Courage & Sewing Fears

Courage. 

It took me a long time to find what word I wanted to have that was special to me. 

I thought about it, prayed about it, and thought some more. 

It wasn't that is was hard for me to find a word, the problem was there were many words that I liked!

But Courage kept popping into my mind. 

For so many different reasons. 

Today I'm sharing just one of those reasons.

As I shared from this previous post, I'm new to quilting & blogging. 

I'm self-taught which means I've had to learn a lot through trial and error.

Sometimes it's discouraging.

I make mistakes, I don't have a huge amount of blog viewers, and sometimes I'm hesitant to share what I've made because I know someone (with more experience sewing) could have made it better. I have the tendency to only see flaws in my work. 

It's something I'm working on. 

When I first started sewing, I wanted to hide all those "flaws" and not let anyone see. 

Or when I made mistakes or sewed something completely wrong, I didn't want others to know that I messed up or had to take a seam ripper to that project 5 times over. 

(Or that I've scorched and melted fabric with an iron way too many times.)

I've learned a lot of things the hard way. 

But I'm learning it's better to laugh at myself than to let it get me down. 

I want to have courage to share my sewing journey sharing all the good...as well as the bad.

So that's what I'm going to do this year.

I'm not going to let myself get distraught when I have days when nothing goes right.

Or when I feel overwhelmed by all sewing techniques I have yet to conquer.

There have been times this past year where I wanted to give up. 

Tears were shed. 

But I love how Mary Anne Radmacher put it, 

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."

Sometimes my fears hold me back and tempt me to give up.

My fear of never conquering this or that sewing skill.

 Fear of never being good enough.

Fears of what others think of my sewing.

Fear of messing up.

Fear of others seeing flaws.

This year, I'm not going to let those fears hold me back and keep me from doing what I love.

Because at the end of the day, I love what I do. 

I love creating. I love cutting up fabric and sewing it all back together. 

 I love my work; flaws & all.

Truth is, each and every time I sit down to that machine, my skills are only going to get better and better. And looking back at this past year as only been proof of that. 

Practice makes perfect.

It just takes time and a little bit of courage.

Just listen to that quiet little voice saying, "I will try again tomorrow."