I am not a perfectionist; in fact, I hate having to undo anything and only do so when it is absolutely vital. I wanted to share this with you before we got too far into our journey together. I really look at every mistake as a creative opportunity, and I hope you do too. It just seems that nearly every time I do try to remove stitches, I rip the fabric (I am not a delicate flower and naturally klutzy, hence a hole in my knee one year, a broken ankle the next and just a few years ago, a sprain so bad I had to have surgery).
That being said, we learn a lot from our mistakes, more so than we do from our victories. For example, a cutting mistake in a quilt kit I bought resulted in me having to come up with an entirely new idea to use the fabric I had to make my mom’s birthday quilt. That resulted in the Butterly Beauty Pattern! Not only did I write a pattern, but the final project came out much cuter than the original design (she loved it, by the way)!
Another thing that I have learned about mistakes is that we are our worst critics. I can’t tell you how many times someone has complemented me on something that I made and what is the first thing I do? I start pointing out the mistakes. Why do we do this this to ourselves? The fact of the matter is, unless a project is going to a competition, no one is going to know what creative opportunities you needed to do to complete your masterpiece. Even Leonardo DaVinci reused his canvas before creating the Mona Lisa; that could have been his creative opportunity!
So accept that those little imperfections are part of what makes your project unique and know that whatever you create, someone will think it is beautiful and amazing, because you made it yourself with your love and passion (and sometimes even blood, sweat and tears). These are the things that really shine through your makes!