“I’m Maria Kondo-ing my studio.
Some projects get finished.
Some get thanked for what they taught me, and let go.”
Shannon Brinkley, Instagram
This came to me at just the right moment. Today I decided to power through a project I didn’t like from the beginning. It began with me trying to learn to piece squares together more accurately. This is something I struggled with and was never happy with the results.
I cut a jelly roll into 2 ½” squares and began sewing them together. While I liked the fabrics well enough, I wasn’t thrilled with them once I began piecing. The good news is that my accuracy improved tremendously. My corners now meet with 90% accuracy, which makes me happy. Perfect? No. But it’s good enough for most of the work I do.
Then, because I can’t seem to be satisfied with my original goal I decided to make a throw. Now I had to find fabric to create borders and sashing. I searched and searched and finally settled on a fabric that was ok. Perfect? No. But good enough. Once done I spray basted it together and set it aside. For months…possibly over a year. Today I decided I was going to try out my new sewing machine’s capabilities on this project. It would be practice for a quilt I’m making for a gift.
It had been so long that I had to quickly re-baste parts of it. That adhesive doesn’t last forever. Then I began to sew. Let’s just say that it is a mess. I was careless and when I looked at the back of the quilt there were huge areas where the fabric bunched and looked just awful. I tried to save it and powered on. I machine quilted a few more rows, turned it over again. And promptly threw it in the bin of unfinished items. My thought at the time was that I will carefully rip out some of the rows and rework it. I can do that while watching TV- always needing a project to keep my hands busy.
Then I came across this quote. On the very same day. And now, I’m letting it go. The mess. The fabrics I don’t love. And I’m done with it. Not sure what I’ll do with it because my frugal self doesn’t quite allow me to just send it off into oblivion, but I’m packing it away and maybe handing it off to some other person who may want it, like it, or otherwise see merit in trying to save it from itself. I am moving on to other projects that continue to offer me joy and inspiration. Thank you universe. And Marie Kondo.
Leave a Reply