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Creativity and Perseverence

My youngest son started drawing one day. I do not know what prompted him to do so, but I was quite impressed with his first drawing which was of a tree with a broken sword.

 

He really enjoyed drawing and started to do some more pictures, using only his   pencils and whatever paper he could get a hold of (nothing was off limits, this included his school assignments).  I started to purchase items for him to use for drawing (paper, pencils, etc.) as gifts for birthdays and Christmas.  He has gradually improved, and I have quite a collection of drawings hanging up around my house.

 

My favourite drawing he has done so far, is of a dragon swooping down towards its nest. He has added some wonderful details, dimension and the shading is well done. I am impressed that without any formal training, he has improved greatly in a relatively short period of time.  I really look forward to what else he will produce in the future and see how much he has grown in learning how to draw.

 

Why do I share this with you? To encourage you! Often, especially when we start something new, we get discouraged and want to quit without seeing our potential.  It takes time, perseverance, patience, practice and grace to improve in whatever skill we choose to work on. I think one of the best things we can do for ourselves is keep the first items we have created and look at them later in the journey of our creativity to see the improvements we have made and be encouraged by it.

 

The first few items I quilted, I wanted to toss as they were not great, in fact, they were horrible (in my opinion) and I was discouraged.  I am so glad I did not get rid of them because I can see how much I have improved.  Also, when people have asked me to help them learn to quilt, I use these items to show where I was in my creative journey and how over time, it has gotten better.

 

I look forward to seeing my son’s creative journey in drawing over the next several years. He has a lot of potential and I hope he keeps expanding on his talent.   I wonder what he will draw next?

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Creativity, It’s In You

Growing up, I did not feel like I was creative AT ALL.  I sucked at painting, drawing, sewing, woodworking, writing, and the list could go on…  I always admired others creativity and was somewhat jealous that I didn’t have the same gifting.   I believed that you predominantly use either the left or right side of the brain, wherein the left side of the brain is logical, methodical and analytical, whereas the right side of the brain is creative and artistic.  Since I was good at math and science, I thought, well, I guess creativity is out of the picture for me.  Thank God this belief was WRONG!!!

A couple of years after I went through leukemia, I went to Elmira, Ontario for a day trip.  While there, I was in one of the stores where on display was beautiful Mennonite Quilts. I fell in love with them and wanted to buy one (a queen-sized quilt).  The problem was, I didn’t have the money to purchase one (they were around $2,000-$3,000).  I decided right there I would learn how to quilt.

 

So, I went to the book store, bought the book “Quilting for Dummies” by Cheryl Fall, read the whole book and bought some fabric and kits.  The first few quilts were table runners I made from kits and they were relatively simple. I was quite proud of them, and in fact and gave them away as gifts to family.

At some point, I decided I wanted to make my Mom and my Dad each a Memory Quilt. I thought long and hard about what  I would do for each of them.  My Mom loves to read her Bible in the mornings and she and had been going through a difficult time over the past several years. So I decided to purchase an Embroidery/Sewing Machine. I embroidered several verses from Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 on the border area.  Within the quilt, I also placed pictures of family members that I had printed  onto “Printable fabric”.

My Dad loves music and plays the saxophone, clarinet and flute.  So, his quilt included music notes with the faces of his family members used as the notes, as well I used several blocks that had meaning to them that I felt represented my Dad.

This was the first time I had made a quilt with no pattern. I knew the quilts were going to be lap quilts, so I had a basic size in mind and used colours that would compliment their home.  There were points where I had run out of a fabric I was using and could not get more of said fabric, so I used creative ways to incorporate a new fabric into the quilts. This was the first time I felt, well, creative.

I hope my experience will encourage you!  If you feel you are not creative, don’t believe it.  All of us have creativity within us. It’s a matter of reflecting on what you love and thinking about how you can express it creatively.  Look around you, creativity is everywhere from nature to man-made buildings. Read books on things you think are interesting.  Take a class, there are plenty online.  Just do something and explore your creative side.  The process may seem difficult at first, but one day, you will look back, see how far you have come and be quite proud of what you have created.

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Photography? Me?

When I first started crafting, I did not take pictures of my completed projects. I didn’t feel it was that important at the time, however, looking back, I regret that decision.  After having several friends and family tell me to start documenting my projects, I started to take pictures using my point and shoot camera.  One day, my camera stopped working, well actually, the shutter would not open and because it was an old camera, I decided a new camera was in order. It was close enough to Christmas, so I asked my husband to get me a camera for Christmas.  What I expected? Another point and shoot! What I got? A Canon T5i…not a point and shoot camera. I suddenly had to learn how to use a camera that you get to make the decisions about what lens to use, and new terms like: exposure, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc.  Fortunately, with the camera came a beginner’s course on using it, so I wasn’t completely in the dark.

The beginner’s course was great as I learned the basic capabilities of the camera, and I was happy with knowing that, however, as time went on, I wanted my pictures to look, well, like the operator knew what she was doing ?.  So, I purchased a course online on photography and started to learn about the ‘rule of thirds’, how to make the fore or back ground blur, when to use a flash and when to not, outdoor versus indoor shots.  Wow, there is so much to learn and so little time.

