Perfectionism quote of the week

Thanks to my therapist for introducing me to this one:

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

Mmm-hmm

And, in true I-can-complexify-anything fashion, I turned this simple quote into essentially a meme using my new technology best friend, Canva. Is there any irony in this?

Fear of FMQ

I've been following the stashbusting sew-along all year, without really participating in the "sew along" part of things. But August's theme really grabbed me: face your fears.

I realized that fear had been holding me back. No garment sewing had taken place because of fear of cutting into those special fabrics. You know, the stashed fabrics that I have held onto for so long, just waiting for perfect to happen: perfect pattern, perfect fit, perfect execution of some tricky sewing detail (like welt pockets, or an invisible zipper, or a curved dart, etc.)

But the stashbusting community was behind me this month. We were all gonna face our fears together! A garment was finally gonna come together in 2015.

Only thing is, I told myself I had to finish the quilting on a little ol' wallhanging before I could start something new (like a garment). And guess what? Fear had been holding me back from finishing that, too!

I didn't even realize... Didn't acknowledge to myself that I was procrastinating on the quilting--I just knew it wasn't getting done in a timely manner.

Followed the mantra

PERFECT IS GOOD. 

DONE IS BETTER.

Practice session: ewww

Dived into a bit of FMQ (Free Motion Quilting--last seen publicly in this post from 2012).

Does it look like bubbles? Or sea foam?

And the quilting is DONE. Fear faced.

Not afraid of a close-up: perfect in its imperfections

Not perfect by any means, but it beats the heck outta hiding in a paper sack for another year or more. Win!

Now, can some elves come over and whip up a binding for this one so I can count the stash that was used? So very close to done done.

Thank you to all the Stashbusting Sewalong followers on The Facebook!  Seeing your work has really encouraged me.

Quilty Little Secrets

Not really a secret, is it?

The divine Molli Sparkles inspired this post, by sharing Ten Quilty Secrets of his own. 

Plus, he has a button!  My blog always needs some fancy-ing up, so this button is just the thing

I think it's liberating to open up and spill some of those things--secret, sewing room things--I've been holding on to.  My inner perfectionist never wants me to appear as messy or distracted as I really am.  Here goes!


1.  Not only do I sew over pins, but I save and continue to use many of the really bent ones.

Sorry Mom: still not using those new pins you bought me...

2.  I am in love with 30's reproduction prints.  I probably won't make another quilt out of them, unless a family member specifically requests one, but I just think they are so charming and adorable and generally make me smile.

This quilt makes me smile the most!

3.  I don't pay any attention to fabric lines or designers or whatnot.  I can resist the latest Cotton & Steel (or Moda, or Kaffe Fassett, or whatever) because there are already *tons* of beautiful and amazing fabrics out there.

4.  Quilts made out of the same block or two, from the same fabric repeated over and over, pretty much bore me.  Something has to give my eye a reason to travel over the quilt.  Just the addition of scraps, or changing some portion of the block placement on purpose (quilter's choice!) can make all the difference.

Circle of Friends pattern in scrappy Xmas prints

5.  My greatest wish is to be known to all as wildly creative.  (Followed up by "nerdy intellectual", but that's a different blog.)

6.  I harbor a well-hidden desire to be a pattern designer.  My wild creativity overflows, and I think I could live the Bohemian lifestyle of an artiste; but my ADD brain has let me know on several occasions that I could never be organized enough to actually run my own business.

7.  Here's how much I dislike hand-sewing: my last six quilts had the binding hand-tacked by others.  I will PAY for this service, and gladly.

Umm, yeah: not my hand-sewing (thanks again, Linda!)

8.  Not really a fan of wall-hangings.  And the irony here?  I have created two patterns for wall-hangings, plus worked myself into a frenzy on a scrappy bargello wallhanging: why???

Wallhanging of doom: border auditions in progress

 
9.  I have eleven WIP/UFO quilt projects going on right now.  (Gee--that's fewer than I thought Ihad!)  Yep, ADD at work.  Or not at work, as the case may be.  (And, perfectionist that I am, I had to make a list to be sure of an accurate count here.)

