Creativity is not determined by a single gene but is a polygenic trait influenced by complex networks of hundreds of genes interacting with environment, with 20-50% of creative variance attributed to genetics and the remainder to environment, choices, and practice; everyone is born with creative potential, but fear of failure and self-doubt often suppress this trait, making creativity a skill that can be intentionally practiced, trained, and strengthened through exposure to diverse experiences, cognitive exploration, and overcoming perfectionism.
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Sew Chatty "Is There a Creative Gene” June 19 2026
Added:[music] Hello everybody. It's Stephen and Walter here for another episode of So Chatty.
And I hope you've been having a good week. And the weather's been nice. We've had rain. It's been cool. Uncommonly cool.
>> Yes. Actually, today's not too bad. It's 21.
>> 21. It's just that we expect it to be a little warmer. Yeah, >> because you know here in Canada we only get two days of summer and I think we've already had them. So yeah. Um so it's time to get out the galoses.
Not yet. Okay. So today we've got we're going to look at what makes creativity if we have a creative gene because I hear a lot of people talk about this you know that oh I just was born uh without any creative bone in my body and kind of thing and I'm wondering if there's some science for that. So, we're going to find out. But in the meantime, what have be we been working on? Well, how are you doing with the shirt?
>> I haven't got any further. I'll probably work on it maybe Sunday or something if I join Russ's.
>> Yes, Russ is having a sewing shenanigans for those of you on his mailing list.
That's this Sunday. Um, and I think he starts at about 8 or 8:30, something like that. I think it's at 8:30 he starts. Uh if you're not on his mailing list and you haven't got the announcement about it, then all you need to do is go to his latest vlog, which was yesterday, Thursday.
>> Yeah. Quilt Meets World, right?
>> Yeah. Quilt Meets World. And he'll have it in his show notes >> uh for that. So that's coming up on Sunday afternoon. Um >> it's a Zoom sew day, right?
>> Yeah, it's a Zoom Zoom sew day. So all are welcome. You work on whatever you want to work on. It's kind of like how I run my sew days and my pop-up so days, too.
>> Yeah, >> I think he's copying.
>> Yeah, I think so. He won't admit to that. Uh but anyways, no, it's always a good time. We have a good time at it. So that's on Sunday. Now, uh have you been doing anything in your freeotion quilting? No.
>> No, actually not. I need to start up with that again. It's just I I I still haven't.
>> Yeah. What's the excuse?
>> Uh there is no excuse.
>> That's right. There is no excuse. Get on with it.
>> I will.
>> Because soon I will have a quilt >> that needs to be quilted. that needs to be quilted.
>> Yeah. Okay. Sure.
>> Yeah. Soon, not tomorrow as I'm going to show you now. In fact, I'm going to show you what I have been working on, which is my Japan quilt. Now, you've seen over the week, I've shown different iterations of what I've been planning.
It is still very much a work in progress, but I think I've got a few of the elements nailed down now. And so here you will see some of the blocks. Um I decided to go with a star so I could have that open square in the center so I could feature something Japanese-like.
And you can see I'm doing two things here. I have got a fan uh applique which I quite like. I had to do some resizing of that graphic when I got it.
So each fan is using one of the different Japanese fabrics that I have in my collection. Um, and I am using the same fabric for the points in the stars wherever there's a fan, but I'm going to intersperse it with some uh >> sashiko, you know, sash sashico.
>> Sashiko. Yeah. I mean, it's going to be a hard word to say because it's said it same way as you spell it, like sasho.
But anyways, um, I have different designs for the center. So, right now I'm alternating the fans with the sashiko, but I do have some, and I haven't got them all yet because I kind of ordered them and they're kind of custo custom made, which I find very weird uh when you're ordering an embroidery file, but this is from someone who's on Etsy. Um, and I don't think she lives in this part of the world. Um because she has contacted me at like at 10:00 at night and through our conversations back and forth. I should ask her where is she. Um I think she's over, you know, possibly in Asia.
I don't know if she's actually Japanese or not. Her English is very very good.
Her written English anyways. So uh but anyway, she has these great designs.
Well, I have one of those designs. I have ordered a total of six of them. I'm waiting on the other five to arrive in my email box, but I'll show you. I'm having a little problem with this one design. Now, this is the design. It's called the Japanese lantern. And yeah, I really like it. I think it's a great great design. However, down here, I'm having a problem. And in this picture, you notice it looks like there's a little shadow there. Well, it's just not shadow. That's a bump. And that's a solid bump. There is a lot of thread going on top of thread in this section and it's pulling somehow uh these fabrics up and these stitches up. Now I have increased and I'll show you I've got a picture here of a little closer up. You can see it a little better here.
But you see what it's doing and I don't want that. I've tried to steam it out.
Nope. It will not flatten out. I've changed the stabilizers I'm using. How much stabilizer I'm using. The way that I'm putting the stabilizer in the hoop or under the hoop or wherever makes absolutely no difference. I even tried a bigger version of this to see if it had to do with the fact that this was a little bit smaller. Nope. It's It's because there's too much tension on these stitches that are going over top of it's going over two other rows of stitching in here. So, I have written to her and sent her these two pictures and said to her, you know, like, "What do you do if you've stitched these out before? Have you had this problem? Like, what are you using for stabilizer? How much of it or whatever?" I suspect she has never ever sewn out one of her designs.
And the weird thing about uh the way this lady works is these are digital downloads. Anytime I've ever ordered anything off an Etsy that says it's a digital download, especially in embroidery files, if as soon as the payment goes through, which is usually within minutes, it's available to me to download.
