Sewing with Certainty Link Up Week 1

Today I was going through newly written blog posts and came across a linky party for Sewing with Certainty. It is a series written by Jessica of Quilty Habit all about gaining confidence in a crafting/ sewing area.

When I saw this party I decided I wanted to join and I immediately knew what area I would like to gain so confidence in – Pattern writing. I have no problem coming up with ideas for patterns and testing them out in fabric form to make a quilt. Usually they work out with minimal mistakes, especially since I am not afraid make changes as I go. My lack of confidence lies in the area of writing the actual pattern.

In my opinion the best example of designing my own pattern and creating it - but not writing it

I can be a perfectionist and I want my patterns to be perfect – the problem is I have never actually written a pattern before so I keep putting it off writing in a notebook, recalculating measurements, retesting the pattern, rechecking fabric requirements, etc. I literally have 2 notebooks 3 patterns, and at least three extra sheets of paper with notes on them sitting in front of me right now that I am using to write one pattern.

An example of a quilt I would like to write a pattern for... (I started writing it but never finished)

I am always afraid to start on a project, I seem to lack confidence at the beginning – it had always been that way for me. Even in art school when I would do drawings I would always start slow but finish strong – heck even my professor noticed this trend of mine, but it always worked for me. This blog is another good example – I was very slow to build it and get it going because I wanted it to be perfect before I released it to the world.

Another original pattern - A Black Tie Affair

Luckily while I may lack confidence sometimes, I do usually have enough common sense to realize that things are never “perfect”. Perfect implies faultlessness and flawlessness – and lets be realistic when we are creating we don’t want to be afraid of making mistakes because something might end up "imperfect" or with a tiny flaw only notice by no one but yourself.

A block I would love to write directions for one day

 To sum up my long story - I would like to become more confident in pattern writing.  One other area I would like to gain more confidence is free motion quilting.  I enjoy being able to create quilts from start to finish all by myself and being confident to do different FMQ techniques would be wonderful!  My goal by the end up the series is to have a least two patterns fully written and available and to hve learned more about FMQ!

What areas do you want more confidence in?

Hope you are having a wonderful and relaxing Sunday!

Elise