Making May Blocks

I've spent a lifetime being somewhat of a perfectionist, so when I made mistakes or something didn't turn out the way it was planned, the stress was unbearable. It was as if mistakes cost me acceptance and approval, so by the time I passed my 50th birthday, I was snapping my fingers at THAT concept. I had become my harshest critic & had learned to reject myself. Now I know that I could never have gotten up if I hadn't fallen down and gotten bruised so badly. My poor choices taught me what I didn't want.

I don't need criticism from others, and if someone starts to do that to me, I walk away. Their words would have cut me to the core at another time in my life and now. Nothing.

Each month, I make a number of quilt blocks to swap. The first ones I finished this month were Christmas blocks. My partner asked for any block in traditional colors. Ooops. This Spinning Star looked great, but the colors were sage and burgundy.

I took out the fabrics and started over with the traditional red and green with this Waterwheel pattern. However, my fabrics were directional. AND the 4-patches are not even in the pattern so there is more to it than one would think, so after a bit of ripping and re-doing, it turned out ok. What it taught me is that after the pieces are cut to remember to lay them out before joing. This was ok, but there could have been more planning.

Another swap was for a Maple Leaf block. I loved the one with the black background, however, other swappers had made theirs with the stem on a lighter background, so I tried again. The first one in that pattern gave me trouble with points on the edges, so I made a second one and am happy.

Then I made the third block for the BOM & it was perfect.
Claudia (fabric store owner in town) told me that when making a sampler, that you take one of the fabrics, say from block #1 and use it in #2, and one from block #2 to use in #3 and so on. I am doing that and am sure it will turn out just fine. The layout doesn't need to keep the order they were made, yet having the colors work like this will help.

I started working on some swap-bot swaps too, adding a step here and there, so am not finished with all of them. I've run out of white and want to pick up a few other colors missing from my stash. Its amazing with all the fabrics that I have.

When I look back on all I've learned its not that I was making mistakes as I was learning. Each time I had to repeat a step, then the next time I understood what I was doing and how to do it to make it work. I think I will always be a perfectionist in some area of my life and it is ok. When it becomes dysfunctional, that is when I have to shake my own nut tree.