Start Small

I hate to exercise.  I am just not the athletic type.  I have tried various sports I thought would be fun and I just never stuck with them.  I know exercise is important for my health but I just don’t like it.

So last fall when I signed up with our local guild to take a bus to the Houston Quilt Show, I knew I would be walking a lot and would be very sore at the end of the day.  That was motivation enough to start walking.

If you are going to do a marathon, you start out training.  You don’t run the 26 miles right off the bat; you start small.  So that is what I did.  I walked a short distance and I mean it was really short (like walking past a couple of houses in my neighborhood) and I built up from there. When walking past a couple of houses got easy, I added a couple more. 

I also walked at the college where I teach.  Since I started my ‘training’ in the summer and I live in Texas, I started to walk inside where it was air conditioned.  I walked down one hallway in the building of my classes and then back to the faculty lounge. When the one hallway got easy, I would add the hallway along the front of the building and work up until I was walking the whole building twice.  By the time the Quilt Show came, I was used to walking and feeling stronger (I also noticed my back didn’t hurt as much).  By the time I got home from the bis trip, I was tired but not as sore as I would have been if I hadn’t started ‘training’.

Any big project you do whether it is running a marathon or making a quilt, works better if you break it up into smaller bits.  It doesn’t seem so overwhelming if you do it a little at a time and if you think about it, the fun lasts longer.  If you are doing something like a quilt, you are not likely to go buy the fabric, cut the pieces out, sew them together and quilt it all in one day, especially if you are a beginner.  If you do that. you will be exhausted, sore and probably make a lot of mistakes.

So whatever project you have planned, whether it is something creative like a quilt or something dreaded like exercise, start small.  Break it up into small pieces and do a little at a time.  I am pretty sure you will be happy with the results.

©2019 Cheryl Fillion

Using Paint on Fabric

In September of 2018, our local quilt guild invited an Art Quilt artist and instructor to come and do a lecture and class for the guild.  That artist name was Deborah Boschert.   I don’t consider myself an art quilt type quilter; I lean more toward a traditional looking quilt.  But this artist uses a lot of embroidery in her quilts and that appealed to me so I signed up.

I also bought her book – Art Quilt Collage (C&T Publishing, 2016) ahead of time, which I rarely do with classes and had it read 3 times before the class took place.  Other than embroidery stitches, Deborah uses paint on her quilts.  The first time I read the book, I thought, no that is not for me.  The second time I read the book, I was thinking “Hmmmm that is interesting.” and while reading the book for a third time I found myself at a craft store looking at paints.

Now the paint Deborah uses often is just regular acrylic craft paint. No fancy fabric paint, just the kind of paint to use on wooden crafts or ceramic knick knacks.  Now if you think, what I thought, “but wait that is not permanent and when you wash the quilt it will come out”, you are right.  But these aren’t quilts that you cuddle in and possible wash if they get dirty.  These are art quilt.  You hang them like pictures on a wall – no washing involved.

So when my brother asked what I wanted for Christmas, I put on the list acrylic paint and sponge brushes.  I have no idea if I will use paint a lot or even at all in my quilts but I wanted to try something new.  So below is my adventure with paints and fabric.

aluminum tray

I decided to work in the kitchen in case I needed water.  I covered the table with paper so I could get as messy as I wanted and used a tin tray from some pastries to hold my paint (like a palette). 

fabric I used

I just took a scrap of fabric to begin with, nothing fancy or even very expensive or even, as you can see, straight on all sides.

One design Deborah often uses on her quilts is a circle.  She didn’t buy a fancy stamp or draw out the circle first and paint with a brush over the line (although she could have), no she used the end of a toilet paper roll. Well, my recycling heart loved that. 

toilet paper rolls

I started by pouring some paint in the aluminum tray.  I didn’t even spread it around to even it.  I did that with the edge of the paper tube.

paint on tray

The next step was to dip the edge of the roll into the paint and start stamping.

dip paper roll in paint

start stamping

And what is fun about the paper roll is you can squeeze it in to all kind of shapes.  Squeeze the sides a little to make an oval shape. 

Oval paper tube

oval stamps

Flatten it down and then open it and flatten it to make a crease on the other (un-creased side) and open it again, and you have a square shape

flatten paper roll

paper roll shaped into a square

stamped squares

And if you read any of my other experiment demos, I had to make a heart (you just have to do that with a blog called Heartfully Cheryl).  I squeezed it like the oval and then on one side where it was creased I opened the edges and pushed the crease inwards and just fiddled with it until it looked like a heart. 

heart shape tube

heart stamp

Now to see the solid even amount of paint on your stamp you have to dip it in the paint each time you stamp.  If you dip it in the paint and then keep stamping, the paint will lighten and become uneven.  Some obsessive people might not like it but as you can see the fading paint creates its own unique look.

circles with various amount of paint from paper roll

One thing I did learn was to lift the stamp/paper roll off the fabric straight up from the surface.  It you lean a little one way or another; you might get a little smudge from the paint that has gone up the side of the paper roll.  What surprised me about this is I actually liked that look and I am usually one who wants things even all the way around (no smudges).

smudges in top row of squares

Now of course, you do want to let it dry thoroughly before you use it for anything.  I plan on giving mine at least a couple of days to dry.

