Mistakes and Being Good at Something

There was a time when I would say I'm not good at sewing. I had tried it, actually I had to do it at school, so I knew. Not any good at it at all. And why did I thought that? Because I made mistakes. And apparently I have this firm belief that if you make mistakes - well then you are just not very good at doing that specific task.

About two years ago something happened - I can't recall what it was exactly - and I got this urge to buy some fabric and start sewing. I bought this small pack of scraps and sewed a patchwork blanket to my daughter's doll.  It was so much fun and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but I knew I wanted to learn more. I started to google around and discovered blogs for the first time. All this people making beautiful quilts with amazing fabrics. Fascinating!

One day I was watching a video on youtube where a woman who had made quilts for 50 years (!) was explaining the basics of piecing. I was astonished when I heard her saying, that she keeps a seam ripper in her pocket, since you always will have moments when you just have to rip the seam and start over. After been sewing for 50 years she still needed the seam ripper. She was still making mistakes. I started to pay attention and between post showing beautiful quilts there where stories of mistakes and frustration. All these talented people were making mistakes! And they were not embarrassed to share that.

Sometimes I hear the advice that you should do what you are good at. Since I have that crazy idea in my head that being good at means that you make no mistakes I have decided to not to follow that advice. Here is my advice for me: do what you feel so passionate about that you are willing to learn from your mistakes and carry on. Even if you are not any good at it ;)