My Quilt Festival Weekend

 

For the last two years I wrote of my adventures at the Houston International Quilt Festival. But this year, due to Covid, it has been cancelled.  So many of the things we look forward to and enjoy doing have been cancelled. 

 

In the Spring here in Tyler we had our local quilt show cancelled.  It was always my little staycation in March.  It was a way to immerse myself with beautiful colors and quilts and people who speak the same language (you know piecing, appliqué, embellishment). This year I felt a bit lost that weekend.  All my activities gone. 

 

Well I recently decided that even if I couldn’t go to Houston for the Quilt show, I was going to have my own quilt festival. So for the first weekend in November I am planning some quilt activities of my own.

 

I am thinking of going to both local quilts shops and if nothing else wander around the wonderful fabrics they have.  I will try to find something to buy so I am supporting our local small business shops.  Shopping is a big activity at any quilts show,

 

I am hoping it will be cold so I can sit under one of my quilts or maybe many of them by switching them out every couple of hours.  I love old quilts so I am going to pull out a quilt history book to read or maybe browse through all the picture I took in Houston the past 2 years.

 

I am trying to decide whether to start a new quilt project or work on one in progress but some amount of stitching needs to occur that weekend. The big question is which project to decide on.  Or maybe I will watch a new technique on Youtube like I would with the free demos at the show.

 

I do know I plan to get a pizza that weekend.  When you think about it pizza is the perfect quilty food.  You have the crust on the bottom which is like the backing of the quilt.  The sauce on the top is like the background fabric of the front of the quilt and the toppings are like an appliqué design with the cheese holding everything together just as the quilting stitches do on a quilt.  Plus by getting a pizza delivered, I don’t have to cook and can spend more time looking, stitching and shopping quilts. 

 

So for one weekend I am going to immerse myself in quilts.  But you don’t make quilts, you say.  Well what other event or activity is being cancelled due to this pandemic?  What about Halloween?   Is trick or treating allowed in your community?  If not what are you going to do?

 

My paternal grandmother lived in a little apartment in the back of a small apartment building.  In the fall it would get dark very early and since the driveway was not well lit and you couldn’t see her porch light from the street, she did not get many trick or treaters except for my brothers and I.  Now I liked going to her house because she always made such a fuss of our costumes but also because she didn’t get many kids, she would buy the big candy bars not the little fun sizes to give out and we would get what was left over.

 

So what if you just took the kids to house where you knew the people (like grandma and grandpa) and give them a big size candy bar..  Or maybe decorate the back yard and have a Halloween treat hunt (like an Easter Egg hunt).  You could buy things you wouldn’t give for regular trick or treat, like big candy bars, or apples, cut out cookies, coloring books or some Halloween themed toys. 

 

There is no reason to just let the events and activities which are cancelled from Covid to slip by.  Create your own event.  No it will not be the same.  I won’t be traveling by bus to Houston with 40 other quilters but I will provide myself with a quilt filled weekend and probably have just as much fun.

 

©2020 Cheryl Fillion 

 

Silence

I was reminded of this blog this week and I thought it might be good to report it.

 

Society today is built to allow for communication with others or from others.  We have phones (cell and land lines), e-mail, pagers, not to mention television, radios, and answering machines.  The only communication that society doesn't allow or even sometimes encourage is communicating with yourself.  To do that you need, not all those electronic gadgets, but the antiquated idea of silence.

 

Silence is how we hear ourselves think.  As creative beings, we need silence.   We begin to see our lives, and the world around us in silence.  To some it is the only way to communicate with the Spirit.

For many years I lived in a dormitory as the hall director (what many might think of as a Dorm Mom).  Outside my front door was usually a lobby with a TV and dozens of college students at any time of the day or night.  I realize now, being away from that atmosphere, that I kept my stereo and TV on more as a sound wall than for any enjoyment or even company.  As long as I had something on in the apartment, I couldn't hear what was going on in the lobby (and there were times I didn't want to hear what was going on in the lobby J.

 

Now the TV is rarely on.  I don't have to fall asleep with either music or something creating 'white noise'.  When I do listen to music, I am able to enjoy and relax to it. And to my great enjoyment I can hear the little birds at my feeder, the breeze through the trees and a thunderstorm.  But mostly I can hear my own thoughts. 

 

I don't have to set aside time very late at night to create an atmosphere of quiet (usually with ear plugs).  Silence isn't that far away.  Without all the noise, my stress level is down, decisions are made easier and my creative ideas just flow.

 

Now this might not be possible with a house full of family.  You might also have to create some time late at night with ear plugs, as I did.  If you need to, do so.  Without silence, your life and your creativity will reflect the chaos of the noise around you. 

 

Catch bits of silence whenever you can.  If you are consciously looking for the quiet, try not to use the phone - even let the answering machine or voice mail pick up.  Don't have the TV or stereo on.  While driving, turn the radio off.  Silence can be found quite nicely in the newly insulated cars on the market these days.  And even in the mists of traffic, with the radio off, you will be able to hear yourself (pay attention to the road though, OK?)  Take a nap in the afternoon when you can so you can stay awake after the rest of the household is off with the Sandman.

