{"id":6322,"date":"2020-02-16T11:43:55","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T18:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/?p=6322"},"modified":"2025-05-23T14:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T21:43:08","slug":"on-the-value-of-making-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/on-the-value-of-making-mistakes","title":{"rendered":"On the Value of Making Mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Before I got my fancy new sewing machine with the capacity for doing free motion sewing, I\u2019d already decided to try fabric collage.  This is my first attempt, on my old machine, with just the ability to zig zag and sew in only slightly curving lines.  Lots of colour and a bit of movement.  I used some great material I found in Hawaii.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"644\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/HawaiicollageWM-644x506.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;Hawaii&quot; Free Motion Fabric Collage by Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com\" class=\"wp-image-6309\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/HawaiicollageWM-644x506.jpg 644w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/HawaiicollageWM-300x236.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/HawaiicollageWM-768x604.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/HawaiicollageWM.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When you are learning something new you have to be willing create something that is not perfect.  Well, actually, I think perfection is over-rated anyway.  In fact, most artists make use of \u201cmistakes\u201d and find a way to use them in the composition. So, when I decided to teach myself how to do free motion sewing, I was ready for \u201cmistakes\u201d and jumped right in to practice making lots of \u201cmistakes\u201d.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"644\" height=\"634\" src=\"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/free-motion-thread-side-1-644x634.jpg\" alt=\"free motion thread side 1, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com\" class=\"wp-image-6321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/free-motion-thread-side-1-644x634.jpg 644w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/free-motion-thread-side-1-300x295.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/free-motion-thread-side-1-768x756.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/free-motion-thread-side-1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I think free motion sewing was actually meant to be used to make very controlled quilting lines on large quilts.  In fact, I\u2019m a great user of internet tutorials and most of them are really into making very controlled patterns, with no variations or \u201cmistakes\u201d.   Of course, like many artists, I\u2019m sort of in the camp of just using scribbly lines and being loose and free with it all, more of an \u201cabstract random\u201d you could say.  I must admit, I do like some of the effects that \u201cmistakes\u201d like bad tension and random movements can make.  I may use these somewhere, someday.  Quite like them.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"644\" height=\"601\" src=\"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/free-motion-threads-side-2-644x601.jpg\" alt=\"free motion thread side 2, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com\" class=\"wp-image-6320\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/free-motion-threads-side-2-644x601.jpg 644w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/free-motion-threads-side-2-300x280.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/free-motion-threads-side-2-768x717.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/free-motion-threads-side-2.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, here is one of my first attempts at free motion collage.  Trying hard to get in lots of spiral, circular and  scribble-y lines.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"644\" height=\"858\" src=\"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1st-freemotion-collage-644x858.jpg\" alt=\"Free Motion Fabric collage by Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com\" class=\"wp-image-6308\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1st-freemotion-collage-644x858.jpg 644w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1st-freemotion-collage-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1st-freemotion-collage-768x1023.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1st-freemotion-collage.jpg 901w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Even the back is kind of interesting to me, with just the thread lines\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"644\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/collage-back-threads-644x473.jpg\" alt=\"Free Free Motion Fabric collage underside threads, by Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com\" class=\"wp-image-6319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/collage-back-threads-644x473.jpg 644w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/collage-back-threads-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/collage-back-threads-768x564.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/collage-back-threads.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before I got my fancy new sewing machine with the capacity for doing free motion sewing, I\u2019d already decided to try fabric collage. This is my first attempt, on my old machine, with just the ability to zig zag and sew in only slightly curving lines. Lots of colour and a bit of movement. I <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/on-the-value-of-making-mistakes\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1022,1161,1],"tags":[1162,1167,1163],"class_list":["post-6322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collage","category-fabric-collage","category-musings","tag-fabric-collage","tag-fabric-collage-by-helen-bushell","tag-free-motion-sewing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6322"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6974,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322\/revisions\/6974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}