These aren't. And I questioned her about that. And I talked about this on Idiot Quilter last week, so I'm not going to go into detail about it anymore, but I questioned her about it. And it sounds like with each order she does the c she does the digitizing then which to me is not a very efficient way [clears throat] if you're running a business for doing this. I mean I would assume that you have these and I'm assuming these are her own design that she would have them on a drive somewhere after she's finished doing what she needs to do with them. And I would also assume she has test sewn them out. [clears throat] So I don't know how she operates. She seems very nice and she was very concerned that you know that I get what I asked for because she didn't want me to write a bad review. Um so I don't know. I'm I'm a little worried now. They are not that expensive either. This is the other thing that gets me. She's charging like they're $6.85 85 Canadian, but there's a line through the $6.85 and you get them for 50% off. So, $3 and something. These are fairly elaborate designs and I would think if she is designing them herself >> that the process of designing them, digitizing them must take her a long, long time. So, I would have expected to pay a lot more than that for them. So, I'm hoping the other ones that I have ordered, I don't have this problem with them. Now, what I am doing right now is I'm stitching this out again, but I'm going to skip this design that you see here, these little half, whatever they are, circles, >> yeah, >> moons and things, because this is where the point is. I've isolated. This is when it's doing these that it starts to do the pull and I get the bulge. So, my theory is skip that, go to the next bunch of stitching, which is not as dense on that, and I should be okay. And although I really like the use of that part of the design, um I can live without it if I have to and I may have to if I want to use this >> uh in my quilt. So my idea is the quilt's going to be made up of fans, sashiko, and embroidered uh parts in between. And as I said, I'm using each of my fabrics for the points. And in the case of the fans, the same one in the fan interior as well. So yeah, I think this is going to turn out quite quite nice. Now, the only thing I have to think about is there is a secondary pattern and it's a lot of negative space because when you start putting these together without sashing, then you're going to have this square here and you're going to have a rectangle here >> on each one that's all negative space.
Now, someone suggested to me on my sew day the other day, well, why not put something in that? Well, here's the problem. If that's a good idea, but in order to put something in those, I couldn't do it on the embroidery machine because they'd be too big to try and get them in there. I could do an applique.
>> Um, but I still have the same problem.
Problem being is >> why don't uh like you have well I don't know >> what I thought of removing this corner piece in each of these and putting in a different colored fabric but then you're not going to see the points.
>> Yeah, >> because these points depend upon >> I wouldn't worry too much about I mean like you're going to end up quilting.
>> Well, yeah, there'll be some design in it. So, we'll see. Um, I might try a little bit of just as like some strips of sashing and see, you know, what it looks like if I was put that in.
>> I'm not a big fan of sashing in quilts um because they break it up.
>> Um, like then you lose your secondary pattern, but in this case, maybe that's not a bad thing. I've toyed with the idea of making this into uh a grandmother's attic style, which you know, they're framed, but they look like they're receding a little bit, >> but I don't know if that would take away from the the Japanese effect.
>> So, I So, this is a work in progress still. We'll see. Right now, I'm just concentrating on making my blocks and then how I arrange all the blocks and do that, I will figure it out. Now, there's another possibility, too. I could do this whole thing on point, and that would give me an opportunity to have larger pieces of the Japanese fabric incorporated into this because there would be like trans.
>> Yeah, but then if you put it on point, your fan would go.
>> Well, that's the other problem. Yeah, I thought about that, too. Then everything goes cockeyed. So, >> yeah, I don't know. I would consider putting like a sashing in between, maybe a dark color or something.
>> Well, yeah, that's what I was thinking.
I have one that I I'm thinking of that would work >> or more of a a color that matches like an orangey or something or whatever.
>> Well, we'll see. It's a work in progress. That's Yeah, for now. Okay. Uh and speaking of other works in progress, we went this week into Ultimate Sewing and saw Donna, who teaches the Alaskan quilt class, and she said she'd show me a trick or two, and she did. I haven't tried the trick or two. And this is all in to to make sure that I don't cut off my points.
If it if this works, I think I'm going to have to start from scratch. I'm going to have to get all new fabric for it and the whole bit because I I'm not going to be able to use the fabric that I've already made or cut pieces for eight of the blocks. I've made five of the blocks and some of those blocks their points are going to get cut off. I know when I put them in and that >> bugs me. So, you know, I don't know yet.
It's still on hold because I'm still a little bit discouraged with that whole thing. But anyways, plus I'm working on the art east next month's coming up one more week. So, I got to start >> another one another black screw screw up the east.
>> Yeah, we have their customizations.
They're not screw-ups at the most. They're little oopsies. Um, and everybody loves a little oopsie. I strongly suggest you agree with that.
But anyways, where you might get oopsied. Okay, so yeah, that's all I have to show you there. So, uh, announcements. Sewing with me on Wednesdays. Yes. Um, links in the show notes below. You know the routine. On Monday, on Monday morning coffee with me. Um, I talk primarily about 3D printing in that one. a little bit about quilting and that, but uh bamboo, you know, that's what my printers are, had a big sale on, so I bought 26 boxes of filament.
Yeah. Then I had to figure out where I'm going to store it. Well, I've already figured that out, but I had to make a whole bunch of new racks, too, to accommodate it. So, I am well supplied, but it was a good price, so you know.
>> Yeah, right.
>> It was. You're lucky I didn't buy another machine. I thought about it, but I'm holding off.
>> Yeah. Can you make me give me a hard time if I want to buy a different TV or something?
>> No, you can buy a new TV if you want one, but you'll hem and haw about it until the cows come home anyways. And then one day I will hear these words. Um, I bought something.
And that means yes, it was something that was expensive and it's large and I'll know it's a TV. So, do we need a new TV? Not really.
>> No, not really.
>> Does he want a new TV? Yes, he does.
>> No. Yes, I do. But no, I don't I don't know >> why >> because what am I going to do with the old one then? So, and the old one still works fine. So, >> I don't know. Give it to my sister.
>> No, she won't take it.
>> I know. She took her last one.
>> Yeah. Well, I don't think they'll take it. And I don't want to give it to her.
>> Well, maybe maybe William and Taylor would like it.
>> Yeah, that's true. I don't know.
>> I don't know. I don't want to give it to them either.
>> Yeah, because they may not last.
>> No, that's the thing, you know. Want to make sure that that Well, never mind.
