Perfectly Imperfect

I was very motivated to finish Chic Country this week to gain access back to my design wall for my next pattern.  There is nothing quite as motivating as just needing the space.  Chic Country was a pattern that has been on my to do list for since April, 2016.  After taking the class from the Sew Kind of Wonderful sisters, Helen and Sherilyn, at Winter Quiltfest in January, I couldn't stop dreaming about this quilt.  Now, the top is finally finished!!

At a quick glance, the top looks great, right?!  Well upon closer inspection, you'll see about 99% of my points do NOT match up at all.  This will be one of the few times that I'll voluntarily take photos of my mistakes and imperfections.

The beauty about this quilt and other Sew Kind of Wonderful quilts is the forgiveness to all the imperfections.  The overall movement and shape of the quilt isn’t disturbed by mismatched points.  Will this ever be a show quilt?  Absolutely not. Will this be a quilt I treasure for years to come? Definitely.

Prior to quilting, I would have considered myself a perfectionist (actually I think people in my day job still think I'm a perfectionist).  But now that I've been quilting for a while, I realized I wouldn't get anything completed if I were to maintain being a perfectionist.  The phrases "Complete is better than Perfect" and "If you can't see the mistake driving by the quilt, it's okay" (or something to that effect) have been making the rounds through social media, and I completely agree.  After all, when I say my seam ripper is my best friend, what I really mean is if I could get through an entire quilt without using a seam ripper, I'd be the happiest camper in the world!

This past week has been nothing short of a disaster in terms of how many mistakes both big and small I've made.  I hope I get out of this funk quickly!  It all started after this week's Quilters Planner block by Renee Hoffman of Quilts of a Feather called Island Sunrise.  I liked the paper piecing aspect, until I got to the tiny little pieces at the very end.  I am not a tiny piece quilter at all, but I finished the block!

I then started working on my Maker's Birthday Bash present for my partner.  Some diamonds that I made a paper piecing pattern for.  Notice the pattern then take a good look at the block.  Doesn't look the same, does it?

Well…. Somehow when I split the diamond apart to make the paper piecing template, I didn't draw the lines right.  Thankfully, I only made one and not all nine. Maybe I'll turn this little one into a mug rug.

I've been working through this Vintage Modern Basket Case quilt as enders and leaders.  I sewed over half of the 3-2.5in squares to the one 6.5" piece, before I realized that I was sewing the same fabric together rather than different ones. I had to seam rip each and every last one of them to make the correction. On the bright side, I did manage to get 7 blocks completed...only 35 more to go.  Enders and leaders are my bonus sewing.  Outside of spending the time seam ripping my mistake, it hasn't felt like I've spent any time sewing this project together so far.

As for progress on PBQ103, my next pattern yet to be named, I have parts of it on my design wall. I have finished 1 block of 56, with a lot of piecing sticking to the wall. Still not sure about time frame yet for the need of pattern proofreaders or testers, but if you are interested and are not currently on my list, please comment below!

Because of this project and the fact that I have some really fun ideas for the Modern Quilt Guild Fabric Challenge, I am going to currently hold off on finishing the Modern Building Blocks QAL.  Too many ideas floating in my head that need to come out so I'm going to be dedicating more time on my own designs.

Anyway I hope everyone has a great week! (and I hope I stop making so many mistakes!)

3/21-3/28 Weekly Goal:
Available time for quilting:
Wednesday PM, Friday PM, Saturday and Sunday

Projects I want to work on:
Quilter's Planner Block
Powered By Quilting PBQ103
Maker's Birthday Bash
MQG Fabric Challenge

Goals for the Projects:
Quilter's Planner Block: Complete this week's block
PBQ103: Make more blocks… or block pieces!
Maker's Birthday Bash: Finish 6-9 of the Diamonds
MQG Fabric Challenge: Finish the design and start construction

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