"Perfection" the creativity killer

 Some one has accused my needlework of being "Precise and Perfect". *

While I have no issue with "Precise" being attached to my efforts, "Perfect" bothers me.

And its not that I don't strive for, if not "Perfection", than at least a clean line, a tidy stitch or something resembling "Precision". 

As a word applied to myself "precision" bothers me much less than "Perfection".

Why is that?

I have found precision through many hours of practice. This is a word, I can own and incorporate in reference to myself and not feel arrogance or conceit, because I have earned it.

But "Perfection" bothers me.

While nature strives for symmetry, "Perfection" in nature looks wrong. You have but to look at any manufactured thing to see that. Silk flowers, when put next to real ones, look stiff, fake because of their perfection, their sameness. I do not strive for it, in fact I will actively rail against it in class and my own work. What I strive for in my own art is more symmetry and balance,

Even the human face is not "Perfect" one eye or the ear is always lower than the other or a cheek is fuller. and no two are the same even in identical twins but symmetry is everywhere.

When I teach, I specifically rail against "Perfection". It has no place in a classroom where people are learning a new skill.  

"Perfection" is the creativity killer. I call on my students to refrain from their temptations, to rip out their own hard work, because it is not "Perfect". They are learning a new skill, of course it is not perfect!

If they rip it out, every time a stitch is not perfect, they will spend more time in the UNdoing than the doing and possibly enjoy WHAT they are doing less, than if they leave it and move on to the next stitch.

Besides when you are learning something, like embroidery, it is sometimes helpful to go back and look at that first attempt, see how far you have come. I know painters do this, they discover things in an old piece that they may go back to because of an idea, a line or a clarity, they may have grown out of in time and may find useful later.

"Perfect Ideals" have no place and in fact become stifling and oppressive to creativity, in a classroom dedicated to teaching and learning an art of any kind.

I hear the phrase "But it's not Perfect" from my students, so often as they become disappointed in their own progress, as if they should have mastered this skill the minute they picked up the tools! It makes me want to cry and scream at the same time. 

Would you expect to be able to fix your sink, the first time you pick up a wrench? Of course not. Don't be silly. So why would you expect skill at needlepoint not be the same? 

I have a few ideas on that and it is a rant'n'rave  mumble, mumble puritan ethic/toxic patriarchy, for another time I think.

 I feel wholeheartedly in fact, that "Perfection" as a word, should be banned from our creative crafty places. Love yourself enough to give yourself that space and love your craft enough, that making mistakes, is placed where it should live, as part of the learning process and not as an aid to put it down or be disappointed in it, because it is not "Perfect".

*Thank you Sandy, for your lovely comment. I do appreciate it. I hope you do not feel ganged up on, that is not my intent. This Random thought parade has nothing to do with your sweet and kind words and everything to do with my own reaction to them.

Listen to this podcast which aired october 16 2021 with Patricia Nguyen of Thistle Threds in which they discuss much of what this post is about. Good to know I'm not the only one thinking about this AND I'm not the only one with projects all over the house! Listen to the whole thing, It's encouraging and insightful.

https://wetalkfiber.com/2021/10/16/fiber-talk-with-patricia-nguyen-ii/

Jacobean Embroidery done!

Here are the better pictures I promised you

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally finished this thing 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and now I get to figure out what to do with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This is very slow stitching

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of these motifs took as much as a month each to finish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 So if you do decide to take it up

You have been warned

I will tell you it is so satisfying to be done

And a little sad too

The Farmers Wife and the reason for a Simple Question

 I am starting a new project

No, I have not finished with the last one yet but that's how I roll.

I bought the Farmers Wife books a few years ago looking for a pattern I eventually found in a magazine, go figure.

As with most impulse purchases, it's hit or miss as to weather or not I will get to them, or they will be something I move around the sewing room and thumb through occasionally.

I think part of the early "Meh" I had about this book, was that it's instructions are archaic.

they call for templates cut out for each piece and put the "ick" in piecing.

but a little bit of cleaver maths, (See my previous post below) and most of the patterns are converted into easy peasy modern methods.

all you really have to remember, is no matter what size you are sewing, every seam adds half an inch.

