Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

My personal feeling is that...just because something has "always been done a certain way", it does not need to continue to be done in that way.

Watch any history programme on Tudor times and you'll see the ladies gathered around a fire stitching by candlelight...with electric lighting, central heating, sewing machines and reading glasses nowhere in sight.

Come forward two or three centuries, and you may well see hand crank sewing machines start to make an appearance amongst the wealthy, but the majority of stitching was still done by hand by the light of a candle (and still no reading glasses!).

OK, so I'm very badly condensing history here. However, what I'm trying to convey is that with time becomes progress. These days we get to stitch with sewing machines and can go as fancy as our budget allows. Lighting a little poor? Buy a little LED strip from Amazon and stick it to your machine. Can't see? A quick trip to your opticians will sort that one out.

And who knows what's around the corner as technology marches on at a pretty sharp pace.

No longer do we have to reply on cutting out paper templates; these days we have properly designed rulers and rotary cutters to make our quilting life easier, faster and more accurate.

Yes, you can absolutely still make your own templates and sew by hand if you'd like; personally, I like embracing the new and seeing where it can take me.

You see, if we try something new, or experiment with new ways of doing things or different techniques, it can both push us out of our comfort zone and lead us to exciting new possibilities and destinations in our stitching world.

(By the way – don't under-estimate the power of pushing yourself outside your comfort zone in one area of your life and the impact it will have across all other areas of your life.)

So what could you try new this week? Maybe you keep using the same colours or patterns, or perhaps you've been a bit scared to try a new quilting technique. My advice would be to get comfortable being uncomfortable....and try a new colour scheme, or push yourself to try a new technique.

It's easy to get comfortable doing things in the way we've always done them, but sometimes, trying something new can lead to amazing results.

Our journey as quilters should be one of learning and discovery. By embracing new ideas and techniques, you'll find that you open up a whole new world of creativity, inspiration and fun for yourself.

So go ahead, take a chance, step outside that comfort zone and see where it leads you. Then let me know what you discover!