Friday, November 29, 2013

Sewing with certainty - perfection

Ohh the dreaded perfectionist is all of us rears its ugly head!!!

I tend to beat myself up for my lack of perfection. the last couple months because I was not putting in the time i needed to "grow" my etsy stores... because i was not spending disciplined time on sewing... and because i have a UFO pile that out numbers my finished quilts pile!

I think my great epiphany that i recently had was to stop beating myself up! initially i thought it meant to lay off sewing for a bit BUT... When I let that go of the guilt that i wasn't doing everything perfectly the creativity and desire came flooding back and Ive been busy, I've enjoyed myself, and I got out of my "creative" rut. Im still not doing it perfectly... but... its ok, i said as long as this family of 5 is living with us... im not going to expect perfection! (and i think i should learn from this lesson and never expect it again... but alas... i do know it will rear its ugly head again!)

I have wanted to make quilts (like my mother) since i was in my early 20s... at 45 I finally did it! well, I had started the quilt tops 4 years prior... and I finally quilted them at 45! I honestly was afraid to start and that fear came from wanting it to be perfect.

9 patch quilts, I finished 2 for my twin grand daughters.

Even today i struggle with this. I have this project that has stalled for almost a year because it has applique, I'm not sure about that!! but i will get to it.

I think the immediate thing i need to work on is my confidence with Tshirt quilts, they are taking too long to complete because I'm afraid I am going to mess up. I have two due next weekend and another two that I would like to finish before Christmas. These are orders i will get paid for!!! what is taking so long... just insecurity so... I'm gonna start right now... Tshirt quilts here i come.




4 comments:

Lorna McMahon said...

Go get those T-shirts, Tamara and let 'em have it! Good for you! Glad to hear we all struggle with the perfectionism here and there. Thanks sew much for sharing.

Jessica said...

I know exactly how you feel. Thank you for being so honest and for linking up! And also, good luck with the t-shirt quilts - you can totally do it!!

ChristaQuilts said...

This is a wonderful post - especially about procrastination and perfectionsim! I've been quilting for nearly 20 years but have put off getting my stuff "out there" because it wasn't perfect!
Now, thanks to blogging and everyone sharing their imperfections - I finally feel comfortable sharing online :-)

Sarah @ Berry Barn Designs said...

I can relate! How many projects we put off because we're daunted instead of jumping in, learning, and perfecting as we grow : )