This cover photo is of a quilt called My Small World by Jen Kingwell. I taught this as a class at the shop several years ago. At least 4. I’d have to go look but it’s close to that. I never finished it. I got to the last part of the last section and when I encountered a problem I just stopped.

Thanks to some friends, I got it out over the weekend and finished that last section and put the top together. I know where the problem is, and if a quilter looks really closely at the pattern, then at my quilt, they will know where the problem is too, but to most observers, it’s done and complete. It occurs to me that this quilt is now the embodiment of a very valuable life lesson.

How many times in life have I stopped short because what I was doing wasn’t perfect or didn’t meet the wild expectations I had in my head? I’m afraid to try to count that, because it will be a large number. How many things did I stop because it wasn’t going my way, or I didn’t get it as fast as I thought I would. How many opportunities for success did I pass up because the success didn’t look exactly the way I expected that it would? I almost don’t want to think about it, but I should.

I’m finding a lot of things around the house and in the sewing room where I got to over 90% of the way done and then just stopped. Some of the projects I can look at and I know why I stopped but for the majority it was because I was so overwhelmed by the 90% effort that I didn’t have the 10% left. In my head somehow that last 10% was going to be as taxing as the first 90% is. Irrational, I know but there it is. I need to work on getting myself through that last 10%. There is so much opportunity in that last 10%.

I’m finishing this quilt this weekend and I’m going to hang it in the sewing room. There’s a big wall space that is perfect for it and it is good for me to have the visual reminder of how close I was to something pretty neat before I just stopped. A reminder that the last 10% is worth it. A reminder to dig in my UFOs and see how many other wonderful things are just 10% away from being amazing.

Maybe I’m also 10% away from being amazing?