Listen to Music

I went to the symphony last weekend.  It was wonderful.  The music was beautiful and our local orchestra plays perfectly.  I love music.  I usually have it on in the house and I am often times singing to myself.  As I drove home still hearing the guest pianist in my head, I realized I felt very relaxed.  And that made me wonder how music affects our health. 

I quote studies to my psychology students that music is great for stress management.  It helps calm nerves and release tension from muscles.  Music even affects babies in the womb.  Play rock music and a baby will get agitated (I personally think they are trying to dance); play classical music to a baby doing a lot of kicking and they will calm down.  Music is even used now in hospitals before people go into surgery and during the surgery.  It helps calm patients before a surgery and has been found to speed up healing afterward.

Music helps with increasing your mood.  How many of you are really sad when you listen to Christmas music?  That is why you hear it in the stores.  If it puts you in a good holiday mood so maybe you will buy more gifts or decorations.  I worked with a guy who said he always played hard rock when cleaning his apartment.  It put him in the mood to be aggressive with his dust and clutter.

It helps with exercise.  You see lots of people in gyms or out running with earbuds on while exercising.  They are probably not listening to the news.  I remember watching a parade where a young friend was performing on a drill team.  We followed her along the way for a couple of miles but it didn’t feel that distance since we were walking with the beat of the bands.

If music does all these things, you can assume that it helps with creativity.  You are more creative when you are not stressed or when you are in a good mood.  Music that makes you smile is likely to help you quilt, knit, paint or write. 

But the most important thing is to find music that works for you.  I probably would not clean my house very well with classical music (truth be told, it relaxes me enough that I often fall asleep – even in the big auditorium with a live orchestra).  For me I would need some jazz or maybe a favorite performer so I could sing along and not really think that I was cleaning.   I listen to music when I am grading papers but it can’t be anything with lyrics or I can’t concentrate on what my students have written.

So do what you can to bring more music into your life.  You can find music everywhere even on your phones and computers.  Find that type of music that releases your stress and makes you smile and you might find it makes you more creative as well.  But if you are trying to be creative with music, just don’t listen to lullabies or you might just fall asleep.

©2020  Cheryl Fillion 

Fabric Yoyos: Tutorial

    

I am working on a yoyo project as a fund raiser for our local quilt guild.  So I thought I would repost my tutorial on making fabric yoyos.

Fabric Yoyos are simple to make.  You can go to your local fabric or craft store and find a tool that will help you make all kinds of size or shape yoyos.  Or you can make them the old fashion way with just a circle of fabric.  If you are sewing the yoyos together for a quilt or table mat, you might want to make all the yoyos the same finished size. 

To determine the size of circle to start out with you need to know the finished size you want then cut a circle 2 times plus 1/2” (for seam allowance) of that finished size. For example, if you want a yoyo 1 1/2” in diameter, cut a piece of fabric 3 ½” in diameter.





Now fold over the edge (about a ¼” ) of the circle to the wrong side of the fabric and start a running stitch like a basting stitch around the circle. I hide the knot of my thread under the fold of the edge.  (I usually use the same colored thread as the fabric but I am using a contrasting thread here so you can see the stitches.) You can iron the edge down before you start sewing or just fold it over before you take the next stitch.

I double my thread to make it stronger to pull the gathers.  But if a single thread works for you, go for it.  

One tip I learned is to make the stitches not tiny like quilting stitches but bigger. Mine are usually about ¼”. When the yoyo is finished, there will be a hole where the stitches are gathered. The bigger the stitches, the tinier the hole.  

 

You can gather the stitches as you are sewing or wait until you get to where you started stitching.  

Then gather up the circle and knot it. I try to get the knot as close to the gathers as I can, then pull the thread through the gathers before I cut it off.  You don’t have the tail of the knot showing in the opening that way.  

You will probably need to flatten the finished yo-yo out after you have cut the thread. You might have to adjust where the edge fold goes to get the hole in the middle.

And that is your yoyo. Now just make however many more you need for your project.

 To sew the individual yoyos together, arrange them in the way you want them.   You can have them so all the gather holes show or have them so that the flat side shows.  Usually I want to see the gathered holes.  I think it is more interesting and more textured.



But occasionally when I am doing an ornament where it might swing around on the hanger, I will alternate the yoyos: one gathered next to one that shows the flat side.  It makes it more symmetrical.

