Being a perfectionist has its down sides, and I have been working on overcoming this weakness in me for several years now. One place where perfectionism is a particular problem is in quilting. Let's face it: quilts are NEVER perfect, even when they look pretty darn close. I have decided that I love quilting enough that I am willing to overlook a certain amount of error in order to be able to enjoy the process and the product. However, the quilt that I am currently working on (see the entry below, a little way down the page) is having enough problems that it is just about outside the reaches of the acceptable margin of error. I do not think it is fixable at this point, at least fixable at a level that I can still have some pride in my work, but I can't bring myself to abandon it either. So I keep (slowly) plugging away... sluggish because I know I'm not going to be happy with it anyway.
My mom, a master quilter, keeps telling me it's fine and that it will never be perfect, but I'm not really convinced on this one.
I am sure that when I am finished, many will say it is wonderful, and beautiful, and blah, blah, blah, but they will either be kindly overlooking the major skee-womp-ish-ness of the final product or will not be looking very closely. I will then have to smile and say thank you graciously while I sigh deeply inside, because no one likes it when you devalue their compliment with all kinds of, "Actually, it's horrible and I didn't want to finish it, but thanks anyway..."
Hmmm... I guess this one I'll have to keep struggling with internally for awhile. Maybe re-reading this post will help me see the foolishness in my ways.