10.  My favorite part of the quilting process is the dreaming and fabric-auditions portion.  It's all downhill from there...


How about you?  Any quilty secrets that you need to get off your chest?  It's a freeing experience, I say: go for it!

Russian Wedding Band

Finished just before my recent two-week vacation: a knit cowl.  (Now why wasn't this on my goal list for the quarter?  Oops, oversight.)

My sister made me one of these cowls as a present, and sent me home with the directions (available as a free download from Ravelry).  It's super simple: just knit, on circular needles.  It's a stash-buster: uses small amounts of any worsted weight yarn, in 3 different colors.

She's a sweet sister, and pretty inspiring, too.  I pulled out my longest-stashed yarn (since college!), determined to get my knit on.  Had never knit on circular needles before, but I am now a big fan.

So, the pattern goes like this: knit a tube, about 7" long; bind off.  Let it curl up like a soft kitten, which is what it wants to do anyway.  As you cast on the second ring, put the first ring in the center, so the two loops will be intertwined.  And follow the same intertwining method with the third ring.

Those of you who knit in the round know a particular pitfall.  But my lips are sealed.  I called my sister in mid-panic about having screwed up the third ring.

Me: do I have to rip it out?  It's a pretty big error.
Sis: send me a picture, Ms. Perfectionista

I'm knitting with a crazy yarn, here

Me: Well???
Sis: Is it a gift?  Then redo it.
Me: I think it's just for me.  I was kinda just goofing around with old yarns...
Sis: Then leave it alone.

Sis: And don't tell anyone about it; they'll never know unless you go blabbing.

This is me, not blabbing.

First knit project I have completed in probably four years.  Feels kinda good!

Seam Ripper in Time-Out

Today's inspired quote comes from Kelly, whose blog is subtitled Where's My Seam Ripper?

"I pledge to not rip small mistakes, ignore the eye twitch that comes from leaving it, and never point the mistake out to others."

Thank you for the advice.  I need to hear it over and over again.

reaLISTic expectations

I have worked diligently over the past few years to become aware of how long things take.  I am chronically late.  I also know that I just move slower than my fellow human beings.  So these are my challenges... but I am working on them.

Made a To-Do list when I got home from work yesterday.

Ok, 11 items.  Doesn't seem so bad.  Numbering helps with being realistic about what can get done.

According to my recent experiments with how long things take, I can estimate 30 minutes for most individual To Do list tasks. (Unless travel time is involved.)  So, an 11-item list might take 5 and 1/2 hours to complete: yikes!  Who has that much time, especially starting at 5:30 on a weeknight?


According to Sweetie's advice, I should cut this list in half.  Which is what I did.  Prioritize.  What do I really want to/need to get done tonight?


Happy to report that I completed all 5 circled items before bedtime, and felt pretty good about it.  My
most proud accomplishment was "hemming curtains".  I had a 6-hour odyssey with what should have been simple curtains awhile ago, and I was determined to just get this project done, letting go of all need for perfection, and settling for basic, finished curtains.


Didn't iron.  Barely measured.  Used 1/3 as many pins as usual.  But they are done, and they look fine.

Done is beautiful.

Haven't I heard this somewhere before?

A successful list management experience, for a Tuesday night.  And guess what?  The after-work To-Do list will happen again today.  More opportunities to practice being reaLISTic.

Bouquet Assembly: Take 1

How I've spent the past six weeks of winter: working on my DIY wedding bouquet, with a hoped-for completion date of February 28 (pause, check the calendar).

I got all 80-something stems made.  Yay, go me!

A vase of pretty brooches/buttons/beads

Now comes the time to assemble them into bouquet form.  Started pushing and placing them within a fake hydrangea arrangement, as suggested on numerous DIY websites. 

Things went well for about the first 12 stems, then everything got all shifty--formerly placed brooches started sliding and cascading into each other.

