Purely Whimsical

For as long as I can remember, I’ve disliked hand sewing. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I learned to hand sew when I was fairly young and impatient, and in a setting that had poor lighting.

Actually, I know why I dislike it. I’m a perfectionist and my hand-sewn seams are raggedy and holey and wavy. For some reason I expect whatever I hand sew to be perfect despite the fact that I have almost never done hand sewing. Reasonable?

On a whim about a month or two ago, I took a hand quilting class. We went over a lot of things like how to needle your thread, not thread your needle (all unknowingly I’ve been doing this correct for as long as I can remember), and exactly how it is you get little ‘pillows’ when you quilt.

I didn’t get a lot done by the second day of class which was two weeks later. I had spent a lot of time fussily trying to make sure my stitches were perfectly even and straight. And it took forever.

Finally I gave up and told myself if the lines were wavy that it would add to it’s charm as a hand quilted item and no one (reasonably sane) expects perfection from anyone’s first hand quilting anyway. Last Friday, I finally seemed to ‘get’ it. My stitches are (mostly) more even and (mostly) straighter when they should be and (mostly) properly curvy where they should be.

I’ve been quilting like mad since then. And I’m having fun.

Don’t tell anyone. I really hate hand sewing.