April celebrations

I have been doing blog posts on holidays for a couple of months now.  It is fun to see what people around the world celebrate.  This month I have two.  I just couldn’t decide. 

The first is actually the whole month of April.  It is National Poetry month.  That alone should tell you what I am going to recommend.  Yup, poetry.  Do you read poetry?  If not give it a whirl. 

If you are not sure you will understand poetry, start out with some children’s poems. If you don’t like the structure of poetry, read some freeform poetry.  My favorite poet is Emily Dickinson.

Have you ever tried to write poetry?  Try it.  Know that all the words don’t have to rhyme but that might be a lot of fun to try.  Here is an experiment to try: go to a page in a book or newspaper and randomly pick out 5 words.  No fair picking only words you like.  Then with these words write a 4 line poem.  If you want to start easy, go with a children’s book or the funny pages in the newspaper.  You don’t have to publish it.  You don’t even have to show anyone your poem.  But as a line from a commercial once said, try it, you’ll like it.

The other holiday is April 22, Earth Day.  This holiday was created in the 1970s when the environmental movement was just getting started.  It is one that has special mean to me.  I recycle and reuse (and reuse and reuse) but it is a holiday when my dad would send me a Happy Earth Day card.  He always tried to find some card with a nature scene on it and make it into his own Earth Day card.

So on this day do something nice for the Earth.  Take your cans and bottles to the recycling center.  Plant some flowers (and if your ground is still frozen, plant some flowers in a pot).  Paint or embroider a picture of a natural scene.  Or take a walk and watch nature (and then come home and write a poem about it.  Ah, you knew I would get these two holidays together.)  Maybe even continue my dad’s tradition and send someone a nice card with a nature scene on it.

So                    Roses are Red

                        Violets are blue

                        Celebrate Earth Day

                        And poetry too.

©2018 Cheryl E. Fillion

Take In A Show

I wrote this last year but since it is quilt show time in my area of the country, I thought I would repost it.


I am writing this about a week before it will be posted.  On that posting day will be the Azalea Quilt Show in Tyler Texas, sponsored by our local quilt guild of which I am a member.

As I am writing this, I am frantically finishing up my entries, getting the items ready for the hand work demonstration I have organized (to go on during the show) and trying to figure out what to make for the potluck our guild provides for our vendors and volunteers. 

 

I just posted on my Facebook page about the show, inviting all my local friends to attend.  Have any of you been to a quilt show?  It is a fun place to go if you like quilts or if you like color, patterns and texture.  But it is also a good place to go to increase your creativity.

In fact, attending any craft or art show is a good idea for the same reason.  You can see what is trending, as they say now, in patterns, designs or colors. You can get inspired by a different way to do a design.  One quilt show I went to many years ago, displayed a quilt with a skeleton of a dinosaur which had its head and tail extended off the main body of the quilt. I never thought of having part of the design expanded like that.

  

Something you see at a quilt or art show might just click a memory of yours that you would like to capture in paint, or ink, or fabric.  It might give you an idea of something to make for a loved one. With quilts, it might show you just the arrangement of quilt blocks that you were looking for or just the pattern you wanted to make.

Even if you are not a quilter or a painter or photographer, going to an exhibit or show can still give you ideas.  The artist or the quilter’s perspective may show you a different way of looking at or thinking about a subject matter or just the world in general.

  

When you go to a quilt or art show, you are supporting the arts in your community and that in itself is a good thing to do.  If you are reading this, you are probably interested in creativity in one form or another.  Think about how your life would be without what you create.  Don’t you want to make sure creativity in all its forms is available for everyone?

So do yourself and your community a favor: go to a show.

©2017/2018  Cheryl E. Fillion

 

 

Sometimes You Have to Rip and Redo

Most of the needlecraft I do, I learned from books.  There were no classes available other than basic sewing in my home economics classes in school.  As the years went by, I continued to learn from books and practice. I found I preferred it that way. I would have become discouraged if I had been told to rip out what I had done and do it over.  Where is the fun in that?

At least finishing something as imperfect as it might have been meant I had accomplished something.  Ripping and redoing just causes the activity to be stressful and there goes the enjoyment.  As I said above, where is the fun in that?

So for the most part I don’t rip out what I have sewn, quilted or embroidered.  But there are times when what I’ve done just doesn’t look good and the only way I will be happy with it is if I rip and redo. And that is what happened last week.

I was machine quilting on my home machine a quilt for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.  Every year I do a quilt as a fundraiser.  In the past I have quilted straight lines but this year I wanted to do some gentle curves.

I had half the quilt  done when I really looked closely at the back.  The fabric between the rows of curves didn’t lay flat.  It puckered in some area and the fabric looked almost twisted in others.  Since this was a fund raiser, I wanted it to look nice. So I ripped it out and redid it with straight lines.

I learned long ago that even if my lessons came from books, with practice and doing new projects, my needlework became better.  It was the practice, practice, practice while I enjoyed the stitching that seemed to help. 

The problem with my Relay quilt was I hadn’t “practiced” the curved quilting before I tried it on an important quilt.  I realized I needed to do that first. So sometimes you do have to rip and redo before you can get better.  The straight lines weren’t what I wanted but the quilt did look better.

