A Doll Festival

A couple of years ago I posted a number of blogs on fun holidays or festivals here in the U.S, and around the world.  The one I really enjoyed, as a doll maker, is the Doll’s Festival in Japan.  I am in need for some fun right now so I thought I would repost it again. I might even make a doll on that day.

 

In Japan on March 3^rd, the Hina Matsuri, Doll’s Festival, is celebrated.  This is a day to pray for a young girl’s growth and happiness.  On this day girls host a party of tea and poetry for their friends and they serve little pink and green diamond shaped mochi (rice) cakes.

 

At the party is a display of dolls.  These aren’t dolls that the girls play with everyday but instead heirlooms that have been passed down for generations.  The display is a tier of shelves with dolls representing the members of the imperial court in ancient court costumes as well as pieces of furniture, small meal dishes and other things.

 

This used to be one occasion when little girls had their own parties.  The set was brought out for the day and quickly put away after March 3^rd.  (It was thought that if it was not put away immediately the girl would have trouble marrying.)

 

No one really knows where the origin of this holiday came from but it is thought that it actually started with the Shinto religion.  On March 3^rd a folded paper doll resembling a kimono known as a Kata Shiro would be cast into water and with it the user’s sins, illness and bad luck.

 

 I like the idea of a day to pray for young girls (there is a similar day for boys in May) but what really intrigues me is the doll display.  I have one baby doll of my mother’s and much of her miniature doll furniture.  I actually have some of the pieces displayed on furniture in my living room.  The furniture while made of plastic is very well made.  My favorite piece is a sewing machine which folds down into a cabinet just like the old Singer sewing machines did.  And when you turn the knob on the side of the machine, the little “needle” goes up and down.

 

Maybe if there is a special little girl in your life, you could tell her about the Doll Festival and find a way to display her dolls or toys on March 3rd.  The dolls and toys might not have the significance of an imperial court but it might show her that her possessions are just as important as she is.

 

©2018, 2021- Cheryl E. Fillion

 

 

Let it Snow, Let it snow, Let it Stop

As many of you know, if you have read my blog for a while, I live in Texas.  And for most of the time I love it but not this week.  We have had snow.

 

This is not unusual for Texas.  We get a little snow about once a year and usually in January and February.  But let me emphasize it is a LITTLE snow.  Maybe an inch or two and usually it last for a couple of days and then it melts as the temperature gets back to normal.

 

But this year the below freezing temperatures have gone on for a week with a couple of more days of this still to go.  Homes, businesses and cities in the south aren’t built for this.  Our homes are not insulated as well as those up north.  In the city I live in which has about 100,000 people we have one snow plow and that is usually at the airport (it has been visiting the city this week).

 

Even if the streets weren’t plowed, you can drive on snow (if you go slowly) because the snow can give your car some traction.  But what it does here (and usually does for those 1 or 2 days of winter) is ice up.  We get rain or sleet that covers the road which freezes asnd makes it difficult to drive.  This year we first had ice, then snow, then ice and then snow with some areas getting more freezing rain.  What do you do, you stay home. 

 

But to add to the discomfort many people in our state are without power.  There had been an increase of usage of electricity that the power companies can’t keep up so it either goes off altogether or you have rolling power outages.  That means some neighborhood will have power for an hour or so while others don’t and then the reverse happens, those with power lose it and those with out  get it. 

 

Now if your house isn’t insulated properly, you might also lose water.  Either pipes freeze (as with me) or as in the case of my city the increase usage of water created a shortage of water (we had one water facility lose power which meant the water couldn’t be filtered or pumped out to customers.)

 

So what do you do with all this?  You make do.  I know my pipes freeze so I collected water to drink.  I melted snow to flush the toilet (in that case I am happy to have had snow to melt).  Some people without power kept their food in coolers outside.  It was colder there than in their refrigerator.

 

I saw one story on the news where a family put up a tent on a mattress on the floor in their house, put blankets on top of the tent and slept together in the tent. The blankets and their own body heat kept them warm. They made do.

 

I heard other stories of businesses with power letting people come in to get out of the cold.  Churches open up their halls to help people get warm.  And restaurants helped with meals at these places.