Clumps of brooches + vast areas of unadorned fake floral

I got frustrated.  So close to my goal, so close to meeting my self-imposed deadline.  I've been pretty good at letting go of perfection on this project; but I'm gonna have to re-do this assembly.  Darn.  Not like I hadn't been warned of how this might happen

"...Brooches have a mind of their own, and often don’t go where you want them to go. You’ll probably have to take your bouquet apart and start over from scratch at least once, maybe more. You’ll have to learn how to work with the brooches, and there’s a good chance your bouquet will end up different from your vision..." (quote from Here's What DIY Articles Don't Tell You)

Awesome idea for Take 2: enlist a crafty friend to help me!  She has patience, since this is not a project she is already wishing were done.  She has an extra set of hands.  She has great ideas for how to craft and assemble.  And she can calm me down when the perfectionistas rear their carefully-coiffed heads.

Setting this project aside for my next crafty Play Date.  Linking up with the Cabin Fever Party over at Lily Pad Quilting, so I can share what I've been doing with my dreary winter days.

Have you done something interesting while the weather has been frightful?

Done is beautiful

I have seven of the Christmas gift aprons finished!  I'm talking "I can wrap this up and ship it in the mail today" finished.  What the Stashbuster folk would call done done.  I tend to fudge a bit when I'm asked about meeting my sewing deadlines: 7 aprons finished, except for the final pocket, or except for the hand finishing details.  No fudging required this time.

The Troops lined up for Inspection

As I was working over Thanksgiving weekend on the minutiae, I kept thinking of a phrase from Ms. Loran Watkins, an amazing sewist I followed on the Sew Weekly

Done is Beautiful

I needed that motivational boost: finishing details tend to bore me.  I'm wanting to start the next apron.  I wanna cut into more fabric, or audition the wacky fabric combinations for the adventurous niece. (I always love to see visible progress, something that is sorely lacking when snipping threads, tacking down facings, or hemming.)

Done!

I had to let go of a few perfectionist desires.  (After all, done is beautiful.)  Some advice from a Sew Weekly blogger was super helpful here...

THIS IS MEANT TO BE FUN - YOU ARE DOING THIS FOR YOU, NO-ONE ELSE.  (Well okay, technically I am making gifts for others.  But the expectation of what those gifts will look like is entirely mine.  I am choosing to complicate or simplify)...

NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE PERFECT.  Boy, do I need to keep repeating this as a mantra.  No one is going to judge my work for perfection.  As a comparison, I peeked at some behind-the-seams details of a hand-sewn gift made for a child I happen to know.  I was horrified; but the child adores this item and the relative who made it for her.

Imperfect, but DONE IS BEAUTIFUL

Gotta keep that in mind as I struggle to finish the last five aprons with time to spare.

Talk me out of it

Tomorrow is my day to post to the Nancy Drew blog hop.  Of course, I am not done sewing on it yet.  (Of course: how many times did I predict this would happen?)  I don't work well on deadline.  It stresses me out.

And sewing is not the only thing stressing me out right now. *L*I*F*E* has intervened to complicate pretty much everything.  Top of the list for the past 2 weeks: editing on Sweetie's 100+ page Phd dissertation.

But enough of the complaining.  This post is about getting excited, inspired.  The creative juices are flowing, thinking about the Next Big Thing.  I happened to spy the announcement for another blog hop over at Sew WE Quilt

A blog hop for projects using Pom-Poms!  How fun is that?  Sweetie had the temerity to ask: do you make pom-poms?  Are you just itching to start making pom-poms?

Well... honestly... no.  BUT!

But... and this is where I go horribly astray.  This is where my uber creative brain--with its well-established talent for linking together disparate threads of ideas--takes over and reality takes its leave. 

Here's the thinking process: I have this partially-completed wallhanging with words

The top is mostly done piecing (picture above is without borders).  You can see it's missing the direct object of the phrase: how do I feel about... what, exactly?  Well, that part was meant to be interchangeable.  Could be pom-poms, ya know? 

However, I also want to add lots of quirky details to the basic wallhanging.  I have already purchased grommets and giant ric-rac.  Why not add pom-poms to the mix?