>> She might she might uh Anyway, >> anyways, we're not talking about that right now. That's a totally different story for another day if ever. Okay, so that was Monday morning coffee idiot quilter. I talked more about the Japanese quilt, but you saw it in other iterations of what I was playing around with. I know some of you are disappointed that I have decided to terminate the idea of doing paper piecing kimonas and that has upset several of you there. But what can I say? I don't enjoy doing the paper piecing. Why work on something you do not enjoy? Life's too short for that.
And also, it's my quilt. I can do whatever I want. Um, and on live last week, we talked about a very scary phenomena, or not phenomena, very scary organization in the United States called Turning Point, which if you've watched The Handmaid's Tale or read the book, oh, there's so many parallels. It isn't funny with that. So, if you didn't see that, you might want to check it out or at least go to Google and look up Turning Point because especially ladies, this is a group that's really going to put the woman's movement back a hundred years if if it catches on and it seems to have a very strong following, especially the Republican states. So, yeah. Um, okay.
And so, next week, well, I don't know.
I'm doing next week. This Sunday we are we have Stephen and Walter live. But the following week, not this week, the following week, we will not be doing a Stephen Walter live. And we'll talk about that on this week's live and why that is.
Okay. So, talk about the creative gene.
And uh you know, people always I hear people say this all the time. Oh, I wish I could do that, but I'm just not that creative. Um, or whatever. And I will always say to people, no, anybody, everybody has a creative aspect of their life. Maybe you can't do fine art. Like, I can't paint, but I can quilt.
>> Mind you, you've never really tried to paint. Well, >> and if you do try like the thing is is that um with anything it takes practice.
>> Yes, it does. But still, I think there's a lot of things and I'm one of those people like you say, well, you could learn how to paint. Yeah, I could take classes and the whole bit, but I think I'd get frustrated um with it. But there's other areas where people >> Now, there's also motivation, too.
>> Well, that too. And I don't have any motivation to learn how to paint. So because I'll suck and I know it. Um but this brings up the whole question are do we is are are the people who are very creative the great artists in history in the world the great quilters the great seers the great whatever is there something in their chromosone makeup is there a particular gene that controls your level of creativity because we do know under modern science that there are a lot of specialized genes in our body that do all kinds of things for us makes us individuals in that. So, is there a creative gene?
Well, um let's take a look here at what some things I found because that's the question I put in to the AI and it says no, there's no single creative gene.
Okay, that answered that question. Uh they said pop culture often treats creativ creativity as a rare mystical art controlled by a single genetic switch but scientific reality is much more complex instead of a lone gene.
Creativity is a polygenic trait. This means it's influenced by complex networks of hundreds of genes interacting with your environment. Okay.
AI just contradicted itself. I guess it's saying no there is no single gene.
It's saying there are a group of genes that work together. So the bottom line is do we have the genes that work together in in our bodies? Do we all have that or are are we missing a few of those or do our genes not like to play with each other nicely for that? Um they go in here. I'm not going to go into this part because it gets really boring, but they're basically talking about the types of genes and how they work together and stuff like that. Then of course there's nature versus nurture and they've done studies. It says for account roughly 20 to 50% of the variance in creative performance and personality. Remainder comes down strictly to your environment choices and practice.
So basically say if you're going to be creative it depends on your environment what you were brought up into. And it says everyone is born to create. Um, rigid social conditioning of fear of failure often suppresses this trait over time. Because creativity relies on a vast universal human genetic network rather than a single rare mutation, creative thinking is a skill that anyone can intentionally practice, train, and strengthen. And then that's what you said with practice you get better at it.
And but I think a lot of it is also um you need to you have you need to be motivated. You need to want to Yes.
Right. And some people and and what is creativity? You're maybe looking at it from a quilter's point of view as to quilting. Well, I've already determined that I don't really like sewing pieces fabric together and make a quilt, right?
However, I do sort of like the idea of freeotion quilting. So whereas you are not too keen on the idea of free motion quilting but you know um or you don't think you can >> well >> or you don't want to or >> No, I'm afraid of failure.
>> Yeah. Okay. So >> and that's what I said there. Fear of failure.
>> Yeah. Okay. So you have fear of fail failure too. Like I I don't think I draw very well but that's because I have a fear of failure, right? But I did do something when I was a little kid. I was in kindergarten and um the uh uh the uh I don't I don't have the picture that I drew anymore, but I >> picture mommy, daddy, and Walter with the dog.
>> They was in kindergarten, a little six-year-old or whatever. And I uh I uh they said to draw a picture, so I drew a picture of a moonscape, right? the moonscape and 3D 3D.
>> I had craters that had shadows and all kinds of other stuff on it. It was really amazing. In fact, my parents were amazed at that.
>> And I've never drawn anything that Where is that picture now?
>> I don't know. I think it was in a box for I think it's in your imagination.
No, no, I found it in a box in the attic at my parents and I I don't know if >> I don't I never kept it. So anyway, >> there you go. No proof. You're just We have to believe.
>> No, I know. So like I mean what happened to that creativity? I don't know. I mean I grew up in a family that that my grandfather was a painter like a house painter but he also painted some paintings and you had >> your grandmother both my grandmothers >> paint stuff as well stuff. Yeah. I mean that to me is exposure to like oh I have a grandfather that knows how to paint and I had a father that tried painting but it didn't work for him and he tried you know making a picture paint actually I have his only painting that he ever made and um um but he was creative in other ways like he was creative with building things and and figuring out problem figuring answers out to problems creatively and things like that. So his creativity was in a different area.
>> Yeah. Well, I think that's what they mean by that. We all have exposure. We all have some creativity in us. But it depends on how you define creativity. I think the first thing people go to when they say about creative, they think of someone who can paint or they think of someone who can play a musical instrument really well, uh, improv, or they think of somebody who can, you know, like make an art quilt, you know, just throw fabric.
>> But then there's also, um, if you're, let's say you're, uh, play a musical instrument, >> that's not necessarily creativity.
