Time Together

At our quilt show, we have what we call the Country Store.  Our members donate books, patterns, fabric, anything sewing or craft related for the guild to sell. It is a big money maker for our group and anything left over is donated to various charities like Goodwill.  Since we have not had a quilt show in 2 years due to the pandemic, we decided to just have the Country Store sale to help with our budget.

 We sold a lot (and I will admit the guild now has some of my money) but the best part for me was just getting to visit.  You know at the Quilt Guild meetings everyone is busy with the jobs they have and there isn’t much time to just visit with each other.  But this weekend we could.  I learned about grandkids, and vacations, health status and what everyone was working on.  Looking at the books and fabric with some members, I learned what they liked and didn’t like.  

Some of us who have been in the guild for a while entertained newer members with stories about past members (some who have gone to the great quilting guild in the sky) and programs that the guild had that were so wonderful and some that definitely were not.   I guarantee you there was lots of laughter during the weekend. 

I wasn’t assigned any particular job.  I am one of those volunteers who will just show up and say “Put me to work”.  I could have gone home at any time but I stayed.  For me it was just as important to be with the people there as to do the work needed.  And after these past months of very little contact with others, it was definitely what my soul needed.

This is what we need to make more room for: just time together with others.  Especially if you are like me and live alone.  I made some new friends with the members I didn’t know very well and definitely strengthen the friendships I already had.

So if you belong to a group make sure you plan events that will just allow you to visit.  Do a luncheon or a pot luck or have a work day.  I love getting together with the guild members for an afternoon of sewing on our own projects.   Not only is it important to strengthen the fellowship of the group, but you learn what skills people have or are interested in learning.  This is great for program ideas and for possibly a committee or leadership role in the group. And I don’t know a group who doesn’t need more ideas and leaders.

©2021  Cheryl Fillion

Needle Felted Pumpkin

 I am beginning to see pumpkins at the grocery and am also working on some needle felted pumpkins so I thought I would repost this earlier blog.    Needle felted pumpkins  are easy, fun and make great hostess gifts if you are invited somewhere for Thanksgiving.

 When I am doing a 3 dimensional item, I will use a ‘core’ batting to form the shape of the item and then add the colored roving or batting on the outside.  Core batting can be a cleaned undyed wool or even a polyester batting (just like you would use to stuff a pillow) .  You don’t want to us your colorful batting or roving on the inside of the figure where it can’t be seen. 

Once you have the core batting, start felting it into the shape you want.  If you use a polyester batting you may have to use more than the wool batting and may have to felt longer to get the shape you want.  That’s OK because in most cases the polyester batting is cheaper.

 When you have the size and shape you want for your pumpkin, start felting in the colored batting.  The batting I am using in the picture is called a sculptured batting so it has bumps and nobs of wool that wasn’t combed smooth.  I like the look of it for the pumpkin.  Not all pumpkins are smooth in its shell.  Keep adding the colored roving or batting until your core sculpture is covered.

 

Once you have your shaped covered with the colored batting, pick one side and over felt it.  That means keep needle felting the area until it is flat so you have a base to set it on. You don’t want your pumpkin rolling around.

One the opposite side of that base, needle felt a small indentation.  This will be where your stem will go.

 Now take some green batting; you don’t need much and started felting a stem . I usually try to make it a tiny cigar shape.  Use whatever colored green you would like as your stem.  I like the look of a dark green although an olive green would look just as nice. 

Once you have the size and shape of your stem, needle felt it into the pumpkin.  Place the stem in the indentation and felt through the stem at the base and into the pumpkin.  Make sure you put your needle all the way through to the pumpkin or the stem won’t attach.

 Now most pumpkins have indentations along the outside.  To create those, start needling in a line from the stem to the base and keep needling  that same line until you see the indentation form.  Do the same thing all around the pumpkin. I usually felt so there are eight indentations.     But you do what you would like (including no indentations.)

 Happy Pumpkin Season, everyone.

©2017, 2021  Cheryl Fillion

Beginnings

 I post this blog every September because it was the first blog I wrote and it is a nice reminder that if you want to do something, you need to just start. Happy 5^th Anniversary, Heartfully Cheryl blog.   

 I have come across two philosophers in my life who have the best advice ever for people exploring their creativity.  The first was a German poet and scientist by the name of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe who wrote "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." (That quote gives me goosebumps.)

 The second philosopher was my nephew, Alex, at the age of five who, when I asked him how we were to make a housecleaning robot he wanted to give his father for Christmas, very blunted told me that "You just do it, Auntie Cheryl." 

 Both wise men had a point.  If there is something you want to do, you will never know whether you can do it until you begin it.  Is there some creative technique you want to try but are afraid to?  Just dive in.

 Now it is okay to start at the shallow end (sorry, it is hot outside and water metaphors seem cooling to me somehow right now.).  Dip your toes in.  Paint a page of just one color. One color can express any emotion. Write one line to start a poem.  One line can say a lot (Alex had a lot to say with his one line and it has stuck with me for 28 years.)  Sing one note.  A continuous note can be very relaxing to the diaphragm.

Just begin it. Don't jump from the high dive. Don't plan a gallery show yet.  Don't figure out your office at the Library of Congress for when you are considered the next Poet Laureate.  And the Grammy nominations are already made for this year.  So relax.  All you are doing is beginning.

 And beginnings are wonderful.  There is mystery in them - you aren't quite sure what will happen next.   And there is an adventure in them - traveling to a new area of your heart.   And the excitement of them - you actually did whatever it is you were wanting to begin.

 You have had beginnings all of your life.  You survived all of those  - school, college, work, marriage, family.  You can survive this one.  But you have to just begin. As Alex said, "You just do it, Auntie Cheryl."  Who can argue with that?

 © 2016, 2021– Cheryl Fillion