Creativity is everywhere

We had the most amazing day yesterday at Sit n Sew. Seriously - there's NOTHING like having the day to sew with friends. I'm very blessed to have the space to share with my friends and even more blessed to have friends to sew with. Thanks to everyone who shares in the Sit n Sew days.

Now, I'm going to make you wait one more day to see what we worked on. Don't worry - I won't forget, the pictures are edited and waiting to be uploaded - tomorrow.

Today, I have a disturbing story to share with you - don't worry - it's not all that bad. But first I've become my MOTHER! Oh no!!!!!

So after I couldn't find a left-hand red mitten, I decided that I should take a peek in the mitten box in the hall closet to see what I could find.

OH MY GOD - I got a huge chuckle when I found this crinkled note that was obviously left for M. She did have a habit of stealing my stuff if she couldn't find her own. Likely because it was upstairs in her room or lost or in her car. Anyway - this was good for a chuckle. Oh - I hope I threw that away.

A note to the mitten thief in our house

I found a "slightly" worn out pair of gloves. Notice that it's a matching pair of gloves. Of course - who would want to steal such a hot mess. I used these for walking the dogs. Let's just say that they are now in the garbage. My mother would have kept them!

A pair of gloves - GONE!!!

Then surprise - surprise. I found FIVE single gloves. Seriously? Yep - there were five of them. Two were nice black gloves - just the left hand of each. I guess I could "pair" them with the two right-handed red mittens I have! Just kidding - I wouldn't do that.

What's disturbing is that there's a GOOD glove (right-handed) that I thought belonged to DH for cold weather golf. Nope - he says it's not his. Could it be that I bought a pair of cold weather cycling gloves? Probably - well - where's the other one???? 

Five ODD gloves

And what else was in the basket? There are SEVEN brand new pairs of mittens/gloves. SEVEN!!  OK - I have a problem, to say the least. And I found my black leather gloves. A wee bit caked with mud that was obviously from dog walking last spring. But I love to drive in the winter with leather gloves rather than mittens so I'm glad I found those. And yes - there's a left and a right. A matching left and right!

My basket of gloves and hats

And I found a LEFT red mitten. Yeah - now I have a pair and one spare! However, the next morning when I went to take a picture - do you think I could find that mitten? I swear that it was real, but I couldn't for the life of me find it. Those mittens are nice by the way as they are fleece lined which makes them very warm.

I was getting ready to take the girls for their walk and guess what I found in the living room. The mitten THIEF!!!  (I have a new mitten thief to worry about) Not only had she stolen the mitten, but she had also taken a hat! She must have pilfered those off the table? I can't imagine I left them on the floor. And you can see the guilty party in the picture below.

My missing red mitten

She doesn't chew them or damage them in any way. She just takes them to this spot and leaves them. I should have looked there the moment I knew it was missing.

Now here's the disturbing part of my blog post. I was in Chapters the other day. I had a few minutes to kill. Normally I only look in the magazine section, but I thought I'd browse the craft section. There were almost zero books on quilting. They just don't stock them anymore - people don't buy their quilt books at Chapters. There were loads of books on knitting and paper crafts.

As I was walking to the craft section, I noticed a new section (new to me) called Creativity. Hmm - I like creativity so I popped over to have a look. Oh boy!  This is a serious problem.

An entire section of books on Creativity at Chapters

Books like this .....................

Art will save your life!

 And this....................

The creativity challenge

The section was also filled with books on mediation, how to relax and let your inner spirit out. I took a ton more pictures, but I think you get the point.

Now, why is this an issue? Why do we need a whole section on how to release our creativity? That's something that should be happening from the moment you're born. Give your kid a cardboard box - let them create ......................   a house, a castle, a car.  Give your kids some crayons and BLANK paper - let them draw. What will they draw? Whatever they want. Give your kids some old clothes and let them play dress up and become whoever they want to be.

Society is so focused today - there are custom playhouses, iPads to play with, and costumes of known characters. Even LEGO  - you don't just buy LEGO anymore - you buy a SPECIFIC set or item that someone ELSE created. You get the picture. 

We shouldn't be learning how to be creative in our adult life - that's something that we are born with and parents/teachers should allow that to be part of everyday life.