 

You don't have to do anything during these times of silence (unless you are driving the car).  Just sit.  Maybe start out by breathing deeply.  And relax - the blood can't get to the brain with those tight shoulders and neck muscles.  As you spend more time in silence, your mind will take over.   Just follow it to see where it leads.

 

Even with tiny bits of silence here and there, your stress level will decrease (noise of any kind raises the blood pressure), your concentration will increase and your creativity will blossom.  It may take a while but you will see a difference in your life.

 

Silence is golden.  Shhhhh.

© 2017 – Cheryl Fillion

 

It’s Football Season!!

It has been a crazy year with sports during this pandemic.  Here in the US, we have hockey, basketball and baseball all being played in September.  Those are winter and spring sports.  Our preseason of football was cancelled.  And in many stadiums sports are being  played with no fans in the stands.  What has happened to our sports?  But it is autumn and that is football season. And I intend to enjoy every gane.

 

Anyone who is a fan has been counting down the days since the Superbowl game.  For me it means getting out my favorite team’s glass and cup to use on game day.  (I am a Green bay Packer fan. Green Bay, Wisconsin is my family’s hometown.)

 

 I have a set of cookie cutters which included a helmet and football shape (there are other sports shape cutters and the ideas here can be used for other sports).  Now I didn’t buy these cutters for cookies; I bought them for needle felting (See my blog post “Needle Felting in a CookieCutter”).  But I began to wonder what other things the cutters could be used for.  

 

So here are ten ways to use the football and helmet cookie cutters (but any shape and any occasion will work here).

 

1- Use the shape to needlefelt an ornament or press the cookie cutter into clay for an ornament.

 

2- Trace the shape onto a blank card and decorate it for an invitation to your football watching party.

 

3- Trace the shape onto a blank card but leave the shape plain.  Tell your guests they have to bring the card colored or decorated to the party and a prize will be given to the best card.

 

4- String yarn or a chain through the cookie cutter and wear it as a necklace.

 

5- Having coloring sheets with the shapes on it for the children or adults to color if the game gets boring or your team is losing.

 

6- Use the cutter as a template for appliqué, embroidery or coloring on fabric.  (See blog post “CookieCutters are just for Cookies” and “Colored Pencils on Fabric”).

 

7- Use the cutters to create different shaped deli meats or cheese for your food table

 

8-Tic Tac Toe game – Create a 9 patch ( a 3 x 3 square grid) with the squares big enough for the cookie cutter shape.  Pick 2 shapes and make five of each.  You can use paper, card stock, felt, or fabric.  You can also use one shape like the helmet and make 5 from 2 different colors.  Use the shapes as you would Xs and Os in a tic tac toe game but instead of marking a paper, you place the shapes on the squares.

 

9- Use them as napkin holders.  If you have just a couple of sports related cookie cutters, add stars, circles, hearts, fall leaves, whatever might be appropriate or fun.  (If the weather is still warm or even if it isn’t, try a snowman).

 

10- Oh, yeah, and make cookies with the cutters.

Remember what I said in an earlier blog: cookie cutters aren’t just for cookies.  So go have some fun with football or any cookie cutters.

 

©2017, 2020 Cheryl Fillion

A Little About Color

When I take a quilt class, I don’t always buy the kit that comes with the class. The kit is often made up of the same colors and fabric that the instructor uses for her sample. I like using the fabric I have in my stash. What surprises me is the reaction of the other students in the class when they see me using other fabric and colors. They always want to know how I chose the items I did. I usually answer with the truth, I just take the picture of the item we are sewing and match it to the fabric I already have. And at other times, I tell them I just choose the colors I like.

For some people choosing colors is really difficult. They are always so afraid of matching the wrong colors. But really there are no wrong color matches. All the colors go together with every other color. Just look at nature. Every color you can imagine is in nature and often right next to each other. But some quilters and artists think that certain colors must go together.

  But when we look at a color wheel, we see that any color can go with any other color. What a lot of people call color theory, starts with the primary colors which are blue, red and yellow. These are the colors that all other colors come from in certain combinations.

If you take red and yellow and mix them together you get orange. Blue and red combined produce purple and yellow and blue make green. These three colors (orange, purple and green) are secondary colors. Now this is often when some people stray. To some quilters there are just some colors you shouldn’t use like orange. Yeah you could use a burnt orange in an autumn quilt or a peachy orange in a baby quilt but you just don’t use the orange that was in your box of crayons as a child. Why? You will be told it just doesn’t go together with anything.

But actually it does. Orange and a lot of other colors go together just fine. This is due to what is called complementary colors. These are colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. Probably the most popular complementary colors are red and greem (popular due to the Christmas holiday). Now if we look at the orange I mentioned, it is opposite blue on the color wheel. The last complementary colors on our little color wheel is purple and yellow.

Now I don’t use these complementary colors in equal amounts. I often use just a little of one color which actually makes it stand out. One quilt I made was purple with just a little squares of yellow. There wasn’t a lot of it but you noticed the yellow because it just appeared every so often over the surface of the quilt.

For me the true rule of color is if you like it, use it. If you like purple and orange even though they are not truly complementary colors, use it. (If you think about it there are more purple and orange Halloween fabrics showing up on fabric shelves in the Fall.) If you like it, it will look good to you and who cares what others say.

  ©2020 Cheryl Fillion