A couple of days ago I posted about my Farmer’s Wife Quilt Sampler blocks for the week and noted that one of my blocks has a mistake.  It was the Country Path block:

Country Path

There are a couple of green squares that should be brown and a couple of brown that should be green.  Overall, I still really like the block but have been thinking that I shouldn’t allow mistakes to creep into a project so it might be a do-over.

With that thought lurking in the back of my mind, I just recently started reading  A Single Thread by Marie Bostwick and I came across this passage:

“One of the first bits of wisdom imparted to a novice quilter is that the Amish, who make some of the most simple but exquisite quilts in the world, purposely plan a mistake into each of their projects because they believe attempts at human perfection mock God.  Of course, any quilter knows that you don’t have to plan for imperfections in your work; they come quite naturally on their own, so I don’t know if this bit of Amish folklore rings true or not, but the idea does.”

I’ve heard of this before – have you?  I’ve also heard it called the Humility Block.  So I did a little Google research.  There are several websites that present what appears to be unbiased factual information about the Amish, including the quilt imperfection theory.  One example from The Amish People and Their Lifestyle:

“I have heard the Amish will place a small mistake or imperfection in a quilt or other handmade item. Why is this done?”

“We’ve heard that many years ago sometimes a scrap of fabric that didn’t quite match was used inconspicuously in a patchwork quilt to give it “identity.” We question whether this is true. We don’t know of any quilters who would do that today. Amish quilts are all band quilted; stitches are very small and uniform. But, no matter how hard one tries, the stitches are not all identical and perfect. A quilt may have an imperfection, but it wasn’t on purpose.”

Several other websites answer in the same manner.

There is an excellent Quilt History on Hart Cottage Quilts website which includes extensive information on the Humility Blocks:

“But the research of quilt historians reveals that the “humility block” appears to be a figment of mid-20th century imagination.”

In a nutshell, the Amish practice of purposeful imperfection in a quilt or humility block seems to be a myth. I still don’t know if I will fix the Country Path block; I really do like it as it is.  But unfortunately, I don’t have the Amish tradition as an excuse to allow mistakes to creep into my quilts!