Friday, July 12, 2013

Sometimes in Quilting, the Journey IS the Reward

Journal Cover DetailFor today's feather-themed project, I hand-pieced this abstract feathery block, a variation of Practice Petals from Judy Dale's book, Curves in Motion.

I wanted to push myself to try smaller, tighter, more tortuous curves than my previous efforts with this technique using Judy's Bird pattern.

Same Bird Pattern - different processes

It was a challenge and if you take a close look, you can see a lot of imperfection.

After I finished sewing it together, my immediate reaction was that the design would have been much easier for me, and the result would have been better, if I'd used appliqué instead. Then, I thought about Viki Pignatelli's technique for curves and thought it would also be a candidate for a design like this.

One of the things I love about quilting is that there are often many ways to accomplish a design idea. And sometimes, when I realize, after the fact, that I could have chosen another, easier, path, I beat myself up a little.

But, the upside is that I love that there is always something new for me to learn about quilting.   And so while I WAS beating myself up a little for painstakingly making templates, marking fabrics, aligning seams and registration marks and hand-stitching it together instead using a technique within my comfort zone, I also was reminded that sometimes the journey is the reward, and the result of my effort is that I am learning a new way of dealing with curves and that with practice, I will improve and have a new tool in my quilter's box of tricks ... and that realizing my idea for those bird blocks may actually be within my technical grasp.

In the meantime, my sad feathery abstract effort has become a journal cover and a reminder that sometimes the Journey is the Reward.


028 - Feathery Abstract Journal Cover

You can read more about it on today's blog post on The Daily Feather.

The theme for the Linky party on the Block Lotto this weekend is love/hate, best/worst or good news/bad news.  I suppose I am an incurable optimist because I always seem to find the silver lining.  In quilting, often the silver lining of a "bad" quilt project is the lesson learned .... even if the lesson is that you hate a particular technique and, in the future, will find another way :-)

But for me and this particular effort, I feel like the journey was worth it and that I'm making progress on this particular learning curve.   Bonus: I have a little finish to show from one of my Daily Feathers.  Can I get a whoop whoop?

I'm also going to join the parties at Richard and Tanya's Link-a-Finish Friday and Finish it Up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts.

8 comments:

Paulette said...

You are so right about the journey. I think it turned out beautiful. What a nice journal cover it makes!

Terri said...

Your effort is still better than not trying. Even if you don't like the results you did learn some things you wouldn't have otherwise. Besides it looks great on the blog!
Thanks for sharing.
Hugs

Lynette said...

Yes, you can have a WhOOP! WHoop!! :D Way to go! I especially love that you took it all the way to completion and made a really lovely journal cover with it.

Diana @ Red Delicious Life said...

As a new quilter I'm finding that everything is all about the journey. What you've done looks great, and I love that you've made it into a journal cover.

BillieBee (billiemick) said...

Lovely job Sophie!

Sarah Craig said...

I'm so glad you linked up with Whoop Whoop Friday! Your feather is beautiful - definitely outside of my skill group -and deserves a big whoop whoop! I love the journal cover!!

Angie in SoCal said...

Your journal cover is neat -just like an art piece should look like. Glad you are getting so much out of the book.

Quilter Kathy said...

So true in quilting, and also in life ;)

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