Growing Flax: Learning from an Unfinished Project
Last year, I set out on a quiet but ambitious experiment: growing flax to make linen. I imagined the process from seed to fabric, a full-circle connection to the materials I work with every day. But life got busy, as it often does, and my project never made it past the growing stage. I didn’t harvest, I didn’t process it into fiber, and, to be honest, I’m not even sure I planted the right variety of plant for making linen.
For a long time, I didn’t want to share this. It felt unfinished, maybe even like a failure. But then I realized something important—our projects don’t have to be perfect to be valuable.
The Beauty in Trying
Even though I didn’t make linen, I did grow flax. I watched it sprout, reach for the sun, and bloom into delicate blue flowers. I got to witness, firsthand, a tiny piece of what goes into fabric before it ever becomes cloth. And that’s worth something.
So often in making—whether it’s quilting, mending, or learning a new skill—we feel pressure to see a project through to its perfect, polished end before we can call it “successful.” But sometimes, just starting is enough. The act of trying, of exploring, of being curious—that’s where the real magic happens.
Connecting to the Source
As quilters and makers, we work with fabric that already exists. We pull it from our shelves, cut it into pieces, and stitch it back together. But growing flax reminded me that there’s a whole step before that—before the dyeing, before the weaving, before the fabric even reaches us. Someone, somewhere, grew the fibers. And for one season, I got to be part of that.
Even though my experiment didn’t lead to hand-spun linen, it gave me a deeper appreciation for the textiles I use every day. It made me think about the effort, time, and skill that go into making fabric, and how much we often take that process for granted.
Learning from Imperfect Projects
It’s easy to focus on what didn’t happen—how I never turned that flax into linen. But there’s value in what did happen. I learned. I connected. I explored. And isn’t that the heart of creativity?
Not every project has to end with a perfect, finished result to be worth sharing. Sometimes, the unfinished ones are the most important because they remind us that creativity isn’t just about the end product—it’s about the process.
Would I try growing flax again? I hope so. But I do know that this small, imperfect experiment changed the way I see fabric, and that’s enough.
So here’s to unfinished projects, to trying new things, and to learning from the process—no matter where it leads.
