The word sin literally means to “miss the mark”. It comes from archery. As in, anything the arrow hits outside of the bullseye is a “sin”.
Genesis 3 describes Adam seeking refuge as he slinks around the garden in fear. I find it interesting that he has not been taught the Ten Commandments. He just knew that disobedience was a sin. We are made in the image of God, so a conscience is hardwired into our very beings. In Adam’s case here, it’s a guilty conscience. When confronted, Adam cowardly blaming his sin on Eve. Then God delivers The Curse – and now we all live in this imperfect world.
Adam’s Refuge
We’ve all heard of the “quilting police”. I’ve personally never met one. Or maybe I have, and they just kept their judgmental opinions to themselves. And for that reason I feel sorry for them. We are doing this for the purpose of having fun after all. Perhaps it is fun for them to nit pick the details. And there is a place for best efforts as opposed to sloppy carelessness. But if I’m looking at someone’s quilt and I notice that the points don’t match instead of the amazing color play, then I’ve missed the mark. Striving to sew inside the bullseye seems stressful to me. Anything outside perfection is a curse. Well, that’s just not realistic. We live in a fallen world. To hold such a high standard that is impossible to meet just makes one feel that they’ve fallen short.
Actually, I’ve been my own worst judge at times. I thought that my paper piecing would produce “perfect” results every time. Not so. I made so many cutting mistakes on a block that I ran out of the fabric just when I needed one last piece. After considering starting over with different fabrics, I pulled the scraps out of the wastebasket and patched together a big enough piece to complete the block.
One block was printed with the wrong setting (note: always choose 100%, NOT “to scale”), so the whole thing came out too small. I fretted for a bit, then just framed it up with more fabric until it reached the right size. I like it more than if I had done it “right”.
My most glaring mistake so far is:
See them? Are you gasping in shock and disappointment? My point exactly. My goal with this quilt is to use up my scraps of reproduction fabric, starting with the smallest bits. I play “fabric chicken” with each block. It’s fun! Well, I lost this round, and rather than start over, I put in a substitute. Not a bulls eye, but close enough.
I will say it has been fun to see my skills progress with each new project. But when I look at my first quilt; it is with affection rather than embarrassment. The seams are wavy, the points are buried or floating, and I didn’t even know about hand stitching bindings. At the time, I didn’t see any of those things. I was having too much fun.
I am not striving for perfection. I am sewing for personalization. Someone’s going to get these quilts someday, and I hope they will spy my mistakes. Hopefully they’ll realize that the “misses of the mark” don’t diminish the beauty of the quilt. Rather, they add the human touch. Mine!
Cuts With Scissors 