 

Now I am not writing this to complain (well, maybe a little), what I realized through all this was to be grateful for what I have.  I am grateful that I have had power during all this.  Grateful that I had food in the refrigerator (and had bought the ingredients for soup.)  I am grateful, as I mentioned above, to have snow to melt for the toilet. 

 

And that is what is important in any situation, gratitude.  Be grateful for what you have in any situation..  So if anyone out there reading this has power, heat and water, be grateful that you do, because some folks in Texas (and to be fair, other states in the south as well) don’t.  Be grateful and maybe send some warm loving prayers our way.  We can use all the warmth we can get.

 

©2021 Cheryl Fillion

 

The Oval Yoyo

Usually when you see a fabric yoyo, it is a circle, but you can also make oval yoyos.  And you don’t need a store bought oval making tool to do it. 

 

 

The only difference between a round and an oval yoyo is the shape.  Everything else is the same.  To figure out the size fabric to cut, double the size of the finished yoyo.  Make sure you have the width and the length of the oval and then add ½ inch for a seam allowance.

 

 

You sew the oval the same way as the round.  I usually start on the long side of the oval. To me it makes a smoother ending than on one of the rounded ends.  Don’t make your stitches too small (Mine are usually about a ¼ of an inch) or the hole will be bigger.

 

 

 

One other tip when sewing them together is to sew them in the same direction.  So sew long edge with long edges and short ends with short ends.  I found it to hard to keep the yoyos flat and stabilized when I tried to sew them long to short end (in other words alternating the direction of the yoyos).

 

  All in one direction

 

   In alternating direction

 

 

I use my oval yoyos more for appliqué.  They are great for petals of flowers.

 

 

Recently I used them for an initial pillow.  I liked the way they looked compared to the circle yoyos.

 

 

 

If you want a little variety in your yoyos, try an oval yoyo.  They can be just as fun as the circle yoyos. 

 

 

©2021 Cheryl E. Fillion 

Yoyos for the Visually Impaired

If you have read my blog before, you k now I like working with fabric yoyos.  To me they are fun to make and interesting to look at but they are also interesting to feel.  Since they have some texture to them, they are good to rub fingers over and great when making something for a loved one who is visually impaired.

 

To do this you have to emphasize the individual yoyos.  This means you can’t sew the yoyos together as you with a little table matt or an ornament.  How I do this is by appliquéing the individual yoyo on to a piece of fabric.

 

 

 

Here I did it with this heart.  I could have sewn the yoyos together in the heart design but that would have made it very difficult to sew down the yoyos that were in the middle of the heart.  Plus I think a little bit of space between them like this lets you see and feel the individual yoyos better. 

 

So I arranged the yoyos to form the heart on the fabric and then with a fabric glue stick (or you could even use a drop of white glue) I attached them to the fabric.  You want to have them glued down because in appliquéing the yoyos you will be manipulating the fabric a lot. I tried pins but with so many little yoyos, it distorted the base fabric too much (and with so many and so close together, I kept pricking myself with the pins.).  Now I will admit that using the glue stick doesn’t allow for a permanent hold of the yoyos but I found if they fell off it was just one or two at a time and you can easily put them back in place.

 

Usually when I appliqué, I match my thread to the color of the item being appliquéd.  But with the yoyos, I matched the thread to the base fabric.   Since there are layers to the yoyos, it was easy for me to hide the stitches under the yoyo, getting my needle to grab on to the flat side of the yoyo.  Using one color thread also made it easier to go from one yoyo to the next. 

 

One other tip with appliquéing yoyos is that you can combine different size yoyos together.  When sewing a yoyo edge to edge it is better to use the same size yoyo but with appliquéing them you can use different sizes.

 

                             

 

 

 

I also found it easier if I picked a pair of yoyos and sewed around them crossing the stitches in the middle of them (forming a 8 around them.  I used a different colored thread here so you could see the stitches.) You could even do this with more yoyos.  It helps lessen the number of times you have to stop, knot and cut the thread.

 

You can do all kinds of designs if the design is easy to feel. You want to use a basic shape not something intricate.   I have done initials with the yoyos and put them on a pillow (I usually use bigger yoyos when doing this.).  Pick a design that is recognizable if you were to use one color of yoyos.

 

You might want to give appliquéing your yoyos on to some fabric for a wall hanging or pillow.  It allows you to do a lot of different designs.

 

©2021 Cheryl E. Fillion