Perfectionist tendencies

Cassie wrote an excellent post today on perfection.  Many left thoughtful comments.  Being a chronic perfectionist, I've thought about this a lot, especially over the last few years.  (Admittedly in the quilting realm, not so much the knitting.  Ok, a little.)  I wrote several posts about it today.  And posted them.  And then deleted them.  It's awkward to fret publicly about trying to shed one's perfectionist tendencies. 

Instead, here's a project from the height of my perfectionist days.  Another group of blocks that didn't progress past this stage because of, well, you know.  Looking at them here, I may reconsider going forward, though in a different way than I had originally planned.  I guess that's progress.

Since reading Cassie's post this morning, I've been thinking about this *perfection thing* all day.  And I recalled a conversation I had on that summer cruise.  Mary Lee asked me what kind of quilts I liked to make and I confided my frustration with recent projects.  She said that if I just made quilts for the joy of making, it would show in my work.  Perfect advice.

Comments

[molly!]

Wow, those are a blast from the past. I always liked the bird block and the flowers in the bottom right--just didn't dare to admit it then.

[carolyn]

finding the joy or living the joy is really the secret in everything, isn't it. ;) (eh, who has time for that. hee hee)

[Cassie]

For myself, I know that I need to step back a bit and just do what I love the most. When I was teaching quilting, I often found myself in the trap of trying to teach something for the sake of teaching rather than planning a class around what I loved to do in the first place. The latter classes were always better than the ones I forced.

Do it for the joy of making, is a good lesson to learn.

[Cordelia]

I hope I'm not pushing towards the trap of perfection, but the squares are lovely.
Good luck finding things you enjoy instead of do perfectly.

[myra]

Thanks so much for sharing about Cassie's post. I really gained a lot from reading the post as well as re-reading about your day with the Quilters of Gees Bend.

I think I need to make a large sign that says "do it for the joy of making" and hang it in my craft area. :)

[Kay]

It's good to think about the 'perfection thing'. One thing I've noticed is that the thing I make up in the first blazes of inspiration, though flawed, is usually better than version 2, 3, etc., as I 'get the bugs out'. Why is it that the first, sort of accidental version, has a magic that subsequent, 'perfected' versions do not? I think it's the 'joy factor'. Just keep making what you feel like making, and keep moving toward what you feel like making NOW, is what I take from it. xox Kay

[Cindra]

Those blocks look perfect to me... is there something I'm not seeing.. they are beautiful!