The Challenge

One thing that I like about quilting is that there is always something new to learn, some new challenge to conquer.  You learn to piece squares and you move on to triangles.  You master triangles and you go on to curves.  Then there’s paper piecing, English paper piecing, appliqué, and the list continues.  I have known women who have been quilting their whole lives who say that they are still learning.  New tools come out.  New methods are discovered.  This is one reason that quilting is so addictive: there is always something more to learn, some new skill to discover.

There is an optimal level of difficulty for kids (or adults) to learn.  If it’s too easy, we get bored, if it’s too hard, we get discouraged.  This applies to anything you might learn, math, sewing, music.  As important as it is to add, if you don’t move on to multiplication and algebra, you will get pretty bored.  And you would never be able to grow as a mathematician.  In order to grow, we have to face new challenges.

The same thing applies to life.  As much as we may like where we are, literally or figuratively, there comes a time when we have to move on to something else.  We have to continually challenge ourselves in order to become better as people.  Change may be hard, but just like appliqué or paper piecing, the hardest things in life are the most worthwhile.  They are also the most fun.