10,000 Hours and Deliberate Practice

Ok, now, this topic is usually found on sports websites, and you may be wondering why I am mentioning it in a stitching blog.  Embroiderer Trish Burr recently wrote a blog post that ties into this idea.  It compared her early needlepainting to her more recent, advanced work.  It was timely for me too, because I had just unpacked and started work on this old UFO:

Cottage Garden - Inspirations 53

"Deliberate practice" was conceived by K. Anders Ericsson, and popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers.   You have probably already heard the idea that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something.  The catch is that it needs to be deliberate practice, which doesn't mean blindly following a coach's advice, but which does mean identifying and correcting your individual weaknesses.  To me, that means stretching and trying new ideas, rather than always doing the things you are already good at.

In her blog post, Trish discusses her desire to constantly be improving her work, and her willingness to make mistakes.  I particularly identified with this quote:

"Every time I make a mistake I see it as an opportunity to learn and improve. Learning embroidery should be full of quiet contentment not frustration. Living in a world where we have instant gratification in everything from cell phones, to computers to online shopping this is one area where we can cultivate a sense of patience."

As for my UFO from 2008, while most of it still looks ok, some of it is not so great:

Those rosette stitch roses are far from ideal!  I remember that I could not be bothered to use a single strand of floss for them, and honestly, it feels like I was a completely different person then!  Compare the same stitch done again last week:

Even these continued to improve as I went along, and I have a great tip to share in a future post.

What I've learned from all this, is not to be afraid of mistakes.  A lot of my UFOs are UFOs because I was afraid of messing up.  Seeing mistakes as part of the learning process, and deliberately practicing and correcting those mistakes, actually feels very freeing to me, because I know now that my current limitations are only temporary.

New Quilt Project - Collector

Here's a project that's been waiting in the wings for a while.  I finally got going on it yesterday, mainly because I wanted to do some paper piecing practice before I start Sedona Star.  The Sedona Star fabric has arrived, and been washed, so I should have something to show really, really soon now!  LOL.

But in the mean time, here is the beginning of the quilt I've been calling "Collector."  It is going to be a charm quilt, with only the background fabric repeated throughout the quilt.  The pattern was designed by Cosabeth Parriaud and included in Quiltmania's Winter 2008 Special Edition, which is published in French.  I was immediately taken by the graphic punch of the quilt:

Stars and Squares

I spent a long time figuring out what gives this quilt it's sparkle.  I'm discovering that any time I think about a quilt for too long, I have to make it!  The sparkle, I decided, is due to the high contrast darks and lights, both between the blocks and within the fabrics themselves.  That's what I'm hoping to duplicate!

I started with the "square in a square" blocks:

This was my first time ever doing paper piecing.  These have not yet been ironed or trimmed.  Thanks to all the great instruction available on the internet these days, it went pretty smoothly.  Alex Anderson's show about paper piecing on The Quilt Show was particularly helpful.  She suggested that beginners start with vellum paper, which is translucent.  That is what I used, and it is excellent stuff!  With the translucent paper you can see the fabric underneath, which allowed me to "compose" the squares to their best advantage.

In the photo above, the fabrics in the bottom left and right hand corners, as well as at the very top, are cotton Japanese kimono fabrics that I bought at Japan Center in San Francisco over ten years ago.  It is great to finally use them!  The two centre ones with the chickens are from the Folk Heart collection by Connecting Threads.  I love that collection.  Kaffe Fassett fans will have already recognized the green fabric on the right as his Millefiore design.  The pale blue butterfly fabric is at least 15 years old.  You can see why I am calling this quilt "Collector!"  While I was working on these blocks it occured to me that making quilts is really just an excuse to play with fabric.  I think the fabrics are the main event for me!