Apology to Jane Kay and thoughts on imperfect blocks- long

This is the point I have gotten across to my kiddie quilters. Our seams don't meet, our squares are not perfect, but our quilts are - especially to the homeless and sick children who will receive them.

L>Quilting is about making a

Sorry, I have to disagree a bit.

There is no shame in wanting what we make to be the best it can be. There is nothing wrong with someone wanting to do their very best and maybe even do their best every time.

Striving for quality workmanship does not imply quilter competition. I strive to make my blocks turn out perfectly sized, squared, pointy, whatever, but I do it because to do so makes ME happy.

It's OK to feel differently, but we can feel differently and still respect someone elses need to either make their blocks perfectly or not.

marcella loves perfect blocks

I'm kind of in the middle here. I'm really not a perfectionist but I really make every effort to get blocks as accurate as possible. The more accurate you can piece the fancier you can get with patterns.

I have been lucky enough to win some block of the month blocks at my guild. Boy are those a hit and miss on size. (how many sizes can a 12-1/2" block be?) It is a real challenge to get them all working together but you can get a nice looking quilt with some time and effort.

There are no quilt police. Whatever floats your boat. Taria

Marcella Peek wrote:

But there is a BIG difference in stopping to square your blocks up with rotary cutter and ruler versus wetting and blocking each individual block to dry. In time, space etc. I can't imagine doing that around here... for one... the last quilt was 110 blocks... where would I have done that??? And how many would I have redone after the dogs got them... and after the child got them while I was chasing the dogs. There is perfection and there is reasonable. If I was doing a HUGE New York Beauty center block, yeah, I might want to block that, but for an every day quilt.... that would just be crazy in my book. In my mind this is kind of a what is the quilt going to be used for and you go from there... show quilt?? Once in a life time quilt that no one is allowed to touch or one that everyone in the family will be on and dragging around. Just my two cents....

And Leslie, I love your input and your creativity. We would be so lost without you!!

Jan RCTQ Coffee Diva

Marcella-

I didn't mean to encourage sloppy blocks. Never! LOL What I meant was that folks new to quilting shouldn't get discouraged because their blocks aren't perfect and give up quiltmaking or feel that The Perfect Block is their only goal. I taught my students how to make perfect blocks.... but I also kept encouraging them when it didn't work out that way. I am a perfectionist by nature (a horrible burden IMHO- I am often discouraged and give up before I'm really started because I

Leslie & The Furbabies > Sorry, I have to disagree a bit.

I almost stopped quilting because of this, I originally learnt from a book, the first quilt I made was hand pieced, and did turn out pretty much perfect, I think hand piecing with no pressing until the end does lend it's self to perfection! Then the next one I tried, the book said nothing about squaring up as I was going along, it is a 9 inch churn dash blocks, then set with 4 triangles to make a bigger square, as I didn't square up the church dash blocks, by the time I added the triangles, it's impossible to join together! I've been doing it by marking seam lines and carefully pinning, but I'm fed up with it and it's in a draw!

Luckily I moved to the US and quilt classes were easy to access and now I love it, I've still got a lot to learn, but I'm also able to express my creativity.

Anne

I do a lot of needlework in addition to quilting. Over at RCTN we have the "Perfect vs. Not Quite Perfect" discussion every now and again. It has made me think about what I want to achieve and what I tell newbies to either craft. I have decided that when learning something, a person should try their very best to make as perfect an item as possible. When you are learning, you have to try hard to learn how to do something as perfectly as possible for you. Now, we all know, and I tell anyone I am helping, that we aren't perfect. No matter how hard we try, stuff is going to end up a bit wonky. This gives us the opportunity to learn how to deal with a an item that isn't quite up to snuff. And it's a very valuable lesson to learn. We also have to realize that not all quilts are going to need our absolute "best" work. I look at quilting and needlework as rather like cooking a meal. There are some meals -- like Thanksgiving dinner -- that require our absolute very best work. We bring out the good dishes, glassware, cutlery, etc. and set a beautiful table. We spend hours making sure each and every dish is as perfect and beautiful as we can make it. Then there is the quickie game night meal that consists of heating up a can of chili and buttering a piece of bread and WHAM, your finished. In the middle are those times we make a nice meal, maybe meat loaf or cooking chicken with all the fixin's but we don't pull out the stops like we do on Turkey Day. Quilts are like that -- some require our very best work (maybe a Wedding gift quilt or a special Memory Quilt for a loved one) and there are the quilts we make because we need something to use for picnics or just keeping in the trunk of the car. The stuff that's going to be tossed in the trunk of the car doesn't

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Howdy!

