The Game of Perfection – Podcast #110

I’m thinking about the game of perfection this week! In this Hello My Quilting Friends podcast I share an insight that popped into my head over the weekend – how demanding perfection in every stitch is like expecting to win every board game you play.

You can also listen to the podcast or download it to your computer using this player:

The podcast feature begins at 11.46 in case you want to jump right into my discussion on perfection.

News from Around the House

Nearly all of my time is getting prepared for Quilt Fantastic coming up this Saturday, 6-22 in Kingsport, TN! We still have a few openings for both morning and afternoon classes. Click Here to learn more about this event and come out to meet me!

Quilt Fantastic seminar with Leah Day

I have pieced two quilt tops for this seminar using my collections of pieced scraps. I’m also partially quilting these quilt tops, which is quite challenging. Imagine quilting only 3/4 of a block and then leaving it that way! Argh!

Pushing My Edge with Perfection

Another thing I made this week was a little fabric painting while testing a pack of Artzea fabric markers (affiliate link). After drawing the tree shape, I was suddenly terrified of adding more color to the fabric.

What if I mess it up??? What if the next thing I draw or the next color I pick is the wrong choice?

I worked on this steadily for several hours and every time I felt the impulse to stop and put it away, I just reminded myself that I could draw it again. I could make it again and make it better, but I wanted to see where this was going to go. I’m so happy I finished it!

Ultimately it took until I reached the sky section to realize, even if I did make a mistake, I could probably fix it. Or make it less obvious. Or turn it into part of the drawing.

Working on Perfectionism, One Project at a Time

I love that I finished this little fabric painting and didn’t give up and put it away. Working on this has helped me realize just how immature perfectionism is. It’s like demanding to win every game of chess. How will I learn anything if I insist on winning every time?

Mistakes aren’t much fun. Losing games isn’t much fun either. But in order to win at any of this, we have to be willing to play, be creative, put paint on fabric, or stitches on our quilts!

I hope my realization with chess and board games helped you see what a limiting idea perfection can be.

Until next week, let’s… not be perfect!

Leah Day

More Hello My Quilting Friends Podcast Episodes:

• #109 – A Short Story from Quilst
• #108 – Organize and Decorate Your Sewing Space with Stephanie Socha
• #107 – 7 Reasons Why I DO Want and Need a Longarm
• #106 – Can I Become a 1 Project Person?
• #105 – Time Lapse Quilting with Todd DuBay
• #104 – Painting the Rabbit Hutch and Puttering Around
• #103 – Meet Laura Hendrickson, the National Quilt Museum Registrar!
• #102 – Do You Ever Sleep?
• #101 – Quit Gaming and Start Quilting with Luann Fischer
• #100 – Happy Episode 100!
• #99 – Overcome the Fear so You Can Create
• #98 – Permission to Make What You MOST Need to Create
• #97 – Running the National Quilt Museum with Frank Bennett
• #96 – Creative Ways to Beat the Winter Blues
• #95 – From Fire Fighter to Fiber Artist with Brandy Maslowski
• #94 – Cleaning Up to Be Creative
• #93 – Fixing Quilting Mistakes with Beth Collins
• #92 – Rising to Unexpected Challenges
• #91 – Quilt Blogging in 2019 with Vicki Holloway
• #90 – Tracing a New Goddess Quilt