The Healing Effects of Creating

For most of my life I have been involved in crafts.  I learned crewel embroidery at the age of 9 and progressed to cross stitch, needlepoint, macramé, ceramics eventually moving to making bears, quilts, dolls, now weaving punchneedle and needlefelting.  I have done just about everything except knitting and crochet (just can’t get the hang of those techniques).

I do crafts for the pleasure of it.  I make crafts for gifts for those people who are important in my life.  I even opened a quilt shop so that others could enjoy making quilts.

I now sell my creations and supplies for other people’s creations in my etsy shop And even though I now sell some of what I make, I still do crafts for the pleasure of it. 

The one thing that most people don’t consider is the healing properties of crafts.  I don’t just mean being able to keep yourself active and alert with patterns and colors which is important.  I mean the solace that creating or receiving a craft can be for yourself or someone else. 

I first realized this over 20 years ago when a friend of mine lost her husband suddenly.  I wanted to wrap her in love and couldn’t figure out a way until I began to make a heart quilt for her.  That quilt showed her my love but it also gave me something to concentrate on when I felt so helpless to relieve her grief.

The next year I lost a colleague from the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization.  I had promised myself when I had time I was going to make a wall hanging of the organization’s symbol for her.  I never had that chance.  After her death it became all the more important for me to keep that promise – for myself.  So I created the wall hanging and presented it to her husband who was deeply touched and understood how much his wife contributed to the lives of others.

After September 11, 2001, all I wanted to do was make little angel dolls. For the reasons all of you can imagine, I wanted to be surrounded by angels. In recent months, I have been helping a group make Quilts of Valor for returning soldiers.  Just like a quilt gives you comfort, so do these quilts comfort our military and hopefully show them they are important to us.

I do a little healing for myself each time I create something. Each item is a reminder to enjoy the present moment.  While I love the finished product, I mostly enjoy the process of creating.  The texture of the fibers soothes me.  The color brightens my day.  Often times what I create – especially my dolls –  makes me laugh.  And I cannot stay sad or angry when I create.

So when you are having a bad day or when someone else is, use your creativity to help someone else or yourself feel better.

© 2017 – Cheryl Fillion