Update on Quilting
Is perfect overrated? Is it really necessary?
I’ve been playing two word games, Wordle and Waffle, with five other people for well over a year. Yesterday we had the first live, in person get together to celebrate the upcoming holidays. Earlier in the week, my sister and I went to our local Dollar Tree and found treasures for everyone. Wrapped in each festive green shopping bag was a holiday headband, chocolate coins (aka Hanukkah gelt), and a pair of fuzzy socks. Also thrown in the bag was a couple of Cuties1 and some colorful tissue paper. Garland was tied on each bag to make them more festive.
One more thing in each bag was a quilted pot holder/hot pad that I made. If you read a post I wrote a while back, you may remember that I started a new hobby of quilting. Intimidated by the idea of a large project such as a queen-sized bed quilt, I have resorted to working on small things. I’ve made four wall hangings so far (none larger than 30” x30”) and decided I wanted to make something different. Searching the internet for new ideas, I came upon designs’ for pot holders. So I got to work making 9”x9” and 10”x10” insulated cotton pads that could be used to grab a hot pot or to protect a surface a hot pot might be placed on. While this might sound so much easier than making a large quilt, it’s amazingly not. And it’s also amazing just how long it takes to make one pot holder/hot pad. Maybe an experienced quilt maker can bang out a finished product in less than an a hour. But for me, it takes at least two hours (usually more time than that) to complete each one.
As with a lot of things, making something smaller is often harder. Think about a small scale model of a town. If each street was made with accurate details - architectural features on buildings, animal and plant life in the neighborhood, signage, etc - it would take many, many hours of extremely tedious work to create each item found in the town. Check out this website about miniature towns, the detail is insane.
Making something small can also accentuate errors in the end product. Case in point - the pot holders I made and gave to my friends. Upon first glance, one might say they are an uneven and off kilter, practice pieces that should have been put in a drawer and locked away. The lines don’t match up like they should on a quilt, the borders are different sizes and the lines are crooked, and the binding is uneven as you compare the different sides. But as I was getting ready for my trip to New York, I started thinking about what I had made, and I began thinking differently about what I had created. Instead of seeing errors, I saw an opportunity for a smile. Instead of a lopsided and uneven thing, I saw a useful item. Here are the four pot holders/hot pads I made. Can you spot the mistakes?
And here’s the note I put in the bag with each one of the items I made.
(Talk about making mistakes, even the note has a typo (the start of the second paragraph should say, “As I cannot fathom EVER…”).
So, the moral of this story is … well, I don’t know if there is one. But, here’s my thoughts:
Firstly, I have tremendous respect for anyone who can sew and make something that is even and symmetrical. Sewing straight lines is harder than I ever thought. My mother and her sisters, all professional seamstresses, were true artisans because everything they created on their sewing machine was beautiful.
Secondly, I believe that it’s good to be fearless, try new things and be ready to make mistakes. That’s why I keep quilting. One of these days I’ll cut a square that’s actually square, or I’ll make a wall hanging with all of the patches lines up exactly perfect. When that happens I’ll take up a new hobby.2
Lastly, what do you think? Is perfect necessary? Should you give a gift to someone when you know it’s not perfect? Or is it ok when a hand made thing has some slight imperfections? Send me your thoughts about this by clicking on the “leave a comment” button below.
A few more things:
What’s your favorite way to travel?
I asked readers to tell me their favorite mode of travel. From the people that responded it is clear that road trips are the favorite way to go, especially since it affords you the option to stop along the way and explore.
Images from my trip to the central California coast
Here’s three pictures I took while on my last trip to San Luis Obispo. The sunsets are beautiful and the elephant seals on the beach are fun to watch - they make some noise, move for about five seconds then collapse as it they just ran a marathon.
Cuties were jointly developed by two growers in California in 2001. This fruit is not just a small version of an orange or tangerine. They were actually created from two types of mandarins - Clementine Mandarins and W. Murcott Mandarins. The fruit was first harvested in 2004, and today millions of boxes of the fruit are eaten. If you were wondering the difference between Cuties and tangerines, read on. Cuties are sweeter and usually smaller than tangerines. They have smooth skin and are easy to peel, whereas tangerines are larger, flatter, and have an uneven, pebbly-looking skin texture.
I predict this will happen sometime around 2045. By then I will be pushing 90 years old, probably unable to lift my sewing machine, and likely unable to see the markings on my cutting mat and ruler. And then I’ll revert back to crooked lines, uneven borders, and generally imperfect symmetry. So I guess I’m bound to keep quilting for the foreseeable future.
With regards to the pot holder with the mistake. I believe it is the pot holder that lacks the "holder" on the top to be able to hang it above said stove. I believe i got this right :) If so, then I would like to request the same mistake pot holder for next Christmas :)