Learning Curves

Learning Curves

My year has been full of learning curves, mostly associated with technology.  I’ve dealt with so many that I am now noticing a pattern.  Initially I’m energized and excited, and the curve swings up.  But I try it and hit walls everywhere and the curve plummets downward.   “How,” I ask myself, “is it possible that I know less now than I knew when I first began?”  It’s a terrible feeling.  Somehow I figure something out, not necessarily the right thing, but something.  I continue, mainly because it is better than doing nothing, and in the end I do everything wrong and create a terrible mess.  But it seems that in doing it all wrong, I figure out how to start doing it right.  And that’s when the curve starts to turn up again.   

This quilt was a learning curve.  I dyed the blocks years ago but stuffed them in a box because I didn’t know how I wanted to quilt them.  This summer I decided to just do something.  I found that quilting circles is tricky.  I did a lot of unstitching and restitching before I found my rhythm.  I thought I basted it well but halfway through the machine quilting I realized my basting was a fail.  I had to baste the half that was not quilted again.  I threatened to cut the piece up into placemats and coasters.  I pinned and blocked like crazy.  It kind of worked.  But there is a ripple.  If I had left the blocks in a box I would not have learned what I needed to know, so I am coming to terms with the ripple.  It’s part of the learning curve.