You're following a script, >> right? I think. But what about the people that >> that make music?
>> Well, that's more creative. You're right. I could play a piano. I took lessons, but I was too mechanical and I never stuck with it. I mean, I did a lot of years of musical learning how to play a piano. I went up to the Royal 8 grade 8 Royal Conservatory, if you know what that is, and I can't play a note today.
I could read music, but that was the problem. I was mechanical and I didn't enjoy it. My sister on the other hand, she hated reading music. She'd just sit down at piano and away she'd go because she had it, well, we used to call it she had a good ear for music. But I think it was more than that. She wasn't afraid to deviate from a script. Whereas for me, I am much more rigid on things. I follow a script.
>> Yeah. So, same with your quilting. You follow a script. You don't make artic quilts for instance.
>> What do you think I'm making right now?
>> Well, okay, fine. But that technically that to me that's >> No, you're right. I'm more comfortable with a pattern. Although I have branched out over time mainly mainly out of boredom. Um trying to do things on my own, design my own. I've designed some of my own.
>> Yeah. See whereas I think I wouldn't be doing I wouldn't do well. Although I would like to make an art. So, I don't think I would do well at making an art.
But >> why?
>> Because I have that intimidation and fear of making a mistake.
>> Well, I've had this conversation with one of the ladies who's on my regular soul group on Wednesdays and she is an art quilt maker and I have had this conversation with her. I mean, how do you get started? She says, "Just throw fabric up on a wall basically and just start seeing what comes to your mind and working with it." But you see, that's where I get a little stumped. I have tried that several times. Oh well, let's just go with it. But then I think, no, wait, this is going this sucks. This I'm already my own worst critic. And I think that's part of the thing that keeps people from being really creative. Maybe we all have a creative and for lack of better word, but this is what this is about, creative gene in us. But I think we stunt it by self-doubt and by fear of failure. and we look at something and go, "Oh, this is going to be a mess."
And for me, I am a perfectionist.
And >> like you have fabric designers that a lot of them don't even sew.
>> That's true.
>> Right. They just design fabrics because that's what they do.
>> Yeah.
>> Um and um so create I think creativity is the word creativity really is depends on the person and depends on what you define as creativity.
>> Yeah. Well, okay. that that's fine um with it. But I think I think the one thing I come keep coming back to this. I think the one thing that keeps people from be being truly creative is a fear of failure.
>> They're afraid it's not going to be good enough. That someone's going to criticize them. I mean, there is a difference between people who do art and people who are great artists. the ones that have gone down in history like the Michelangelos and the you know the Renaissance painters and the Dutch masters and all of them. Um and I mean if we set a standard that's that high compare ourselves to like you said you need to have practice. Um >> and and and maybe it's also the environment that you grow up in in some cases and that you know if you have parents that that were creative and uh and that sort of rubs off on you. See I didn't I didn't um my grandparents my grandmothers on both sides of my family both of them were very very creative. They both did painting. Um, my one grandmother did more painting than the other one. And, uh, my other grandmother, she did a lot of stuff, anything involving textile, what we would call textile arts today.
But, you know, crocheting, knitting, quilting, sewing, making things, she did that all the time.
>> Didn't one of them stuff animals, too?
>> Oh, well, [laughter] that was my grandmother, Bland. She was the artist, the painter. Yeah, she liked to stuff animals, too.
taxiderermy. I'm not so much sure if that's art or just playing with dead things. Uh >> the craft.
>> Well, that side of my family is a little different. Okay. And you're all looking at me going, "If they're your side of the family, they got to be different."
Yeah. Right. Um my other side of my family, my mother's mother was a little bit Well, she was You give that woman fiber and a needle or something, she could do anything.
with it. She used to win a lot of awards at country fairs and church bazaars and stuff like that. She was well known for her fine needle work and everything like that that she did. But yeah, so there was an influence when I was growing up as a kid from both sides of my family like that. My mother and my father, okay, here's something. My father was very creative when he was 40 feet up in the air on a on the side of a pole putting up a power line because for my dad there was an art to doing that. My dad was very particular about everything being straight correctly done. Well, it had to be or someone was going to die because electricity, you know. Um, but he was he saw a beauty in that. And we had reels of slides to prove it cuz my father would go to a job site and he would take he had a 35 millimeter camera. Okay.
Now, photography is an art as well.
Okay. He would take all these pictures of these lines, these poles, everything he put up, and we'd sit through these and bored us to tears. We did not see the beauty in what he was doing. He did.
But then when it came to taking pictures of like family vacations and stuff like that, his photos sucked. In fact, there were many pictures. Everybody's in the foreground. There's a pole in the background. Guess which one was in focus? The hydropole. The rest of us were all blurs. So, yeah. And my mother was she dabbled in a few things. Um she did a little bit of sewing but not very much because I don't think she really enjoyed it. She did that more or less for few outfits she made for herself.
>> She made her famous insulator.
>> Oh yes. Well yes. My mother centerpieces.
>> My mother liked to take things and make them into center pieces like old glass insulators that were on the top of the pole. We had no we had no lack of those.
Um, yeah, the kind of thing that you'd look at in one of those little craft fairs and go, "This isn't a craft fair. This is a craft fair kind of thing." But she tried. They were nice in their own little way.
I don't want to say anything more than that. The one kept the woman out the streets. Um, she actually dabbled in.
She did knit uh sometimes, not much, but she could she could knit. Um, I don't think she enjoyed that either. She couldn't crochet.
Um, she played the piano, so that was creative. And she was a pretty good piano player. So, yeah. Now, she didn't do a lot of improv. It was all reading music, so it was a little bit more mechanical. But yeah, she could play. My father played a musical instrument. He played the trombone and he could play the trumpet as well. He tried the guitar for a while. Um, what was that song he used to try to learn to play on? It was a beginner piece.
Uh, down in the valley or something or some of the down in the or I don't know what it was, but whatever. We got sick of that. That's why I wiped it out of my memory.
