Finished is Better than Perfect

Mistakes happen.  They do.  They happen to me.  They happen to you.  They happen to the best of quilters, including those who have YouTube programs with thousands and thousands of followers.  All quilters have their strengths, and all quilters have their weaknesses.  My question this week is this: When do we let mistakes guide the completion of the quilt?  Is it good to stop the process and correct every little wrong thing or is it better to just keep pushing through the process until we get to the end?  Is finished really better than perfect?

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit, there are quilts, and then there are quilts.  There are quilts meant to grace our beds and quilts meant to be thrown on the ground and picnicked off of.  Then other quilts exist to dazzle judges and hopefully bring home ribbons.  Obviously the latter requires more attention to detail than the former, but how much should you let mistakes hold you back from completing a picnic or play quilt?  Let’s take a hard look at the whole “Finished is better than perfect” mantra and see just how it fits into our quilting. 

I’m starting with a question:  How many projects do you have both in progress and patiently waiting in the wings?  Zone of Truth

I have so many it’s embarrassing to mention.  It wasn’t until I realized my project accumulation was exceeding my life expectancy that I slowed down accumulating them.  I love pretty fabrics and fabulous projects.  Both keep my creative juices bubbling.  However, I came to some pretty hard, cold facts about myself.  First, I’m a slow sewer.  For someone who has sewn nearly every day since she was 24, I’m not a pedal-to-the-metal speed demon quilter – primarily because I want to keep the relationship I have with my seam ripper virtually nonexistent.  If I wanted to finish all these projects, I would have to pick up the pace, and a faster pace meant I would make some mistakes and if the mistakes were bad enough, I would have to develop a much  better working relationship with Jack (the seam ripper).  Second, I declared a moratorium on any additional projects.  I must finish these UFO things.  With that in mind, I know if I don’t embrace the “Finished is better than perfect” point of view, I will drown myself in a sea of unfinished projects, fabrics, and patterns.

And you will, too.  The Zone of Truth here comes with a couple of hard facts:

• You can’t finish if you don’t start.
• You can’t finish if you fuss and obsess over every little mistake. 
• You can’t become paralyzed by perfectionism.

Let’s stop for a moment or two and discuss perfectionism and quilting. Overall, perfectionism can be a difficult task master.  While the goal of perfection is pretty lofty, the execution of it can make your life miserable because none of us are capable of being perfect or producing perfect quilts.  We can do good work and make wonderful quilts, but in order to keep the project moving ahead, you have to let go of perfectionism.  This doesn’t mean you aren’t careful with your technique or that your work is inordinately sloppy.  It means you’ve decided what to accept and what to let go in your quilting journey.

I also think the whole “Finished is better than perfect” mantra actually helps you in some areas (besides the whole getting over perfection if you have that problem). 

First, I think it gives you the confidence to redesign blocks, patterns, and applique.  Think about it.  If you’ve made a mistake in a pattern, exactly how many people will know you’ve made a mistake if you don’t tell them?  Go ahead.  Think about it.

No one.  Unless someone else who views your quilt has made that exact same quilt, no one will know if you’ve made a mistake.  You can take that little goof and make it a design change, a pattern re-draft, or any number of things.  Personally, I think some of the best quilts I’ve made came about through a mistake or two.  I was forced to put down the pattern and come up with my own ideas.  For instance, after I discovered  I was to be a Mimi for the first time, I naturally wanted to make my future granddarling a crib quilt.  I consulted with my daughter who had decided to use owls in the nursery.  I found a cute pattern with appliqued owls on them and set to work, only to discover I made a huge mistake when I began to assemble the quilt.  The owls in the pattern were set on-point. I appliqued them like a standard, horizontal block. 

But they were finished, and since finished is better than perfect, I had to develop my own layout design.  This little fiasco forced me to learn to set aside the pattern, trust my own creative abilities, and make that sweet quilt.  I survived the process and came away with the confidence to realize something I’ve told you for years:  The pattern is merely a suggestion.  The quilt is your quilt, and you can make it the way you want to.

Second, finishing a project will give you the courage to keep pushing forward.  If you’re like me and you’re a recovering perfectionist, it’s so easy to feel that every little mistake is this giant hurdle you can’t get over.  Unless that mistake truly alters the entire construction of a quilt, you may just want to keep pushing forward.  That tiny tuck in a seam will probably not be noticeable at all once the quilt is quilted.  The one tip you accidentally cut off your flying geese will not be seen.  Just remember all progress is some progress and the more stitches stitched gets you closer to the last stitch in the quilt. 

Third, the more projects you finish, the more you will find yourself as a quilter.  As you keep stitching, you will realize your own strengths and weaknesses.  You can play to your strengths and work on your weakness, minimizing them until you feel like you’ve mastered them.  For instance, let’s pretend you want to make a pieced and applique quilt.  Your piecing skills may be stellar, but applique may still be a technique that you need to work on.  Don’t start with a quilt such as this:

With every other block having a bit of applique in it.  Choose one which may have a bit of applique in the center (which also means the applique pieces will probably be larger and easier to work with).  If this is successful, then the next time pick a pattern with more applique.  However, unless you push yourself to finish a project, you’ll never master the techniques you admire in other quilts. 

Finally, finishing something gives you confidence as a quilter.  And confidence breeds more confidence.  With each finish you feel a bit more like patting yourself on the back (which you should) and feel as if you can do it again – this time with something a little more challenging (which you can do).  Finishing a quilt – even if it’s not perfect – excites you as a quilter.  You want to feel that feeling again.  So you push to finish another project.  And then another.  And another.  Trust me, that excitement of finishing never dulls.  It never goes away.  It’s a hit of dopamine and serotonin you want to feel again and again.

A couple of additional thoughts before we close this blog on finishing. 

1. Once that top is complete, quilt the quilt.  Sandwich it up and put it under your needle (either hand quilting or by machine) or find someone to quilt it for you.  Don’t let the top languish in a pile of unquilted tops.  You’ve come too far for that.  Quilt it, bind it, put a label on it and display it.  Trust me, chances are other folks won’t see any mistakes you’ve made.  They’ll admire your handiwork and wish they could make something as marvelous as your quilt. 
2. The whole mantra “Finished is better than perfect” is not an excuse for sloppy work.  Some mistakes need to be corrected in order for the quilt to square up and quilt well or they’re so visible they’re obvious.  A tiny tuck in a seam is one thing, blocks which are out of line by a half inch or more is another.
3. You are the boss of your quilt.  The quilt is not the boss of you.  In the end, it’s fabric. Just fabric.  Don’t let it get the best of you.

If you are a perfectionist in recovery or you simply feel your quilt has too many mistakes, there are three options available to you.  You can fix it.   You can complete the quilt, mistakes and all.   Or you can abandon the project.  The choice is yours.  If I have made a mistake and I really am struggling with it, I set the quilt aside for at least 24-hours.  When I return to it, if the mistakes still rattle me, I fix it.  If they no longer bother me, I pick up where I left off and keep moving.

Have I ever abandoned a project I have so many mistakes in?  You bet.  And most of the time this was the right decision for that project. 

The decisions are yours to make.

Until next week, from My Studio to Yours,

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Felix