A Quick Story about Perfectionism
“Get over yourself Amy, you are just a quilter!" I finally had to yell this to myself to find some piece. Pun intended :)
One day, my husband came into my sewing room and asked if I could spare a plastic tub (you know, the ones we keep our stashes in). In trying to find one I could spare, I found this unfinished quilt squirreled away.
Years ago, I’d bought it at a junk store for very little. Hand-pieced with what looks to me like flour sacks, it had already been cut down, probably to get rid of rotted edges, had been loosely hand-quilted and then possibly tied at a later date. The backing was rotting, so I un-quilted it and took the ties out, and loaded it onto my then-new longarm machine. This was maybe the second or third quilt I had ever done with my computer program, Pro-Stitcher.
It did not turn out very well.
It was all user error. I didn't fully understand how to size things and such. After getting about 75% of the way through, I was so disappointed with work, I took it off my longarm and it has been in this plastic tub ever since. It’s been years!
Now that I am looking at it with wiser, more forgiving eyes, I still see my horrendous mistakes and overlapping stitches and places I didn't get right while trying to decide what to do with it. I asked myself, “Is it worth saving? Do I give it to charity?”
Ultimately, I decided to finish quilting it with the same design I’d started with. Mind you — I would never pick this design for this quilt today, just simply does not work with the wonky unevenness of this handmade beauty. But, since it was almost finished, I went ahead and kept with the theme and finished the quilt just to get it done. My husband walked in just as I was finishing up. Pointing to some of my original quilting, he asked if I was feeling ok because it wasn’t exactly up to my usual snuff (Yes, I stomped hard on his pinky toe!).
With it finally finished… Now what? I actually love this quilt because I’m a sucker for all things vintage and it really is a stunner, in spite of my terrible quilting. This is when I told myself to get over myself (see line #1 of this post!). I hung it up in a prominent place in our family room. You can see it from just about anywhere in the house.
I've had non-quilty friends come over and rave about its beauty and express a wish to have something so special. Now, my quilting peers were coming over, I resisted the urge to replace it with one of my "showstoppers." Part of me wanted to see what they would say. Many loved it and appreciated it for its history. Inevitably, a few pointed out the "weird" quilting. One even said “It's a shame you didn't quilt this,” — thinking I had bought it that way and knowing my typical quality nowadays. I finally confessed that I was indeed the quilter, and how I had come to be proud of it. Not only did it show how far I've come as a quilter, it also gave new life to a very loved quilt.
This old quilt has taught me to let go of the perfectionism we all hold ourselves to. We are just quilters! None of us get into quilting to create perfection, we do it out of love and love is messy! We make quilts to give to people who don’t quilt! Let go of the imperfections and just keep going. People will love it and you will love yourself.