>> We heard it too many times. He dabbled in wine making. That is a bit of an art which my father never >> never mastered that.
>> He never mastered that. Oh god, his his wine would get a hole through your chamber. [laughter] >> It was pretty bad.
>> It got to the point where he said, "Well, um, I'll pass on the Who brought her own wine."
>> We started bringing our own wine over my parents at family dinners kind of thing.
He did say to me once, "You you bring that every time. You don't like my wine, do you?" And says, "Dad, to be honest, no, I don't."
>> Look, anything that you have to plug your nose in order to drink it.
>> Well, my mother used to It's okay. I usually cut it with orange juice.
[laughter] >> Yeah, they they drank it with orange juice. Like it's got to be pretty bad if >> when you have to do that. I mean, what's the point, you know, really? Um, you couldn't even call it sangria at that point. It was just bad. But he liked doing it and it kept him off the streets that So, it was a creative thing. He was always experimenting with his wines. Uh, like so yeah, he just never got any better at it. Um, oh, my mother did that stuff. I forget what they called it, but it was this paint that was in tubes and you had these little tips you put on the tube and you had like a a piece of cloth that had a pre-made outline on it, pattern on it, and it was in a hoop and you it was liquid embroidery.
>> There was another name for it. She did that for a while. I used to think that was kind of cool, but it was kind of like coloring, but she didn't do much with that after that. I think she probably went to one of those, >> you know, some demonstrations demonstrations and ended up on the hill.
>> Um, >> yeah. So, I think there's also a level of creativity like, you know, you get the masters that do big paintings and um, you know, and and do strange creative things like I can remember. Well, like sculptors, you know, you look at it this way, you look at it this way, you go, "What the hell is that?" And then you read the thing. Man with dog in the windstorm. I don't see a dog. I don't see a man. And I'm not sure where the wind is.
>> White canvas, snow bear.
Yeah.
>> Yeah. That's a classic. Yeah. Now, I could do one of those. [laughter] That would be easy. Um >> Yeah. And and it also depends on who's seeing the item to see it to evaluate the creativity.
>> Well, there's another aspect of it. You know, people who enjoy going to art, seeing art, like going to an art museum and studying the art and that I think that that's another level of creativity or a different branch of creativity because they can see something in it that maybe somebody else can't. I don't know. And I think that takes a a creative eye.
>> Yeah. And then some people are somewhat eccentric like Andy Warhol.
>> Oh, yeah. Well, >> and they create art. And it it depend and it wasn't until a point he was creating art for a while and it wasn't until somebody decided it was art >> that it became popular.
>> It became popular. Yeah.
>> Yeah. Soup cans. Who would have thought?
Um, modern art. Well, art's in the eyes of the beholder.
>> Yeah.
>> Too, you know, one man's garbage is another man's sculpture. So, whatever.
Well, there are other things here, too.
There's something they call the big five profile of creatives. Basically, your personality that lends itself to certain things about you that may make you more creative. So they talk here about openness to experience the engine of creativity. Openness is the ultimate prerequisite for creative output. Highly open individuals possess a fluid style of consciousness that prevents their brains from filtering out seemingly irre irrelevant sensory data. Uh the cognitive flexibility allows them to connect distant seemingly unrelated concepts to form original ideas. So basically what they're saying is these kind of people are ones who do who see outside of the box like kids laying on their back and looking at clouds.
I see a bunny rabbit and I see a doggy.
Another one says I see the Sistine Chapel under attack from a military force in the Middle East. I don't know something like this. You know the ones with the what we call wild m imag imaginations well they tend to be very creative individuals they see more than maybe what's there or they see that which nobody else has thought of or seen in it I think people who write novels writers this is the kind of person they are to write to have use their imagination and to manipulate um what they already know and they talk about experiential and intellect intellectual openness, experiential, a love for sensory experiences, art, fantasy, and emotional depth. Um, and intellectual openness, a love for abstract ideas, philosophical debates, puzzle solving, and logic. So, they're saying there's these two types of individuals that these people are also creatives.
There's something called the conscientious conscientiousness paradox.
um say measures order, duty, and deliberate planning. In highly creative fields, this trait behaves like a double-edged sword. The downside, highly creative people often score lower in conscious conscious conscience conscientiousness. Yes, they reject rigid schedules, break established rules, and tolerate chaotic ambiguous environments where messy breakthroughs happen. Um so basically they are the downside of highly creative people um are ones like me rigid schedules um well no it says okay they reject no rigid see I don't reject rigid schedules I like schedules and I like rules and I don't tolerate the chaotic very well um or messes I'm not a messy creator. So that's the downside. The upside is the actual execution of an idea. Writing a novel, coding software, completing a painting requires immense grit.
Creatives must dial up their consciousness conscientiousness during the production stage to prevent their ideas from remaining unfinished. So the problem here is really creative people may never finish anything because they can't stick to it. They get bored easily. So they move on from one project to the next project and they leave a whole trail of unfinished projects. But those people who are more geared towards a final product will probably finish that product to before they move on to the next one. So think about people's sewing rooms. I hear this all the time. Yeah. I've got about 12 unfinished projects are just sitting in a pile over in the corner.
>> Okay. Something interesting there. Talk about coding software. I had to do that.
I did that for a living.
>> Yeah. So yeah, there is creativity in coding software because you but the other thing is that when you're doing um that sort of work you also have to know what other tools are available to you, right? You know, you have to be able to know how to put things together, right?
So what I'm saying is, okay, let's say you want to create create an art quil, right? Um, if you don't actually quilt, but you want to create an art quil, how do you go about doing that? Because you don't necessarily know how fabric goes together.
>> You know what I mean?
>> Yeah. So, that's creative. It's putting those finally deciding on how those fabrics are going to go together >> on it. But, you know, some people get tied up with when they they've got a project, they've got a pattern, they want to make that pattern, they go into the quilt store and they they frozen.
They don't know what fabrics to pick.
>> Yeah. Because you then the fear comes in that you're going to pick the wrong fabric.