So, that's the justification for considering entering another blog hop: move an unfinished project along toward being done.  (As Sweetie said, "You can rationalize anything, can't you?")

At this point, referencing the title of this post: Talk me out of it, I must quote from this week's horoscope (courtesy of Rob Brezny at Free Will Astrology)

"The German word verschlimmbesserung refers to an attempted improvement that actually makes things worse.  Be on guard against this, Aquarius.  I fear that as you tinker, you may try too hard.  I'm worried you'll be led astray by neurotic perfectionism.  To make sure that your enhancements and enrichments will indeed be successful, keep these guidelines in mind: 1. Think about how to make things work better, not how to make things look better. 2. Be humble and relaxed.  Don't worry about saving face and don't overwork yourself. 3. Forget about short-term fixes; serve long-range goals."

Well, there you have it.  I don't always listen to my horoscope.  It doesn't always apply to me.  But really: "led astray by neurotic perfectionism"? He was clearly speaking directly to me.  Darn.

It sounded like such a good blog hop, too!

Barnyard quilt-along Month 2 (of 15)

Here comes the sun!

After making ten rays for the sun, and getting detoured into an edgestitching critique, I only ended up using nine of them to complete the sun.  This is the second month of stitching small details for my Barnyard Quilt, and was due to be completed by January 19th.  (I am ahead of schedule.  Oh boy!)

I was slightly vexed by the rippling in the rays, until I realized that I made no accommodation for the fact that the seam was stitched along a curve.  I had to keep reminding myself that this is a play item for a child.  No need to rip it out and start over.  Is it sturdy?  Is it cute?  Does it adequately resemble a sun?  (Down, perfectionist demons!)

Sun looks nice with the clouds from last month.  They will eventually have buttonholes added that will allow the pieces to be placed in various locations in the sky area of the play mat.

Third month's assignment: a wishing well
Due date: February 16 (same day as buck-a-block) 

Barnyard quilt-along Month 1 (of 15)

I see clouds!

Finished the first month's (self-assigned) small project to go on my Barnyard PlayQuilt.

 This one was a no-brainer, as I had already chosen the fabrics for front and back, traced the pattern onto the white seersucker, and scrounged out tiny pieces of batting--all before this project had been stuffed into that grocery bag for years of neglect.

The only tricky thing was the hand-stitching required to close the small opening (yes, that's how much I hate hand sewing) and how to do the decorative stitching quilting.  I used my machine's walking foot, since my free-motion quilting skills are still in development.  Although the stitching is far from the level of perfection I usually insist upon, I am reminding myself that this is a children's play quilt.  No child will examine the stitching.  Is it sturdy?  Then it's good enough.

Second month's assignment: the sun.
Due date: January 19 (same day as buck-a-block) 

While the cat's away...

While the cat's away ...the mice will be at a complete loss for what to do. 

Sweetie has been gone for two long weeks.  Before she left, we had several conversations about how I could keep on task, how I could continue to function in an optimal manner, without her calming and centering influence.  Seriously, I know I'm an adult, but my ADD-tendencies keep me from being an effective human much of the time.  Sweetie performs a helpful role in gently guiding me when I get off track. 

(And without diminishing my free will to ignore or modify any incoming information and behave as I wish.  That way, if I go afield, I am fully aware of the fact that I am working without a net on purpose.)

So, on Day 1, I started making lists of all the things I would need to do, all the projects and activities I don't tend to do when my partner is around (like square dancing! or the "secret" hand-quilting project that overtakes the bed), all the possible flight-of-fancy things that I consider when I have unscheduled time, all the this... all the that...

This list got to be 3 pages long!  It was overwhelming.  I kept looking at it, I kept obsessing over it, I kept adding to it(!) and I kept being paralyzed with the thought

What should I be doing right now?!

I could not choose.  I could not function.  Thank goodness I had the requirement to go to work each day and plan lessons for my students, because I might have dissolved into a complete puddle.

On Day 3, I threw out my list, and simplified everything down to a four-item memory jog.

That I wrote on the bathroom mirror, where I would see it many times a day.