Amen.

And thanks, Marcella. ;-)

I'm not looking for perfection but "good enough" isn't, for my quilts.

R/Sandy--definitely thinking differently, all the time, 'cause I'm kinda' weird...

Howdy!

I like the way you said that, Leslie.

My late friend and quilt shop boss, PaulaB, was a perfectionist. More than once I watched her throw a project into the trash (and sometimes I rescued it) because "that's just not what I want!" She made fewer quilts than I have, but she had a lot of ribbons to show for the fabulous work she did (she *liked* competition, I don't so much [chicken]). She was happy with her quilts, I'm happy with mine. (I'm also happy with other people's quilts, too. Even this incredibly icky one my grandma made.)

As the Isley Brothers said, "It's your thang Do what you wanna do!"

R/Sandy-- agree>

Thanks Marcella for putting this so beautifully. I am a 'striver'; but, although I would encourage a student to 'aim high', I would always emphasise that 'the highest/peak' is rarely attainable - but is nevertheless worth aiming for. The *journey* is also terribly important to the individual. In so many athletics championships I hear the athletes say "well, I did my personal best; no-one can expect more". This is, of course, irrespective of what place they achieved in the race/field event. The specific blocking question rarely arises for me, because I usually do other types of quilts. I will try to make something 'just right'. I will work on a 'mistake' to some degree; but will accept when I realise I can do no more to correct/improve and move on.

(I do keep a finished, 1/12 scale log cabin to show anyone interested in progressing, especially in miniatures, because it contains so many mistakes it is a perfect teaching tool!!) . In message , Marcella Peek writes

I do like this cooking analogy, Mary! . In message , Tia Mary writes

When we were having the "To Knot or Not to Knot" on surface embroidery discussion over at RCTN, I came up with that cooking analogy. I like to do surface embroidery for stuff like kitchen towels and on clothing -- the stuff that gets really well used and washed a lot. When doing this I use knots in my floss and I get a "talking too" every time I mentioned it. But kitchen towels made for me or my family to use or a t-shirt I will wear just aren't the type of things I feel need my absolute best work and it's just easier to use a knot. I had to decide why I felt that way and I came up with the cooking analogy. Sometimes stuff just HAS to be as perfect as we can make it. Other times a "lick & a promise" are good enough :-). CiaoMeow >^;;^M

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Where was the spew warning?! For me and the cat apparently?!! Now he was just trying to help you achieve perfection... good kitty!!! ;-)

Jan RCTC Coffee Diva

I keep a mistake too, Patti. When I was first teaching my young neighbor from way down the lane how to quilt, there was a HST chicken she wanted to try. There were 3 HSTs that were ½ background and ½ chicken fabric. They were to be stitched to the backside of the chick for tail feathers. Well. That was the plan. When she sewed the chicken together, she put the HSTs upside down. Instead of creating a tail feather shape, they look like they're poking into the poor chicken's fanny. The size and points of the HSTs are perfect. Polly

"Patti" (I do keep a finished, 1/12 scale log cabin to show anyone interested in

Wonderful! . In message , Polly Esther writes

This has been a wonderful discussion! I have to agree with most of the posters who have said that striving for the best we can do is what we must do, but that accepting that we're human and will make mistakes is also necessary. Yes, we will try to fix as many mistakes as possible, but it's not always possible. There are times when I take out quilting stitches (or redo some piecing) that just aren't "right" -- there are times when I say "Oops! Oh well!". It all depends, as Tia Mary said so well, on the intended use of the quilt and how bad the mistake is.

Yes, we must strive for improvement and do as well as we possibly can. But when we emphasize perfection over the love of our craft, we will lose quilters and people who would have liked to be quilters. We don't want that! :)