>> That's right. Or they come into the store and they see a quilt hanging up and they go, they love it and they go, I want to make that quilt. And they'll say, well, here we have a pattern for it. Yeah. And I want all these fabrics that you've used. and then they get really bothered when they can't get all those fabrics because maybe those fabrics aren't, you know, are no longer available uh for that. So, they're stumped. They can't think outside of the box and say, "But I could make it out of this." And then there's the other extreme. There are some people who don't want to stick to a pattern at all. The pattern is only used as a jumping off point for thinking about a concept and they're very happy finding their own fabrics and creating their own thing only using that as an inspiration as opposed to following a pattern. I've heard several people in my sewing group who say they do they never follow a pattern. They hate following patterns.
They feel restricted by that.
Whereas I like the comfort of a p, but I'm a person who likes schedules and lists and routines and I >> Yeah. So, so like you were saying about the is is there a gene for creativity? I think there is a a um you're born with a uh uh each person is born with their own ability to be creative in some way.
Yeah, I would agree with that. I would think so too. Well, then it talks here about uh creatives being in independence and low agreeableness. What do they mean by that? So, they're basically saying here because creating something new requires telling the world that the current way of doing things is wrong.
Creative individuals must be comfortable with social friction. They possess the ego strength and low agreeableness necessary to withstand skepticism and push their unique visions forward. So basically what they're saying is they're nonconformists.
They will not be dictated to by other people or by society. And that causes people to see them as weird eccentrics because they don't do what everybody else is doing. Um, and as such, they're saying they're suggesting that they may not be very agreeable to other people.
And I think what they mean by that is, um, they probably rub people the wrong way because they go, "No, that's not how I'm going to do it." Um, and I get this, I was getting this with this quilt I'm making. I had people make comments and say, "You have to do the kimonas." And I said, "No, I do not have to do the kimonas because they're paper piecing. I don't like paper piecing, but they're so cute and they'd be perfect for your quilt."
No, they're not if I don't like them.
But you see, you get into that because they have in their mind that this is a creative element and it's going to look great. Why wouldn't I want to do that?
I don't I don't agree that it was going to look great.
>> Okay. But what about when you uh look at other people's quilts? Cuz I mean some people will hold up a quilt and say, "Oh, look what I've done."
>> Yeah.
>> And you might look at it and say, "Oh, I don't like that at all."
>> And I do in my head.
>> I would never say it to their face.
>> Or I don't like the colors they've used.
>> And I have and I would never say it to their face.
>> But see, they're being creative in their own way. Exactly. clean may not match what my definition of >> exactly is and that's why there's such a thing that people say doesn't exist but do called quilt police and there's a quilt police person inside all of us just from what you said we don't all like the same things equally certain color combinations I would go with other uh color combinations I absolutely love like first of all you know I'm going to love your quilt if you've used blue because I love blue.
>> Well, like that time you took a class of modern doing a modern quilt.
>> Yeah.
>> Um and the teacher loved to do quilts in pastels.
>> Yes.
>> And you were using K facet bold colors >> and she said she didn't like that and that she said that wouldn't work, but you did it anyways. And later she said she thought she was surprised that it worked good.
>> But I would never ever say to anybody that has the the strength and the oh what's the word for it? The who are willing to put themselves out there and show you something they have made.
And you know they are looking for praise. They're looking for support. All of us are. We always want approval from our peers for what we do. And that's why you always hear this, "Oh, that's lovely. Oh, I love what you've done with it. Oh, that's brilliant." In their minds, what they're probably saying is, "Oh my god, that is so ugly."
But we'd never say that out loud because we don't want to hurt somebody's feeling. Because that's what happens. I mean, if you're willing to take the chance and show something you're you are proud of and show it to a bunch of strangers or to a bunch of other people, even ones you know, you don't want to hear anybody go ick.
Um, I think more people should be willing to say ick, but not say ick. I think there is a place for constructive criticism.
um gentle constructive criticism, you know, and if you can't find something nice to say about something, don't say >> you got to look beyond the colors, I guess. Really?
>> Well, yeah, but you look at design, >> but see, like I said, there some people like pastel colors, other people don't.
>> See, I'm not a fan of pastel colors.
>> Some people like using patterned material and other people like plain.
Well, you know, I was taught in teachers college when it came to marking kids uh projects and stuff like that.
Always find at least one good thing to say right off the bat.
>> Oh, you finished it.
>> Uh yeah, sometimes it was really difficult with some kids. I love that color of paper you typed your essay up on, sir. It's white. I know, but it's Is it just white? Is it a shade of white? I don't know. I'm being a little bit exaggerating here, but yeah, there were times when you're hardressed to find something nice to say. Um, but you got to find something that because people are looking for your support.
>> Oh, yeah. People put a lot of effort into what they're making. So, >> and you know, >> and and the bottom line is whatever they're making is for themselves.
>> Yeah.
>> Right. So, they have to like it. And it's a person and being creative is a personal experience. I mean, you're putting yourself out there when you show what you have created to somebody else.
No matter who they are, it takes a lot of guts for that. So, we need to keep that in mind that this is an extension of somebody's personality. So, if you're cutting up what they have created, you're cutting them up.
>> And that's not a good thing to do. But now it goes on in this article a little bit down in the bottom engaging. They talk here about so how can we um take what we already have as our creative abilities and expand upon them uh hone them so to speak. Uh Walter said, you know, practice helps and that's true.
And whatever you >> the more you do something, you the more you might uh add some creativity to it >> or the more exploratory you might become, the more because you you've accomplished something. Like when I first started quilting, as anybody who first started quilting, you don't know what you're doing. And you make some you you may have created a few things at the beginning and you're really proud of it, but now you look back on it 5 10 years later and you go, "What was I thinking when I did that?" But that's the whole point. That was then. Look how far you've come now. I think I am a much better quilter today than I was even two years ago. I mean, one, it really bothers me if I can't get my points right. And I will get those points right. That's why the what you call it quilt there that I'm I'm working on that's driving me nuts, the Alaska, uh because of the point business. But and then you found freeotion quilting and just like, "Oh, look at this feathers."
