Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect! However, …
Yep, I said it! Practice does not make perfect. If you had asked me, 10 years ago, if I could see myself say that, I would have told you, “No way! Not today! Not ever!” However, here I am, writing to you those exact words that I solely believed I would never say. I, like so many of you, grew up believing in those words. And, to be honest, I was also a perfectionist with OCD tendencies and extremely competitive (with myself and with others). My kids would probably tell you that I could, at times, be like a bad dream, as that combination is not exactly easy to live with. Then, something happened. I changed. The change mostly occurred as I matured, learned more about who I was, and I realized some things were really important and some I needed let go of. Do not get me wrong, the perfectionism will creep up sometimes, I still carry some OCD tendencies, and I am still competitive-it is my nature. However, it has dulled down quite a bit, and I realize that no matter how many times I do something, I will never be perfect-I am human.
Now that I have said all of that, practice does come with its benefits. It allows us to increase our skill levels and learn new things. Most of us have either grown up playing a sport or a musical instrument, and not a single one of us just went and played our first game or concert without practice. No one has ever become superior at any one single thing without practice. It is joyful to see someone grow in his or her skills, including yourself. When I started to learn to longarm, I have to say, it truly was not pretty. However, I can see the difference between when I started and where I am today. It really shows when I let someone try my longarm for the first time. Their stitches may be choppy and they may not have a smooth flow of the pattern. That first time, the fear and the nerves set in. But, with practice, you learn to stitch with more grace and understand how to flow with the pattern. It reminds me of learning how to write your name in cursive. If you have a childhood signature and you compare your adult signature, the cursive begins rough and, through time, becomes smooth and even. My mother has just begun to machine quilt. Although she has only done a few quilts, she and I can already see the growth in her quilting from practice.
Another benefit of practice is learning new things. When we learn math, we learn to add first. We practice and practice. Then, they teach you subtraction. Again, you practice adding and subtracting. Next, they teach you to multiply. As you have become proficient at addition, this gave you a base to do more complex things, like multiplying. You get the point. When we first learn to quilt, we may make a simple 6 inch block and sew them together. This allows us to practice cutting, practice that glorious ¼” seam, how to read a pattern, and how to put rows together with nesting seams. Keeping it simple gives us the opportunity to practice, and then build into making blocks that are more complex. Course, I did not know what I did not know, and I jumped right in. Once I finished the topper, I was proud of myself, even with all the piecing mistakes. Now, I am not sure what I was thinking, but then I decided to hand quilt it. I believe it was because I just did not understand what that meant and because I had no idea, at the time, how to quilt on a machine. I will probably never hand quilt another anything in my lifetime. I just simply do not enjoy it, and I love machine quilting! Nevertheless, I started this project several years ago, and I will finish it. Every morning, I hand quilt 2 arm length threads worth. Even though it is not something to be desired, I can see improvements. I am going to allow myself to be vulnerable, and share some spots of hand quilting on this quilt. This is not easy to share, but I believe it is important to demonstrate what practicing has done for me.
Most recent hand stitching.
A portion of hand stitching when I was first learning to quilt by hand.
Just for information, I cannot do the running stitch, because my hands just do not work that way. I adapted to the stab method, before I even knew it had a name or was a thing. You can see that I am not a professional hand quilter, and I know that is not in my stars. The spacing is off and the stitches truly are not consistent. However, you can see the difference between when I started and where I am now. Practice is not making perfect, but it has given me the ability to understand and appreciate this process and I have improved with the technique. Even with all the mistakes, I know that my husband will treasure this quilt for the rest of his life, once I am finished..lol..hopefully sooner than later.
Lastly, when we take a class with someone more knowledgeable, we do not usually just sit there and listen. You take the concept learned and apply it by doing whatever it is that we are learning. That is simply because we need to practice; we need to physically do it and not just listen to how to do it. It is good to practice with someone with more knowledge to receive good feedback on our techniques. Of course, you can always YouTube any new quilting concept and learn that way. However, being able to have a person see your work can really help you improve your techniques before you develop bad habits. Remember, they were in your shoes, when they first started. In addition, a good teacher will praise the things you do well and give constructive criticism, when needed.
Some people do not even try something new, allowing fear of not being good enough to stop them, or try it once and quit without giving practice a chance. The saddest part of those thoughts is that once you have faced your fears by trying something new and then really giving yourself the time to practice, you may find that you are really good at it or that you really enjoy it. This, in turn, will give you the confidence to do other things. Again, the practice does not make you perfect, but it can enhance your skills, inspire future works of art, and increase your confidence level as a beautiful quilter.
One of our mutual goals, as quilters, is to spread beauty and joy in our world. When we make quilted gifts or sell our products or abilities, these items are treasured by the recipient. The pieces are homemade/handmade items with our own unique human touch. They are not machine made on an industrial assembly line. This means that there are imperfections, and that, in itself, is beauty. It is amazing to me how we can look at different people’s works of art and know who made or who quilted it. However, that is our unique human touch and it is beautiful. I do not know about you, but when I receive something from someone that they made, it adds a ton of value; not necessarily monetary value, but a true, heartfelt love and appreciation. It sends me a visual of this person sitting somewhere in their home, making this gift for me. It makes me feel that I was important enough to them to take time out of their lives to do this, and I imagine that they were thinking of me while they were doing it. In the future, every time I will look at or use this gift, I will always be reminded of them. These things touch our hearts, our minds, and our souls with joy and happiness-yes, even with the imperfections created because we are human.
I hope that you will stop allowing fear to win and stop telling yourself you are not good enough or that your creation is not good enough. I hope that you truly understand that practice will not make you perfect, and find the honest beauty in that. I hope that you relax and enjoy the process. I hope that you practice, practice, practice and find yourself enhancing your skills, find the confidence to make more quilted creations, and share your beauty with the world. You, my quilting friends, are humanly perfect!
Until next time, may you continue to be inspired, productive, and joyful! And never stop making your dreams in quilting come true!
-Angel
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