thing. As long as I have done the best I can do, that is good enough for me.
01-27-2016, 10:11 AM
#63
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: West Bend, WI
Posts: 2,229
I have a hard time not pointing out my mistakes, too. I am a perfectionist, which does me well in my career, but drives me absolutely insane when I step into my sewing room. I am trying to get it into my mind that some imperfections add character to my quilts. And boy! Do some of my things have character!!
01-27-2016, 11:40 AM
#66
Member
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Limington, ME
Posts: 5
Last summer I took a FMQ class with Angela Walters and she kept telling us that "Finished is better than perfect". I really enjoyed the class and have kept that thought with me in all my projects since. Sometimes, I think we need to give ourselves a break!
01-27-2016, 01:23 PM
#67
Member
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Hudson Valley, NY
Posts: 1
It's so nice to see this thread. I'm a fairly new quilter, and I have been struggling with the perfect piecing issue. I've figured out that my cutting is sometimes off - the fabric slips or whatever. I've been thinking I need to buy a cutting machine to improve my accuracy, but those things are expensive and I'd rather spend the money on more fabric. So now that I know it's ok to not be perfect, I will just carry on with my imperfect seams and spend my money the way I want to.
01-27-2016, 02:03 PM
#68
Super Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 7,095
Guilty as charged.
I was the same checking all points, seam joins etc and I started looking closely at others and decided that this is not what making a quilt is all about. It is an "act of love" - made with love and given with love.
So be it that the points are not pointy in some places or a seam is less then a hairs width out.
I was the same checking all points, seam joins etc and I started looking closely at others and decided that this is not what making a quilt is all about. It is an "act of love" - made with love and given with love.
So be it that the points are not pointy in some places or a seam is less then a hairs width out.
01-27-2016, 02:49 PM
#69
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: NH
Posts: 645
My aunt told me the imperfections is how you know it was handmade.
As I thought about her words, I realized the imperfections tell a story. See a stitch that wandered? Maybe the person took their eyes off their work a moment to give their child or grandchild a quick kiss on the forehead.
A seam doesn't line up? Maybe their spouse bumped into them as a prank to have fun with them. Or their concentration was broken by them thinking about something or someone.
Imperfections are stories and are why handmade quilts are much more charming than mass produced machine made quilts.
As I thought about her words, I realized the imperfections tell a story. See a stitch that wandered? Maybe the person took their eyes off their work a moment to give their child or grandchild a quick kiss on the forehead.
A seam doesn't line up? Maybe their spouse bumped into them as a prank to have fun with them. Or their concentration was broken by them thinking about something or someone.
Imperfections are stories and are why handmade quilts are much more charming than mass produced machine made quilts.
01-27-2016, 02:57 PM
#70
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Bay area CA
Posts: 887
Just remember, all quilts are made out of at one time living things, whether those things were cotton plants, wool from sheep, or cute little baby polyesters. As such, the medium is fluid, flexible, stretchable, moldable, shrinkable. Let the fabric flow. Keep control of the big picture, make points line up as bestus as possible, make the corners as square as possible, make the binding cover all evils. Finish it, wash it, hang it and challenge anyone to do the 55mph test on it. If they can see an error while driving by at 55 mph, then let them do it over. We quilt to make US happy.
tim in san jose
tim in san jose
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