Ok, that may be to vague.

This may end up sounding like "Toon logic" to you but its how my squirrely brain works, so bear with me. 

Mind I haven't gotten to the more difficult blocks, with tons of parts or odd offset bits, so this formulae may only work out for the mostly easy squares and half square triangle blocks.

Anyhoo, It's my wisdom, such as it is, and It goes like this; 

#2 Autumn Tints

to get a 6.5" finished block with  4x4 pieces you have 1 seam which adds .5" 

this would make a single square 3.5", since its a 4x4 each square in the block should be trimmed to this size.

   3.5 x 2 = 7 - .5 (for the seam down the middle*) = 6.5"

*I don't count a 4x4 as 2 seams, which it obviously is because the maths are harder and I am lazy, so I only count the upper row. 

I have done about 10 blocks of the 111 in the book and this formulae has worked a treat so far!

Then we get to subcuts, same formulae, 2x2=4 - .5= 3.5

I can not stress how important trimming and ironing between every stage is!

#4 basket weave

 

 You also want to starch BEFORE you cut anything.

these little tips I give out for free, ha!

So that means the 3 seams per square in this block will be

1.5 x 3 = 4.5 - 1" = 3.5  Voila!

I'm a genius!

So this next one, is the block that got me to the Simple Question and it's attendant blogs.

I figured it out but not till cutting up a bunch of fabric in experiments and trying to explain to my hubs what I wanted.

My simple formulae works here too

#6 Big Dipper

even for half square triangles (AKA the HST)

This is how I worked it out;

You want a 3.5" block to get 2 HST you start with a 4.5" square 

if you want 4 you add 2" (Because triangles act differently than squares, mumble, mumble square root of 2) this gives you 

a  6.5"square, sew 4 seams around the outside edge all the way around (-2"=4.5) cut this from corner to corner this gives you,

4/  4.5"HST cut those in half.  Sewn together > gives you 

4/ 3.5" hourglass blocks.

now all of this does leave you with bits to trim off to the proper size. but it does work out.

I was giddy with my accomplishments, when I put it all together 

Addendum: I am not sure how well this works out if the blocks get over 12" The square root of two does some wonky things in the macro.

Take thAt mr. Marion! The worst H.S. algebra teacher EVER, The man completely put me off math for decades and not just because he flunked me out freshman year.

For those of you not inclined to follow me down the rabbit hole of "I DO IT!" 

You want this lady and fellow, better blogger than me, Karen Walker, who has done all the hard work of teaching other people in classes on youtube and sells her method of piecing at her shop Laugh into Stitches. You have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find the farmers wife lessons and she has broken it up into 12 bite size bits, to get all 111 blocks, at about 12 - 15 at a time for about $9 a lesson. 

I may inveigle myself of her services when I get to some of the harder blocks but right now I am having fun figuring it out, and lets face it, I'm cheep. 

I asked a simple question

At least I thought it was a simple question

 You can see what I'm trying to do here can't you? 

Magic 4 squares.

I know there are charts, but I was lazy

And I can never find the one I keep by my sewing table

And I didn't have my tablet to look it up online 

(that it was less than 20 feet away on the couch, is beside the point. Shuush! I'm telling a story!)

So I asked my dear darling Husband, who was 5' away at the table finishing his morning coffee, if there was an easy formula to figure out.

how big a square I need to start with if I want 4- 2.5" halfsquare triangles out of it.

2 hours later, a demonstration of what I  wanted and why, how I got there and a discussion encompassing, Pythagorean theorem and the square root of two later.................>

 

I'll go look up the chart *sigh*

 

The other solution, that I remembered later (Its always AFTER isn't it?), that a 3"x 6" rectangle marked on the diagonal and sewed on either side and no major maths needed.

Note; I said EASY. 

You know, something the non mathemegical can understand and maybe even, throw in a calculator for the answer.

Aaaand now he is writing code to do the math for me, because he realizes I am not mathly. I dont have the heart to tell him I have a work around. This simple question has kept him busy for two days now. 

Who would I be if I squashed his fun now?  

This is why I love this Man.

A continuation as seen by the man himself