So if you are a ripper or a accepter of what you do even if it isn’t perfect, remember to practice what you are doing before doing it on some item that might have an important mission like a fund raiser quilt. My new goal now is to practice.

 

©2018 Cheryl E. Fillion

Keep Dreaming

I watched the Oscars this week.  And while listening to the acceptance speeches, I realized I was watching people’s dreams coming true.  To be recognized for what you created is a wonderful experience.

But it is not just the winners who accomplished their dreams but all the nominees as well.  They might not be taking home a statue but they were dong what they have always wanted to do, what they have dreamt doing.  It is a good lesson to learn from these people:  Follow your dreams and keep following them.  It makes life wonderful.

My bachelor’s degree is in journalism.  I don’t work for a newspaper or magazine.  I don’t do television news.  After college, my interests changed and I went in other directions.   

I have always written. And I thought that is what I would always do. I wrote stories as a child. Yet I never shared them with anyone.  I wrote for the high school and college newspaper.  In high school I had a weekly column called Fillion’s Follies.  I wrote about all kinds of things; whatever was important or interesting that week.

When I went into psychology, I thought I would have to give up the dream of writing. But I kept on by publishing freelance article in quilt magazines.  It became harder to do that and I stopped for a while. 

I tried an email newsletter but I couldn’t figure out how to get subscribers. I wrote for me in my journals and wrote poems which I self published in little books printed at a local copy shop and gave them out as gifts.  It wasn’t a big audience; myself and my family, but I kept writing.  

And now with the advancement of technology and the creation of blogs, I am back to writing again a weekly column. I probably won’t win any prize for my blog.  I am not even sure how many people actually read this but I am accomplishing a dream. And that is what is important.

Even if none of those actors and actresses won the Oscar, they would still be following their dream.  And the same is true for all the other categories that were given awards, for costume, editing, sound, music, etc.  The people who work in those fields may not be winning awards or even making a lot of money, but they are following a dream.

And that is what everyone needs to do – follow their dream.  It may not be a movie or writing but I bet there are things all of you want to achieve.  It could be making the perfect loaf of bread, or raising a family, or finishing college or learning a skill.  Whatever it is, keep doing it.  Keep trying.  You never know when the time, opportunity or creation of blogs will allow you to achieve that dream.  And keep on trying.  Dreams don’t really have an expiration date. 

 ©2018 – Cheryl Fillion

Making a Tassel Doll

One of the earliest dolls I ever made was a tassel doll.  A very simple little doll made of yarn.   If you can wrap yarn around a piece of cardboard and tie a knot, you can make this doll.

Tassel Doll

All you need is a piece of cardboard (or you can use a book or CD cover, anything to wrap yarn around.  The first one I made I used an old cassette tape cover), some yarn and a pair of scissors.   The card board I used was about 9 inches by 5 inches.  You an use any size but know that the smaller the item you are using to wrap, the smaller the doll will be.  

Cardboard and yarn

Now wrap the yarn around the cardboard (or whatever you are using) 50 times.   Make sure you have enough yarn left over to use as ties to make the different parts of the doll.  You will see what I mean  in a couple of steps.

Also once the doll is taken off the cardboard and it is completed it might be a bit smaller then the item used to wrap.  The cardboard I started with was 9 inches, my doll ended up being about 8 inches.




Wrap yarn 50 times around cardboard

Take a piece of yarn and tie it around one end of the bundle of yarn.  You can take it off the cardboard if it is easier but make sure not to drop it or you will have to wrap it all over.

Tie one end of the yarn bundle

At the opposite end of where you tied the bundle, cut the yarn so all it is loose like a tassel.

Cut end of bundle

                                                

With another piece of yarn, wrap it and then tie around the bundle where you would want the doll’s neck to be.  It is best if you wrap it a couple of times before tying it so it gives the appearance of a neck.  With all these yarns I use to tie, I hide the tail of the ties inside the rest of the yarn strings.  I think it helps secure the knots better than cutting the yarn close to the knot.

Tie yarn at neck

Once you have secured the neck, separate 15 strands of yarn from each side of the bundle.  These will be the arms.

Separate arms

Now take some more pieces of yarn and tie where you would want the wrists to be on each arm.

tie at wrist

Close up of wrists

Determine how big you want the hands to be and cut off the excess. Remember to do it for both arms.

Cut below the wrist to make the hands

It is now time to determine the waist line of our little doll.  Wherever you want the waist to be, that is where you put another tie.

tie at waist

Due to all the moving and cutting done with your doll, some of the yarn strings might have moved a bit so the edge of her ‘skirt’ might be a bit uneven.  Just take your scissors and even the yarn out.

Bottom of skirt

Trimmed skirt

You have now made a doll.  If you want the doll to be a boy, just divide the yarns of the skirt into two bundles and tie them at the ‘ankle’ like you did at the wrist.  It makes it look more like pants than a skirt.

The completed doll

Depending on the size of the item you used to wrap, you can make different size dolls and create a whole family of dolls.  Or with a small doll, attach a pin to the back and make a piece of jewelry or attach it go a package instead of a bow. Just remember to have fun.

 

©2018  - Cheryl Fillion