The 8 to 1 Rule

Business studies show that there is an average of 8 negative complaints to every 1 compliment.  This is known as "the 8 to 1 Rule". 

It tends to be human nature to complain. Sometimes complaints are constructive.  You want to let a restaurant know if you have gotten sick eating there.  You want a store to know if they have a rude employee.   But complaining just to complain is never helpful.  Negativity has a lot of power.

If you criticize a young artist, even in the area of "helping", you might just stop that young one's art forever.  Without intending to, you have silenced that artist's voice.  Where's the benefit in that?  

I once hear a story of a young artist who painted the mountains in his art class a maroon color.  His art teacher, of course, told him that mountains were not maroon.  They were green or brown or snow capped.  That "help" from the teacher stopped his painting.  Years later in New Mexico, he was sitting with a friend watching a sunset reflect along the mountain range.  Guess what color they turned out to be at one point.  That's right - maroon.

When you are trying something new creatively, you will find that you are sensitive to other's comments.  You may have created a wonderful arrangement of things and with one well intended statement from a friend or family member; you now doubt your creation and your ability.

These well intended statements are real sneaky in form.  They may start out with words such as "Don't you think it would be better if...." or "Maybe you should do this or that" or "Have you thought about...”   Often times you have not asked for a critique, or advice, or suggestions.  You have just shown what you have created.

Sometimes you may even find someone who takes the complaint into action and may add some color here or there or rearrange this piece and that piece or rewrites your essay or poem.  Now these folks do not see what they have said or done as criticism or a complaints or even negative.  They are just trying to help.  They want you to succeed and for your creation to look wonderful. 

They just don't see that their help has undermined what you have done.  They can't see your creation from your eyes.  They just see how they would do it.  They didn't see how much you worked on it with possibly sweat and tears.  They may not understand how much your creation is part of you.  To them, it is just an arrangement of things, be they words, colors, or knickknacks.

As you explore your creativity, be sensitive to the creativity and creations of others.  Change your "8 to 1 rule" to be 8 compliments to every 1 complaint.  Don't offer suggestions.  Find something positive to say about it:  "Oh, that is so you." or "I like this or that." or "I would love to see maroon mountains." (you might get an offer of a trip to New Mexico for that one). 

And for goodness sake, don't break one of my mother's rules: "If it is not yours, leave it where it is."  Don't add paint or correct grammar or move one piece of anything.  It is not your creation; so show it the respect you would want your art to receive.

© 2017 – Cheryl Fillion

String Quilts: The Scrappiest of Scrappy Quilts

I like scrappy quilts.  It is how quilts were made in years gone by.  But I think my favorite of the scrap quilts are the string quilts. String quilts are made of irregularly width strips of fabric often sewn to a foundation of fabric or paper.  I like string quilts because even the smallest fabric piece is used so nothing goes to waste and they are random in color and fabric design

String Quilt

The earliest string quilts appeared around the 1880s; although you won’t find many existing today.  They were definitely utilitarian quilts so used up and worn out. To me utilitarian quilts were the most loved quilts.

Now I mentioned that string quilts were sewn on a foundation of paper or fabric.  This isn’t the type of paper piecing we find today where fabric is sewn in a certain way and certain order and a picture or particular design is completed.  This foundation is just to hold the fabric in place while the block is being sewn.

Any fabric width can be used. In fact the more variety of fabric widths, the more interesting of a quilt you will have.  You can even start with a string that is one width at one end and another width at another end.  No one says the fabric has to stay the same width

Look at the sunflower strip in the yellow block.
Not the same width from one end to the other. 

With string piecing you do not have to follow the grain of the fabric and any fabric can be used: cotton, polyester, flannel, rayon, or even knit.  It won’t stretch because it is sewn to a foundation.

Any type of paper can be used as the foundation.  I have a friend who uses the pages from her old telephone books.  I often use old exams from the classes I teach at a local college. Sometimes I use the whole sheet and sometimes I cut it into smaller squares or rectangles depending on the type of quilt I am making.  Once the block is sewn, you remove the paper (and by the way it is very satisfying to rip those papers off the fabric block. Great stress reliever.)  Although I read somewhere that back in the 30s and 40s, the paper was kept attached when quilted to add another layer of insulation.  Remember bedding like quilts weren’t often washed so the paper remained intact.