Yeah. Really? Okay. How nice. But your feathers, your first feathers were sucked.
>> Oh, yeah. That did. Yeah.
>> In fact, your first little thing when you're trying to do circles were squares.
>> Yeah.
>> Well, look at you now. And that didn't take very long to get from to to feathers.
>> No, but I'm still following a pattern sort of. But the but the creative part is going to have to come out at some point because it'll have to uh put it on an actual quilt.
>> Yeah, I think when you have an actual quilt in front of you and you're going to c do customized quilting, you're going to have to sit there and think, well, what am I going to use here?
>> I'm going to hit another learning curve >> probably. But that's what all of this is about. This is all about learning curve.
So they say here engage in cognitive exploration.
Um the opposite perspective exercise.
Read a well-argued book or essay written by someone whose political phil political, philosophical or religious beliefs you completely disagree with.
Focus on understanding their logic rather than winning an imaginary debate.
Um well, let's apply this to to sewing.
Um we were talking about color pick choice and things like that, pattern choice in a quilt. Well, rather than saying that's, "Oh, I would never have done that. That's ugly. I don't like that." Rather say, "Oh, wait. What are they trying to achieve? Why would they have picked those colors?
Why that particular design and try to think through it, I think, is what they're saying. Try to put yourself in their place and say, well, why would I do this?" Rather than being negative about it and dismissing it, try to to explain it. It says, "Cross-pollinate fields. Spend 30 minutes a week reading articles or watching lectures on a topic you know absolutely nothing about. If you're a programmer, read about historical textile design." Uh, if you are an artist, read about quantum computing mechanics. Well, I don't know.
I think you have to have still certain amount of interest in those topics because if you're not interested, you're not going to focus >> on those. I don't think. However, I do that when I have my docu.
I >> I think you have should have exposure to different things.
>> Yeah, I find documentaries I never used to like documentaries um because I thought they're boring. But over the years, especially since I retired, I am much more interested in documentaries now about a variety of topics. Um and I will pick I watched one about sports person the other day. I'm not interested in sports, but I watched it and I was quite interested in it because the point of view it took about things and I thought, well, that sort of expands your horizons a little bit. So, that's probably what they're talking about here. Um, radical novelty seeking the 10% rule. Your brain craves efficiency and defaults to routines, forcing it to navigate unfamiliar environments, stimulates neuroplacity and broadens your comfort zone. the random route routine. Commute to work, walk your dog, or navigate your neighborhood using a completely different path every few days without using a GPS unless necessary. You know, I do that. You laugh at me. I have a chart that I keep every day when I go out for a walk. I log how long I was out for, how far I went, and I have this other one. It's called Route One, Route Two, Route Three, Route 4, and Route Five. and he laughs at me because even though it's all in the same subdivision, I have different roots on different days that I take because it makes it more interesting and you never know who you're going to run into or in case of what kind of animal you will run into.
Could be a bunny, >> could be a squirrel.
>> Seen a skunk >> and lots of bunnies and a coyote and a fox.
>> Yep. And today I ran into a pack of dogs. Not on purpose. One person was walking one way with her two dogs.
Another guy came out of a house walking his three dogs. And they all got doggies doing what doggies do. Everybody had to have a butt sniff. And they're all running together and yapping. I got off the sidewalk, went on the road, and just as I went up the road, here comes another dog guy with another doggy. And I said to him, "I don't know if you want to take your dog down that way. There's a whole bunch of dogs there, you know, with it." and his dog already knew that cuz it was like there's butt sniffing going on here. I want to get into it. Um, but you know, and different people, too. I like I like speaking to people when I walk by them.
Good morning. Especially the ones that look grumpy. I want to see what they're going to do. Some of them just ignore me and keep going straight on like creepy guy. Uh, we have the neighborhood.
Doesn't matter how many times I've said hello to him, how many times I've seen him on the street, that guy will do everything he can to avoid me.
>> Mhm.
>> Um maybe it's me. I don't know.
>> I think why he does the same with me.
So, >> oh, so is us. But uh yeah, but I mean what they're saying in this is mixing things up keeps your mind stimulated, maybe opens you up to newer ideas. While I'm walking, I listen to podcasts as well, and there's always something interesting in the podcasts I listen to.
Um, some of them are political, some of them are about the LGBT community, things like that. Occasionally, I'll pick a podcast um that I've never listened to before and try it out, see what it's >> Yeah. And isn't it also like when you're watching um when you've done soul soul days, when you go to soul day, sometimes you'll see something that somebody else is making that stimulates your creativity.
>> Oh, well that's why I like going to quilt shows. Um because I get ideas.
Sometimes I get so many ideas it hurts.
You know that you want to go home immediately and start working on this.
Then when you finally do get home, you forgot what it was. You need to keep stuff on your phone. You need to make I make notes when I go an idea comes to me. I make notes.
I've got my earbuds in my ears. So, an idea will come to me maybe about something we want to talk about on here or something else. I know I'm going to forget that if I don't write it down, but I don't have a pen and paper with me. But lo and behold, I just go, "Hey, Siri, create a new note." You know, what would you like to say? and I just Oops, it's already coming up here uh on my iPad. Um but then I put it there. I mean, sometimes they're stupid ideas, but sometimes there's a grain of something that you can work with. That's why we ask you guys all the time to make comments about whatever we're talking about because we may may get an idea for a future episode. This idea we're dealing with today came from a suggestion from somebody talking about the creative process and said you know explore that.
So that's why we're exploring this today.
All of the ideas that we have have come from sources and all of those come from a creative imagination mind. So I am creative. It's just in a different way.
Um, >> I think a lot of c creativity also depends on your personality >> and that's what they were saying before.