You might be asking “what are you going to do with that fabric, Cheryl?”  I have absolutely no idea right now.  But now I have some fabric with new designs that can be added into a quilt as a background, or cut it out into a shape like I would any other printed fabric.  I will let you know when I do use it.

I have to say that was fun.  Almost like finger painting without the fingers.  And it felt a little mischievous to be purposely putting paint on fabric.  It’s not something you are taught to do as a quilter.  So the next time you get the feeling of “nope, that is not for me” consider actually doing it.  You might have some fun.

P.S.  If you are thinking about doing art quilts, definitely get Deborah’s book . Art Quilt Collage.  It takes you from inspiration to finishing. And if you ever get to take a class with her, DO IT.  She is a wonderful teacher and her class was great fun.

©2019  Cheryl Fillion

 

 

 

Filling the Well - Part 2

Last week I talked about filling the well of your creativity with ideas.  To be able to create the life you want, you have to make time for those activities that are important to you.  This involves a little self-care, self-nurturing.   You must be able to express your needs and indicate your preferences. You must set up boundaries.

We need to be able to dwell in our own private sphere to create.  We need to feel separate from everyone else and narrow our focus to what we want in our lives.  Now sometimes that may mean we need to do things that have nothing to do with our art, our creativity.  This is part of filling the well.  And to do this we have to put up boundaries.  We have to be able to say, "I want or need to do this at this time."

This can cause problems especially if you have been available to everyone in the past.  Making your needs known may cause confrontations, misunderstanding and hurt feelings. It will appear to others that you don't care about them, their needs, and their happiness.  We want to care about others and take care of those people in our lives, but it is impossible for us to do that all the time.

Often times the people who hear of our boundaries feel rejected. We are pushing them aside for some 'thing', be it an activity, person, planned event or just to be by yourself. That is not at all what we are doing.  We are in fact practicing self-care.  When we take care of our needs first, we can then be available to others.   It is like traveling on a plane. You are instructed by the flight attendants that if the cabin pressure drops, you are to put your oxygen mask on first before helping the child traveling with you.  You do this because you can't help anyone if you lack oxygen.  If we give all the time to what others need without caring for our needs, we are giving away our oxygen.

It is the same with your creativity.  If you first attend to that part of you that is important, you can be there for those people in your life.  You have been oxygenated, your well is full.  As opposite as it seems, the greatest gift you can give someone in your life is taking care of you. 

If this is hard for you to do, start out small.  Pick an activity that will take 15 minutes, a walk around the block.   Then build up from there.  Take a bath. Go somewhere quiet to read a book instead of watching a TV program with the family. Work in a secluded corner of the yard while everyone else is in the house. Say no thank you to an invitation from a friend. The more you practice this type of self-care, the easier it gets.  You are probably saying that is hard to do.  Yup it is.  I am still learning.

But the more the people in your life will see how happier you are, the more they will understand why you take care of you first.  It makes you a better spouse, parent, child, friend.  It might even prompt them to take better care of themselves and form boundaries of their own. Think of how nicer the world would be then.

© 2018 – Cheryl Fillion

Filling the Well

If you are just starting your creative life or have been in it a while, you will find there are times when you come up empty.  You have nothing to create, no ideas whatsoever.  It is almost like putting a bucket in a well and coming up with dust.  Your well is dry.

The well is that part of us that collects all the drops of ideas, inspirations, dreams, joys, every little part that goes into our creativity.  It is not a matter of just picking up a brush and painting we must have something inside to paint.  It does not mean putting down one word and the rest follow, there must be a thought and emotion behind that one word for all the rest to come. 

This well can be fed by anything: working in the garden, going to a movie you want to see, reading a book, wandering through a flea market, listening to your favorite music without interruptions, smelling a lovely bouquet of roses, doing needlework or even cooking. How you fill your well may differ from how someone else fills theirs.  The variety is endless.  And the choice is yours.

You may find that ideas come when you are not even searching.   How many of you have come up with ideas while in the shower?  I occasionally get entire poems while soaking in a bath.  I hated that because I would have to get out of the tub to write down the poem before I forgot it.  (My brother has helped with this by finding some water soluble crayons for me to use in the tub.  Now you are just as likely to find poems on my bathroom tile as on paper.)

Where ever and what ever you do to fill your well, the important part is that you fill it.  Don't wait until the well is dry and you're scooping up dust, continually fill the well.  Make sure that you include on a regular basis those things you enjoy, that fill your soul.  Don't worry about what any one else thinks, this is important to your creativity, so it is important for you to do.

You might want to keep a notebook of the ideas you come up with.  If you record it somewhere, just a word or a brief description, you then have it for safekeeping and your mind can move on to gathering more drops for your well.  (If you are one who gets ideas in the car, take a recorder - don't try to write it down while driving.

 So now go out and gather your drops and get that well over flowing.  

© 2019 – Cheryl Fillion