Perfection....

I've been thinking about what to tell my demo attendees tomorrow.   (If you haven't heard I am doing a demo at Happiness is...Quilting tomorrow between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm...the topic is Perfect Piecing)

I compiled a short list of tips that, time permitting, I will print out on index cards to give my "fans". However, I am not so sure that is the best thing I could share with them, there is something more tugging on my heart, something more important.

One of my all time favorite books is Euclid's "Elements".  It is my standard for directions.  Euclid lays out his definitions at the beginning of each section, declares his intentions at the beginning of each law, and then succinctly proves it to be so.  Q.E.D.  He never leaves his audience confused or unclear as to the veracity of his goals.  "Elements" is one of the books that would bring me comfort on a desert island.

In keeping with Euclid, I offer you a definition....a place to start.

"Perfection" is the complete and utter attainment of a goal. It is something free from blemish or error.

If you plan to loose 30 pounds in two months and you do it you have in a sense attained perfection. You can pick and choose goals; accomplish each without error; and live a perfect life.  It sounds so easy...and we all know that it isn't exactly the case.  Our hearts tell us it is something more.

If you can pick and choose what areas to seek perfection in...then what keeps us all from declaring ourselves perfect.  Why don't we stick to our own goals and call it good?  Why do we strive after something that someone else declares the goal and curse ourselves when we can't do it? I don't get it. "Perfection" shouldn't be so arbitrary.

And in walks Jesus!  (Thank you God!)

I believe in the Bible. You don't have to, it is up to you. I do. It tells me that God is perfect. He is without blemish.  He is unchanging, complete, and true. In Him there is no lie.  In Him and through Him all things that are, are.  He made the world and everything in it perfectly in the garden of Eden.

Unfortunately that perfection that was Eden didn't last.  Not God's fault.  I don't claim to understand it, but I know that it was no surprise to Him.  He knows the end from the beginning and chose to do things this way. The perfection that was Eden is a shadow of a memory to us.There is something of it that still exists...in our hearts...that tells us there is indeed such a thing as perfection.  That is what keeps us striving for it. That is also why we never attain it.

Knowing all of this from before the beginning God planned a way to fix it.  He sent his perfect and only son, Jesus.  Again, I don't understand all of the whys - the cost of the ticket back to Eden is a perfect (there is that word again) blood sacrifice.  God chose Jesus as the subject of that sacrifice.  Jesus died on a cross to pay the price for all of us to attain the perfection that was Eden, the perfection of being face to face with God.

And what does all of this have to do with piecing a quilt?

As long as there are people there are going to be different ideas about what perfect is. Quilts win ribbons because they appeal to someone's idea of perfection, and that someone is always changing. I can loose a lot of sleep worrying about whether or not my work is up to that constantly moving standard, or I can rest and rely on God's. I need to relax and enjoy the ride.

Quilters need to do that too.  The goal of "perfect piecing" is not perfection.  The goal is piecing a quilt better than I did before...and enjoying the process.

Elementary

Do you use pins when you sew?

Really, I want to know.

A few months back when I reorganized my work room I was amazed at the number and variety of pins I have.  Truthfully, I was shocked.

I don't mean decorative ones either....and I do have those.

I mean the kind that you use to hold things together or in place.  The kind that requires me to have a box of band-aides in my sewing kit, and my children to rue the day they decided to walk barefoot through my space.

I have flat headed, and glass headed.  I have long pins, and short pins; skinny pins and fat, pig sticker pins.  (You know the ones.  They come in dress shirts and could probably be used to hang pictures.)  I have safety pins, basting pins, corsage pins, and applique pins.   I even have funky double pointed pins that look like tiny elongated horse shoes.  They all live in their own little boxes or cushions....except when they escape and poke said family...but hey I've stepped on their Legos so I think we are even.)

Funny thing is, aside from the fact that they are never handy when I need them, and that they multiply when left in dark places, I don't use them when I sew.  Really.  I hate pinning...unless we're talking Pintrest or mini quilts.

I've been thinking a lot about that lately.  (I am that exciting.)  I've decided that it is Euclid's fault.  You read that right, Euclid as in the father of modern geometry, it is definitely his fault that I don't use pins.

I don't talk about it much.  It is a period of my life that I can't quite get my head around, both fantastic and terrifying.  I am both tickled and appalled that my parents not only consented to my participation in it but footed the bill.  Really....to the tune of $40,000....that is no small chunk of change, even now.  In 1985 it was a fortune.

I am a graduate of a very small liberal arts college.  In quilty terms, we're talking smaller than one charm from a Candy Charm pack when compared to all of the fabric that is produced in any given line.  I think there were 70 people in my graduating class...maybe.  In said college we studied something called "The Great Books"... and one of them, perhaps my favorite, was Euclid's "The Elements."  It isn't a very big book, nor is it a literary masterpiece.  It most certainly is NOT a New York Times best seller....NOT a best seller on anyone's list for that matter.  It appealed to the way I think, and has become the standard upon which I base directions.  Consequently, I became a believer in modern geometry, in spite of the misery that was my high school geometry class.

Geometry tells me that things that are square, stay square unless some outside force acts upon it.  When I sew two squares of fabric together I get a rectangle as long as I don't manhandle them in the process.  When I piece I look for seams to snuggle.  I feel them nestled together with my fingers before I let them move through my machine.  In short, I trust my fingers...not the pins.

So tell me....why do I have so many pins?