Tag: Creative

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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.