Now to sew to sew the yoyos together: Pick up two yoyos.  If you have all the yoyos facing with the gathered side up, you want to place the flat sides together.  If the yoyos have the flat side up, you want to put two gathered sides together.   If you are alternating a gathered side with a flat side, the yoyos you place together should be a gathered against a flat side.

Now slip your needle through the hole and under the gathers coming out at the edge of the yoyo.



Pull the needle through so the knot is hidden in the gathers.  Pulling the needle through the second yoyo, take a little stitch securing them together (Note: I usually use the same colored thread as my fabric. I am using contrasting thread here so you can see the stitch.)



Take a couple more little stitches to secure the yoyos together.  Make a knot slip the needle through the gathers of the yoyo (like you did when you created the yoyo) and clip your thread.  That is all there is to it.  Now just repeat the stitches for all the other yoyos until you are finished.

Here is my completed ornament.



©2016, 2020  Cheryl Fillion

 







Show and Tell

I have always liked show and tell in school.  You were able to see what other kids got as gifts; maybe see a pet or two (usually turtles or lizards) and hear stories.  I still like show and tell but now it is with fiber. We have show and tell in the quilt guild meetings, in our fiber artist group, and with the sampler group I belong to at our local quilt shop. It is a way to see what other people are working on and hear the stories behind their projects.

In our sampler group, I like to see how quilters arrange the same blocks I am working on.  It gives me an idea of how to arrange my blocks or even some blocks in a future quilt.  With any show and tell, I learn about new techniques or new patterns I might like to try. I am always learning about weaving styles in our fiber artist group.

And I love to hear the stories behind whatever is being shown.  It might be a funny one about how they started this or that years ago (like a baby quilt for a niece who is now having a baby of their own) or a project someone started in a class or at a retreat.  That always makes me want to take a class. 

I think though my favorite part is seeing the pride in the person’s face that is showing their work and especially if that person is a new quilter, weaver or artist and they hear the praise from other more experienced people.  It is such a vote of confidence for them. I tried to cheer louder for a newbie.  It takes a lot of guts to show your work when you are a beginner.

If ever you get a chance to show off your work to a group, do so.  You might be inspiring some one else and it is always nice to hear the applause.  And if some is showing you something they make, always applaud.  In showing what they are creating, they are showing you a bit of themselves.

 

©2020 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 are 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. 2020 – Cheryl Fillion

 

Daily Art

A couple of years ago I came across an idea of challenging oneself to do a little piece of art every day for a year.  Recently I have found a similar idea of stitching a tiny picture on a piece of fabric that represents each day.  I decided this year with a new decade I would try it.

Now the challenge for me is not going to be thinking of a picture or motif, but actually doing the stitching.  My needlework tends to be put aside when I get busy with school or the quilt show or other of life’s activities.  So this year I am going to challenge myself with my embroidery.

The ideas I have read about had to do with embroidery but any art would do.  You could sketch or paint something each day.  Take a photo.  Write a daily poem.  Or you could even make a little sculpture.  The idea is doing something every day.

Another important thing here is not to make them too big or elaborate which would take a lot of time to do the art.  You want it simple and small depending on what you are doing.  Some embroidery or drawing that is just a couple of inches or smaller, a quick photo of a flower growing between sidewalk panels or a poem of 3 or 4 lines.

The first thing is to decide on a medium: painting, drawing, embroidery, etc.  Then maybe the size you want.  Since I am doing embroidery and my little pictures will probably be less than an inch in size, I decided on a circle divided into 12 wedges, one for each month of the year.  I thought if it was divided up into section and I just concentrated on one section at a time, the whole project wouldn’t seem so overwhelming.

Then think about whether you want a theme to your paintings, embroidery or writings.  You might do something in nature, or animals, or just anything that pops into your head?   I am going to see what comes up each day. 

I am adding a couple of rules to mine.  One, to do my best to keep up but understanding that life may get in the way.  And know that my idea of how I plan this may change if I think of another idea of what to do or if it becomes too difficult to focus on a year at a time.  Which is another thing, if you like the idea of daily art but don’t think you can commit to a year then try a week or a month and see how you do with a shorter time frame, it is after all your daily art.

So all this was to share my challenge with you.  I am going to try to stitch something everyday that might represent that day and see how far I can go.  Here is what I have so far.

©2020 Cheryl Fillion