Oops I made an Intentional Mistake

“Do a Google keyword search on “quilt humility block” and you will find almost a thousand quilt-related websites claiming that back in the old days, quilters would put a deliberate error in their quilts – a block turned sideways, a different shade of red in one part, something skewed or “wrong”. This, we are told, comes from the idea that since only God is perfect, making a perfect quilt is prideful. Thus the “humility block” was an exercise in Biblical decorum. ” – Quilt History

So I was crocheting with a friend the other day and she made a mistake. She said that would be her “humility block” and she began telling me a story about how the Amish make a mistake on purpose to show their humility on all their handiwork. I was comforted because my project had many mistakes in it. But when I did some research I found this on Quilt History:

Xenia Cord, a quilt historian who has taught folklore at Indiana University for more than two decades, also wondered about the concept of “intentional mistakes”. “If intentionally making a design flaw in order to avoid the perfection that is relegated to God alone is done to keep the maker humble, isn’t this in itself a kind of arrogance? (i.e., ‘I’m so good that unless I mess up intentionally, I am perfect.’) Where’s the humility in that?” Cord also wryly wonders, “[I]s there a quilter among us who is so good that she makes NO errors in piecing, joining, appliqueing, or quilting (that can’t be fudged or covered up)?” She hypothesized that “the whole ‘intentional flaw’ thing may be the observer’s way of trying to explain why an unknown quilter, who has made something the observer can’t make, would have left that piece upside down, or that heart slightly lopsided, or that line of quilting unfinished.” 

Can you imagine? Someone pointing out a mistake under the guise of being Christian about it? “See how they made a mistake there, I mean I’m sure it must be the “humility block” because, the quilt is otherwise so perfect.” Was it just an excuse to look for imperfections in your neighbors handiwork? Wow, suddenly not so comfortable with this particular wives tale, and may just stick to trying to be perfect, with the knowledge that I make enough mistakes all by myself, and laugh a little at the thought of others looking for the “humility block” in everything I do, because I’m just not that conceited.