And the meditation thing? It's not a bad thing at all. But seriously - society is in a bad way when people have ZERO time to just relax. Don't worry - I take loads of time for myself - I read a LOT and I've been known to just nap when I'm tired. I sometimes feel guilty if I've got a huge commitment, but not much. And a clean house? Not in my house.

I just think it's sad that we don't allow our children and ourselves to just play. I know many quilting friends who don't take the time to play. They just want to make stuff because there's a deadline. Make samples, make mistakes - that's how you learn. That's how I've been learning for the past 20 years and I'm still learning! I've said it before and will say it again  - the day I stop learning is the day that I'll die. That's my Dad's philosophy and I'm sticking to that.

I remember being asked in an interview for a computer sales job - how creative was I? That question surprised me as I had always equated creativity with making things. But creativity is actually problem-solving. You have a blank piece of paper and crayons - what are you going to do? That's a problem to solve. You are baking cookies late at night and realize you have no vanilla? How are you going to get more vanilla?  That really happened and we found a restaurant that gave us some vanilla! You are selling someone a computer (a really big computer for their database) and some of the cables don't arrive with the order. What do you do? That also happened to me and I managed to scrounge the cables from somewhere until the real ones arrived. All of those are examples of creativity!

The more you exercise the creative part of your brain, the better it works. Mine is often kicked into high gear and I'm solving problems for things that aren't really problems. That's a good problem to have! The other thing that gets me is the sterile house. How can you be creative in a sterile house? You can't! I'd be dead within a couple of weeks of living in a sterile house. I need stuff around me to keep me stimulated! Well - I probably don't, but who wants to live in a sterile house? Not me!

So if you're a grandparent or a parent, PUT those electronic toys away for the grandchildren/children. Get them a box of crayons and some blank paper. What can you draw together? In the car? Create games to play to keep them entertained or even easier - TALK TO THEM. Here's something I saw at the hardware store the other day and I want one.

Now, what could you do with that on fabric?????  Oh yes - I want one. Santa????

As for what did I learn yesterday? I'm finally finishing up the book - Quilter's Academy - Vol 1 by Harriet and Carrie Hargrave. 

I learned a new trick to do before putting the borders on. Hmm - I never thought of that before. This is a book for BEGINNER quilters and yet even myself after 20 years of quilting - I learned something. If you have this book - read Class 180 near the back of the book. I'm not in total agreement with everything they say, but some interesting tips on squaring up your quilt before you put the borders on. I've got to try that. I guess I'm going to have to get the Vol 2. If you're new to quilting, this book really helps you figure out how to calculate yardage (very important), good piecing and pressing habits - and there was something else that I learned from the book. It was worth the read.

Speaking of creativity. I taught a class on Improv quilting a couple of weeks back. Here's another piece that one of the students finished. It's amazing - she found a very creative way to use those cut-off motifs. They were cut because of how they were positioned on the yardage - I should say the motifs were part of running yardage, not a panel and you'll always get some images that are cut off. Then she used the black for bars and then found a totally unrelated but totally matching fabric to tone down the black bars. The nice little bit of organza is a super touch!!!  I love it and I love when students send me pictures of what they finish!

Trixi's finished Improv piece

Now that I've babbled on, I'd better get myself organized. Oh - one more thing. In that Creativity section, there were loads of books on writing. Apparently writing every day is CREATIVE!  Oh my god - who knew. Well, I did, but I don't think about it. But writing is supposed to be therapeutic. It's an outlet. I can't write in a physical journal - my hand just couldn't take it, but writing on the computer - it's great. And I know that M writes in a journal every day and loves it! That's why our parents had diaries!!!  Try it sometime. Just write - there are loads of workbooks out there (if you need help) to write. Write a story about a missing red mitten, write a story about the frost on the windowpane. Write a story (or a list) of your quilt projects, hopes, dreams, etc. There are lots of things to write about and it's not for anyone else to see - just write for the sake of writing. It'll awaken your inner spirit!!!

I could go on and on, but I won't but I'll say one last thing! I was listening to Roger Ashby on CHUM-FM this morning. He's been in the radio business for 50 years and as a young boy at home, his Dad built him a "studio" in the basement of their home. From an early age, he knew what he wanted to do. He said how lucky he is that every day for 50 years he went to work at a job that he wanted to do and loved. How many people go to work every day just because. That's sad! We've got to figure out a way to change that. We need to go to work and be inspired, be inspiring and love what we do. I love my job too much!!!!

Now I'm gone.

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!