As I reflect on my photography skills, I have seen an improvement, which really is a motivator to me as I want to learn and know more about photography.  Am I planning on doing this professionally? Nope. But I would like to know enough to take a lot of my own pictures of family, friends, pets, nature, landscape, crafts, etc. and display them. I especially love candid shots.  I am currently working towards getting candid shots of all my kids to display in my Family Room.  Difficulty is getting them to go with me somewhere to get pictures, but I will persevere and hopefully soon, I will be able to share them with you.

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Perfection? Ha, ha, Just Kidding…

If you have visited the home page of Heart · Love · Giving (https://heartlovegiving.com/), you will know that I love learning, and crafting.  This past Christmas, I learned about making various items with pine cones (thanks to Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.ca/)), I had an army of ideas to work with).  It was a new experience for me to work with a hot glue gun.  My fingers were numb from the number of times I touched the hot glue (yeah, I knew better), and over time, I became more adept at the glue gun and hey, the crafts I completed, though not anywhere near perfect, still looked pretty good.  In a year from now, I won’t even remember the ‘imperfections’.

That has been part of my struggle with crafts…perfection. If I deem something I make to be ‘imperfect’, I only focus on what is not right, versus looking at the craft as a whole.  Why do I do that? I really don’t know.  It will often be a few months/years later I will look at said craft and think, “hey, that looks pretty good!” I believe this happens because the time and distance help me forget where the imperfections lie and stop focusing on them.

I have met many people who start something new, and they get so down on themselves about how it’s not perfect or they can’t make it look better or they are not creative, or they don’t have the skills.     Expectations are often way higher then realities, especially when we begin something new.  And, in my case, trying to do something new that is really for an intermediate to advanced skilled person is probably not the best way to go.

About two years after I started to quilt, a friend was getting married and they absolutely loved the double wedding ring quilt style.  I knew the couple’s favourite colours and started to work on it.  Well, let me just say, I was ready to give up quilting! It was a King-sized quilt and I was learning how to sew curved and Y seams (never done that before) and had a short time to get this quilt completed.  After I finished, I swore I will NEVER AGAIN do another Double Wedding Ring quilt.

I will admit, it’s been 12 years since I started quilting, and I have been thinking about making another one, but I have progressed in my skills of quilting and have many places/websites I can glean information from (you know, little hints or short cuts that will make life much easier).

So, what is my point in all of this? Be gracious with yourself!  (Yes, I am still learning to do that too).  Start easy and advance over time.  Will your first attempts be perfect? Nope!  Will you want to give up? Yep!  Eventually though, as you learn and develop your skills, you will look back at the ‘imperfections’ and see them as a part of the journey of learning.  Heck, you may not even see them at all!    Part of learning includes stories of difficulties and triumphs. Sharing your experience will help others too, so it is never a wasted moment.

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Heart Gifts

Several years ago, a friend of mine was diagnosed with Melanoma.  When she told me, we hugged each other and cried together.  I immediately set to work to create a quilt for her. It was my way of tangibly doing something.  I gave her the blanket and was honoured with her words of thanks.  She posted to her own blog the following message…

Heart Gifts

I was an older teenager, perhaps even a young adult when I first read about the concept of “heart gifts.” A heart gift is just what it says – a gift of the heart. It can be anything at all. If you’ve had contact with children, you’ve likely received many a heart gift, be that a picture, even if you can’t make out what it is (so…tell me about your drawing? – safest way to approach the “what is this?” question) or  being honoured with a treasured doll or possession. A heart gift can be anything that someone gives you with you in mind – it might be bought or it might be made. The ones with the most meaning are made or written. One Christmas my family didn’t have much in the way of money so I decided to write out “heart gifts” for my parents and brother. It was quite an eye opener for me to find things to say to each person – I believe I wrote about what I could do for them as a heart gift – doing my brother’s chores for a month, taking out the garbage for my father, doing my mother’s household chores for a month. It was definitely a gift because it involved my putting out energy and being committed to the “gift” for the entire time frame allotted. No backing out, no defaulting to another time. If you give a “heart gift” you have to give it your all.

John and I have been given many “heart gifts” these past few weeks as friends have dropped off food, sent cards of encouragement, phoned me regularly, sent small gifts. They have all meant so much to me.

I received a beautiful “heart gift” yesterday. My friend Jodi made me the most beautiful rag quilt. She has struggled with her own health issues over the past several years so she knows what it’s like. This quilt is special in so many ways. First, it’s a rag quilt – something Jodi and I have talked about as I want to learn how to make one. Secondly, it’s a prayer quilt – certain squares have the praying hands embroidered on them (I love that symbol) – a reminder that prayer is woven throughout my journey. Thirdly (is that even a word???) – Jodi has chosen beautiful earthy colours for this quilt – greens, rusts, golden yellows, browns, creams and a forest scene that is so peaceful to look at – she knows what colours are soothing for me. This is indeed a “heart gift” – it has taken her some time to finish this for me and it reflects the things that I love about nature.

Thank you so much Jodi – this Ragged Prayer quilt will accompany me for the remainder of my hospital treatment visits and will be a constant reminder of your loving heart.

“As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the person” Proverbs 27:19

 

Sadly, on March 31, 2017, my friend, Kathryn Pepper, lost her battle with cancer.  It was her words that pushed me towards starting this website and making lap quilts for other friends or acquaintances that have been diagnosed with cancer.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of the quilt I made her, but I have attached an image of the praying hands that I used on her quilt.

I miss Kathryn and I thank God I had the privilege of knowing her and being part of her life and journey for a time and look forward to seeing her again one day.