keep at it, you will suceed

to do something once takes luck,

to do something twice takes practice,

to do something three times takes perseverance.

in machine quilting there is an acronym- PPP. the accepted phrase is "practice, practice, practice" but for me i think it should be "perseverance, perseverance, perseverance"

for example....feathers. most machine quilters strive for beautiful quilted feathers and as a newbie i was no different. i admired and drooled over all the beautiful show quilts i saw published covered in beautiful feathers. i was so excited to get back to my machine and load some muslin and try...only to be disappointed that it was a bit harder than my previous excitement. BUT i kept at it, i bought books and traced other's feathers with my fingers. i doodled feathers on anything that would sit still long enough...i was not going to give up...if they could do it, so could i.

so here's the very first quilt i quilted feathers on (back in 2005). i look at it and at first i see every stinking mistake! i've never really shown it to anyone. then i see how much i've grown as a long armer. i remind myself that was the goal to start with, that i am constantly growing....and perservering.

in piecing as well as quilting, don't give up- ever! sometimes learning curves are simply speed bumps on your road to success!!