FMQ Friday – Stitch for Fun, Not Perfection

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

8 Responses

  1. Linda says:

    Leah, you've got nothing to yell at yourself about. You should be singing your praises for Duchess Reigns and everything else you do, as well! To know what you know and be able to teach what you teach as well as you teach it, even if you were decades older than you are, is wonderful. And as far as the experimentation with the batting and so forth, wasn't it Thomas Edison who said "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Process of elimination–where would we be without it? Thank you for being such a pioneer in free-motion quilting and for sharing your experience.

  2. Jessim says:

    I agree with Josh. Even unfinished Duchess Reigns is one of the most phenomenal quilts I've ever seen.

  3. Andrea R says:

    Today I realized I cut out all the pieces for a quilt mirror image to what they are supposed to be. At least I hope I did all that way, because if some were mirror image and some were not…

  4. I thought you were very brave to try a new batting with such a complex quilt. We are following you not to see perfection but to learn. And learn I do!

  5. You know what Leah, the way I detach myself from judgement about my work is, "It's just a piece of fabric." Have you ever read "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. In that book she talks about how it is not the artist's job to criticise their own work, it is the artist's responsibility to just show up and do it. I love your work, Leah and so do thousands of people across the world. We are interested in your journey and your work inspires and influences how we quilt, not solely, but in some definitive and individual way. Enjoy what you do. Don't make it about perfection. Just make it.

  6. LAQuilts says:

    No post link for me again this week. Being back in Alaska has me enjoying the weather, and I just have not gotten around to taking pictures of what I have been doing. Leah, Duchess Reigns is beautiful.

  7. I've been sewing for years. Your site has brought a lot of new ways of looking at things and bringing back the fun in sewing. I used to sew my clothes–usually something that needed to be worn that night. PRESSURE. Then I learned to quilt, and expected to finish up things quickly. As I bent my head over my sewing machine, I can remember thinking, "the prison guard won't let you out if the sewing machine is too slow. Years later, my friend who was sewing place mats with me on our lovely sun deck, said, "the Chinese overlords wouldn't give us a bowl of rice for what we got done today" and it struck me: this is a hobby? This is supposed to be fun, and I have guards and overlords in the picture? On my beautiful sundeck? Where is the pleasure of sewing with a friend? When did speed become so important?

    So, recently, I've treated myself as a best friend. I would never say anything rude to a best friend. I would compliment and encourage myself as a best friend. I would look up and be aware of where my friend is and what she is doing. I catch myself saying things like, "look at that section, it reflects how happy you are" and "look at how much you have improved" and while I sew, I think "I love this feeling of breathing in a sunlit area where the flowers and ferns are my backdrop. How lucky a day this is."

    So, here is a gift, Leah: you will have a whole week ahead of you with your new best friend: it's you, if you weren't paying attention! Think of how you will spend it. Will you offer a cup of tea in your best cup? Will you go for a walk to enjoy the colours of the season? Will you look into the eyes of a child and see the perfection, the character of a dirty nose, the charm of many ideas and the sense of wonder. Say thank you to yourself each time you practice this positive living.

  8. Malini says:

    Wow! Your quilting just looks amazing and out of this world!
    SUPERB!

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