Blocks dating to the 1940's

As a side note, if you ever come across string blocks still attached to newsprint, take a look at the paper.  It is fun to see what went on at that particular time in history.  A friend found some unquilted string blocks at a flea market.  They dated back to the 1940's.  There were ads for movies and news about local teams and local events. My two favorites was an ad for a man’s suit at a price of $34.85 and a local store giving a comforter away to the first baby born in 1943.  

Suit ad on the back of a string quilt block.

Baby Comforter ad on the back
of a string quilt block.

If fabric is used for the foundation, it is best to use cotton.  You don’t want the foundation fabric to be stretchy because the block can become distorted.  And a lighter color is the best so the color of the foundation fabric doesn’t show through the string fabric.

The foundation shape does not have to be a rectangle or square.  My favorite is one that looks almost like a bowtie with two quarter circles cut from opposite corners. 

'Bowtie' String Quilt

Stars have been made of string pieces. 

Star String Quilt

  

Triangles are also a good shape (An equilateral triangle string quilt is on my bucket list.). 

Triangle String Quilt

If you like scrap quilt and have a lot of strips or strings you just can’t throw away, make a string quilt.  They are fun and just as comforting and warm as a color coordinated, rotary cut patterned quilt. 

© 2017 Cheryl Fillion

The Bucket List -- Don't Wait

How many of you have a bucket list?  If you have a list, have you done any of them?  You hear of people who when they find they have a terminal disease start to do some of the seemingly crazy things they have always wanted to do.

But why wait until you have been diagnosed with a disease or after you have retired. Why not start doing some of your bucket list now.

Now you may think that a bucket list is for the end of your life.  Oh really, who says so?  You enjoy the items off your list at any time.   Yeah like right now.  

Let’s say you want to travel somewhere but you know it will be years before you can do it.  Why wait?  One item on my list was to spend time in a resort area of my home state of Wisconsin called Door County.  It was going to take me a while to save the money to take the trip but I didn’t want to wait to enjoy it. 

So I got on the internet and looked up things to do in Door County.  Of course I had to make sure there was a quilt shop there.  I found a webcam in a couple of the towns and watched the comings and goings for months on end.  The webcams showed me events, the weather and the busy times.  Doing this helped me keep my enthusiasm up while I saved up the money.

You can do the same thing for whatever you want to do.  Find websites about your bucket list item.  Read books about it.  Find people who might have gone or done what you are planning.  They may have great tips on what to and not to do.

You can actually start enjoying your Bucket list item before you actually do your bucket list item. Don’t wait until the end of your life; start enjoying it now.

© 2016  Cheryl Fillion

Community of Creatives

Quilting bees were common in colonial days.  Groups of women getting together to sew and quilt bedding for each other.  It was a time of companionship but it was also a way for them to teach and encourage theirs and each other's creativity.

These groups act as cheerleaders, pushing and encouraging the members to do what they want to do and, as with many dreams, what they need to do.  They help with brainstorming for solutions to problems such as where to get affordable supplies, how to barter work for training, where to display work, who to meet to achieve one’s goals.  They are there to cheer great successes and soothe the lesser successes (I don't like the word failure.).

You don't have to be working on the same type of creativity.  I can get just as much support from a painter or a writer as a quilter.  And you don't have to be at the same point in your creativity journey.  In fact, it is helpful if you're not.  The novice can see their future better with someone who has been creating their dreams for a longer time, and the experienced dreamer can be reminded of how far they have come.

You just need to meet once in a while and dream together.  Meet for coffee if there is just two of you or meet in a more formal setting if there is a group.  Allow each person to share their triumphs and disappointments, and allow the other members of the group to offer ideas.  Sometimes it is fun - if you can do it - to create together.  Plan a project together like a collage or just bring what you can work on and dream and create together. A recent memory I have of time with a fellow creative dreamer was the two of us finishing a baby quilt for a charity while talking through the snags in each of our very different dreams. 

 There is no reason to go at this creative journey alone.  Get together a group. You do want to make sure that the people you invite to your group are not the critics or just plain negative people.  That will just undermine what you are trying to do.  Make one rule of the group to be that even if you don't understand or enjoy another person's creative passion, it will still be treated with respect.

Don't miss the joy of a community of creatives - find or form a group.

© 2016 – Cheryl Fillion