• cleaning
• routines
• backlog (anti-procrastination, a la FlyLady)
• love yourself!

 Sweetie gets back today.  (Which just shows how much procrastination I succumbed to--meant to put this post up about 10 days ago.)  I was not perfect.  Never gonna be perfect.  But I'm still a loving, wonderful, creative human being who enjoys life more often than not.

The dogs got fed.  The carpets got vacuumed.  And no one is the worse for the wear.

Farewell to a dear UFO

In cleaning out today's yard sale bin, I came across a UFO that is so dear to me.  I know I'm not going to finish it.  I know it will go away.  But I wanted to give it a fitting tribute.

Here is the story of a sacred object

A long, long time ago (1998), when I lived with my family in a commune, I was searching for my authentic self.  There were many tools and paths available for this inner-work; the one I chose that summer was a Vision Quest.  As part of the 10-day preparation for the wilderness vision fast, we spent time doing many things.  The one thing that pertains to this story is that we were making sacred objects.  These were items made out of natural materials, or items that had meaning to us (one participant used his children's baby teeth inside a rattle he made).

buckshot-filled sacred rattle

 I completed a sacred rattle, using somewhat unconventional materials, and started making an altar cloth.  Its base is a large square cotton voile scarf.  I wanted to embellish the edges with beads, bells, and other small items I had in my sewing notions collection.

It was to be more than a decorated scarf

I spent significant time searching for just the right combination of do-dads to beautify and add meaning to the cloth.  And along the way, it morphed from just an altar scarf into something I could use as a bellydance hip scarf also.

Bonus: it doubles as a hip scarf!

Two opposite corners had part of an old friendship puzzle necklace.  I was putting my life together through the Vision Quest process. 

Here's the truly sad part: only two tassels really got finished.  How intricate!  I took the uncompleted project with me out into the wilderness for my vision fast.  I intended to work on it, maybe even finish it before the final night's ceremony.  But I didn't realize that working on a sewing project was not really the way to manifest my vision out in the desert.

"The Vision Quest is the work of a lifetime.  A two week ceremony is initiation and continuation on your path.  How you will be with your work is up to you.  The intention you bring to the Vision Quest reflects how you are in the world.  What will you bring to it?"

Clearly, I brought the unfinished along with me.  And didn't finish it then.  And haven't finished it since then.  One of my big lessons during the Vision Quest experience was to be comfortable with imperfections, and to celebrate all the ways that I am right now, not just waiting until some part of me is *done* or *better* or (my personal big bugaboo) *perfect*.

And so, I celebrate a lovely scarf that will never be completed by me, but might acquire a new life in the hands of another.  Go forth and spread your sacred energy!

What if I had to move?

Several ideas floating around in my head lately coalesced into a horrifying thought:  What if I had to move, and clean out my classroom to pass it along to someone else?  Aack!

The view inside my cupboards is scary. 

I am a behind-closed-doors hoarder of all things paper-related.  (Peter Walsh had me pegged in a recent article in Oprah's magazine; it's the perfectionist in me that wants to find the best possible way to organize all those papers.  Until then, I'll just keep stacking, piling, and boxing them up inside the various closets in my life.)

I was looking for a hard copy of tomorrow's quiz.  (God help me if I have to write a new quiz tonight.)  I opened the cupboard with the most organized version of my statistics stuff. 

Underneath that crate is all the materials from the previous incarnation of the class. (Why do I still have that stuff?  Because I haven't incorporated all of it into the class I now teach.)  No luck in either crate.  But wait... don't I have another pile of statistics stuff somewhere?

Oh, for goodness sake: this whole pile is other miscellaneous stats materials?!?

I am in deep trouble.  If only spring term weren't already a train wreck of disorganization! I feel mentally ready to tackle my closets (and drawers, and bins).  I just need a routine (thank you, Bonnie!) to start picking away at the backlog.




Maybe next week.  I gotta go write a quiz...

Secret motivational picture: my colleague's cupboard. 

Apparently not everyone fills up every inch of space with unsorted paperwork.