Yikes!!! Have you ever felt this way? I sure have! It’s not because other people have told me that. . . it’s because I’ve told myself that! “I’m a quilter and I follow patterns. I don’t write patterns because I have no good ideas. I have no original ideas.” And you know what? I didn’t! I didn’t believe that I was creative or talented enough to design a decent quilt on my own, so I didn’t try.
The quilting community is full of so much incredible creativity and talent that it can be intimidating. I see quilts all the time that make me think “I could never do that”, but the truth is that I just can’t do it yet. That technique or level of intricacy might be out of my current skillset, but that doesn’t mean I am incapable of it! The same goes for this daunting process of pattern design and pattern writing. I really can’t do it quite yet, but I am darn sure going to try!
A couple of months ago I decided to direct a frequent and persistent SHUT UP to that annoying inner voice telling me that I wasn’t going to come up with anything worthwhile. I started doodling in my iphone notes. I grabbed a pad of graph paper and started sketching. I saw shapes and patterns in the world around me through quilty vision. I learned a computer program (<—- talk about intimidating) to make digital mockups. Most important of all- I am now kind to myself and my beginner status! I have a lot of bad ideas, y’all, BUT GUESS WHAT. I have some good ones too.
More on that ^ pretty later 🙂
-Robin
So true! It’s hard to put yourself out there when you are just starting out. We are way harder on ourselves than we should be. I’ve decided to just give stuff a go now too. I’d rather try and fail, then never try. And who knows, we might actually knock it out of the park! 😊
Yes! Go us! My wallpaper on my phone now says “Be afraid, and do it anyway”.