Learning Zone vs Performance Zone for the Quilter in me! (Friday Foto Fun #69)

Happy February and thank goodness it's Friday!  I watched an interesting TED Talk lately by Eduardo Briceño - How to get better at things you care about.  It's an 11-minute video that I had to watch for work but seemed really relevant even for my home life and quilting life.

The video talks about the learning zone and the performance zone.  The learning zone is where you take the time to make mistakes and learn new things in a safe environment whereas the performance zone is where you do your work and essentially are performing or doing the tasks at hand.  If you have the time, watch the video because Eduardo really explains it better than me!

This got me thinking about my Quilting career and how much I've been operating in the performance zone - blog hops, making quilt after quilt, making patterns etc.  I feel like I'm doing great and performing well at making quilts and keeping up with the hustle.

However, my goal for free motion quilting on my domestic machine hasn't really materialized and it's not due to lack of tools or books.  I have not one but two great machines that I can free motion on and more books than I'll ever get through to teach me free motion quilting.  I've also taken many classes from fabulous instructors for learning how to free motion quilt.  But that's not enough.  I've never really allowed myself the time or the opportunity to really learn how to do it through repetition and practice.  Essentially I haven't allowed myself to be in the learning zone long enough to get good at this skill.

So here's the deal... I signed up to participate in the Dust off a Quilt Book Blog Hop hosted by Beaquilter at the end of this month and I'm picking up the 180 Doodle Quilting Designs book to learn the doodle part.  I realize that the only motif I know well is the infinity loop, and it's because I doodle that motif constantly!  I figured I could use this blog hop to force myself into the learning zone and maybe just maybe, I can move the dial on learning other free motion motifs outside of the infinity loop!

Wish me luck!

How much time do you spend in the learning zone compared to the performance zone?

 

 

Your turn! What did you accomplish this week?  A block? A quilt top?  Link up below!

A few reminders:

• When you link up a post, please try to support the others folks in the linky party!  Let's spread the motivation and support to help everyone make progress in their own time.
• Your post does not need to be something quilty you accomplished, but definitely encouraged.  Sometimes life just gets in the way, but feel free to share something you are proud of this week.
• In your blog post, please include a link back to my blog or grab the Friday Foto Fun Button and put it on your sidebar.  This way others who visit your blog can also join in on the fun!