SOL1, Perfection

Perfection, SOL1
Well, from the beginning, I have been a perfectionist, but that rarely works out. Something else always seems to seep in the way, or many times get in the way through some other method. That is why I am trying not to worry about perfection, on my blog posts, quite a challenge- especially for me.

About a year ago, I took leaves from my neighborhood and using a mallet pounded them into fabric squares, preserving the colors of fall in fabric. Like many of the small things I try to do, not all of them work, consistently. The reason that I bring this up is that it showed me that imperfections can grow to be perfections. The 4 or 5 out of the 15 I made that turned out well, are know on my wall, and I enjoy how not all of the leaves are perfect. This is slowly changing about me. I have grown to like imperfection, in an odd sort of perfect way.

One thing that I can make perfect, is sewing type things, an interesting outlet. Over winter collective, I got more interested in cross stitching, trying to finish an old project that I spent much time on over the summer. Cross stitching is something I learned to do a long time ago, and since then I have come and gone from doing it as a habit. What I appreciate about it is that perfection is so easy to achieve with it, especially if you are following a pattern.

With expo gone, when I started cross stitching again I thought about an expo four years ago, where I was running behind and a friend helped me finish my display. After that, I made a cross stitch based off of a pattern she designed, and because I am very particular about stitching that I do, for the most part it was perfect. Once back from break that year, I gave it to her in thanks for letting me complete my display. She helped me make something perfect *mostly*, and I returned something perfect to my standards, and that I think is interesting.

The leaves, are something I thought of just one day randomly, barely thinking about how to actually take on the project, with a mind set very similar to the one I used when starting the cross stitch project. While I struggled to get the leaves done correctly, the ones that were perfect showed me how to make the next ones more perfect, thus the cycle continued. My perfectionism has not gone away, but it has changed. I now think about the perfection in the imperfections of things, and how even though some of the leaves shredded, they are still something that I like.