I love to sew, and I love my sewing but that others would love it too sometimes astounds me. Recently a friend of my sister asked me if I would make her a rag quilt. I said yes. She freely offered to pay for my materials and my time. I began to doubt. I have happily and confidently gifted items a plenty in the past, but that someone would essentially like to buy something I had made, well for some reason that makes me doubt my own work.
Years ago it was my cross stitching that I doubted. At the time I had discovered how to generate cross stitch patterns from photographs and had stitched a few portraits of family members. My favourite of these was one I gifted to a great Aunt on her 100th birthday, and which returned to me four years later and has hung in my living room ever since.
Stitching that piece led to other family members comissioning me to stitch a couple of portraits for them. They were more than delighted with the end results but I for some reason was ever doubtful. There is nothing to make my Aunt’s portrait stand out over these other pieces, but for some reason I have always felt so much more confident and assured about how it turned out.
Now the same applies to the rag quilt I have made for my sister’s friend. It looks wonderful and I am pleased with how well it turned out, and she too is more than happy with it. But in my mind there is still a silly little niggle – is it really good enough?
Of course it is!