Sometimes You Have to Rip and Redo

Most of the needlecraft I do, I learned from books.  There were no classes available other than basic sewing in my home economics classes in school.  As the years went by, I continued to learn from books and practice. I found I preferred it that way. I would have become discouraged if I had been told to rip out what I had done and do it over.  Where is the fun in that?

At least finishing something as imperfect as it might have been meant I had accomplished something.  Ripping and redoing just causes the activity to be stressful and there goes the enjoyment.  As I said above, where is the fun in that?

So for the most part I don’t rip out what I have sewn, quilted or embroidered.  But there are times when what I’ve done just doesn’t look good and the only way I will be happy with it is if I rip and redo. And that is what happened last week.

I was machine quilting on my home machine a quilt for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.  Every year I do a quilt as a fundraiser.  In the past I have quilted straight lines but this year I wanted to do some gentle curves.

I had half the quilt  done when I really looked closely at the back.  The fabric between the rows of curves didn’t lay flat.  It puckered in some area and the fabric looked almost twisted in others.  Since this was a fund raiser, I wanted it to look nice. So I ripped it out and redid it with straight lines.

I learned long ago that even if my lessons came from books, with practice and doing new projects, my needlework became better.  It was the practice, practice, practice while I enjoyed the stitching that seemed to help. 

The problem with my Relay quilt was I hadn’t “practiced” the curved quilting before I tried it on an important quilt.  I realized I needed to do that first. So sometimes you do have to rip and redo before you can get better.  The straight lines weren’t what I wanted but the quilt did look better.

So if you are a ripper or a accepter of what you do even if it isn’t perfect, remember to practice what you are doing before doing it on some item that might have an important mission like a fund raiser quilt. My new goal now is to practice.

 

©2018 Cheryl E. Fillion