Are you open to new ideas or are you very closedminded? You you want to stick >> I've created your what would you like to say and I just already coming up on my iPad note says what would you like to say and I just already coming up on my iPad but then I put it there. I mean sometimes you're stupid ideas but sometimes there's a green of something that you can work with. That's why we [laughter] >> Another way you can come up with creative ideas is talk to your smart devices. You can have a conversation with them. Maybe we'll do an episode on that. It It's kind of scary. I've tried it. And you think you're talking to a real person. That's how good, you know, these things have gotten. Uh sometimes they're just annoying. But >> yeah, but you've run into people before that say um that oh you should try sewing as an example, right, to somebody and they'll say, oh no, that's for old ladies to do.
>> Yeah. Well, okay, enough about my family. But uh >> Yeah, that's true. Well, that's being dismissive. Yeah, like you know, oh um you know, not necessarily that they do sewing, but uh that they might do something else or another craft or something like that. But they don't do another craft. They'll the what some people just sit there and >> and die from it. But you know too those type of people are people who have a very narrow definition of what sewing is because what are they thinking when you say sewing to them? What's going through their mind? Oh, making a dress, sewing a pair of pants, mending. They're not thinking textile fabric fiber art.
because there's a whole world of that out there. Um, when I used to be a paper crafter, people would use fibers in their creations on art journaling pages.
This is why I bought my first sewing machine was not to make a quilt. I that wasn't even in my head. It was for sewing on paper, little designs and stuff because it was trendy at that point when you were doing art journaling and stuff. I fell into quilting because of that. Um, so you know that's the openness part of it. Like play I think play is important and I think our generation we used to play.
>> Yeah. When we were little kids, my parents would my mom would send me outside, go play with everybody, right?
So we'd uh go and we and we didn't have anything so we would invent things.
>> Yes. Sometimes an imaginary little friend that Walter still has to this day. But um >> but we had well we grew up in an age where we didn't have access to a whole lot of of things to keep us entertained on purpose.
>> I mean there were no iPads, there were no things like that. We had to use our imagination.
>> We had to use our imagination to do stuff. And I think that's part of creativity.
>> Yeah, it is. And I think that's a a part of creativity that's dying in young people because now their their entertainment is pre-made for them. They just pick up an iPad or their computer and they're playing a game. We used to make up games like >> Oh, okay.
Okay. Sorry about that little brief pause there. Walter got a phone call that was important. He had to take it because it had to do with cleaning out our e troughs. Anyways, so the rest of this I'm not going to go through because they're talking about and which I think might be a little artificial. They're talking about ways that you can stimulate your creative imagination by doing all these different exercises like listening to stories from strangers, uh deconstructing art, deep listening and stuff like that. Personally, if that helps, sure, great. Um, to me, I think the key to to being creative is to get over your fear of being creative. If you if something tickles your fancy or you get this wild idea in your head, don't dismiss it automatically. What have you got to lose? If you try, you know, just try. Then you know whether it's going to work or not.
Probably in the process of trying it, you'll become even more creative because you'll probably find a different thing.
It'll probably become something that you didn't intend it to become in the first place.
You know, like the quilt I'm working on right now. I'm still experimenting with that. I'm playing. I'm playing. But and we were talking about kids. Kids don't play anymore.
And as adults, we have a tendency to not play either because we get too serious as adults.
We need to play more, you know, just for the fear pure joy.
Think about it. When it was your kid, you know, you could have a lot of fun with a rock.
You could roll it down a hill. You could build a fort with many of those rocks.
You could hit another kid in the head with it and have warfare. I mean, there's all kinds of creative things you can do with rock. Then you play doctor.
Oh, got to bash you in the head with the rock. Let's play doctor. Okay. And yeah, that's leading down a path I didn't want to go on. Okay. Um, >> we better not talk about that.
>> Yeah. No, that's not where I was going with this.
>> You played doctor. I don't >> play doctor. [laughter] >> Never mind. That's a topic for another day, if ever. But I guess the bottom line is we have to be open to new experiences and to try things. And if you get a feeling that you want to try something, just do it. And don't worry about what anybody else is going to think. I mean, you don't have to show it to anybody. You can just do it for yourself. But I think that's more to it.
And I think if more people were creative or allowed themselves to be more creative, I think the world would be a nicer place with it. Um, I think we'd be more relaxed, calmer, nicer people. And we need more nice people in the world today, don't we? And also to escape what's going on in the world today as be a creative. So anyways, is there a creative gene?
Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe it's not just one gene. Maybe it's a group of genes that get together and decide, let's be creative. Or is it something that could be a learned behavior?
Or is it something we need to practice more to get better at if there is such a thing as being better creatively?
Because I think that's very subjective, but whatever. So, oh, how why did that freeze up? That was weird. Just had a little freeze up there. Um, may or may not show up on the video. Anyways, uh, I hope that we have stimulated your creative imagination with what we have talked about. Maybe given you some ideas or some thoughts.
Um, maybe just gave you a chance to have a coffee or two and let your mind wander as we talk. I hear that happens. Uh, >> or maybe you just fell asleep. Yeah, maybe we helped you with your nap time.
So, whatever. Anyways, yeah, what are we going to talk about next week? I don't know. We do have a couple of comments this week. Um, one was about fabric shops. It said, "I think fab," This came from Debbie. She says, "I think fabric shops and YouTube creators need to start making an effort to include men in their acknowledgements." For sure. I love seeing men create. They just think differently than us females, and they come up with some amazing ideas and techniques. It just opens up a whole new creative direction in my opinion. And that was in response to the the thing I talked about um on My Idiot Quilter about one of the places I get my embroidery files and how they were very sexist in their instructions. You ladies, I can't wait to see what you ladies do with this. I'm no lady. Okay.
And another one from Barb. She said, "I think it's fair to say that PPE PP >> paper piece paper piece embroidery." No, >> I don't know. I think she means foundation paper piecing but which is FPP.
>> Yeah. Okay. I think it's FPP.
>> Yeah, I think. Anyways, um can be like applique where there are two methods in quilting. You can enjoy standard piecing and quilt construction, but you don't have to necessarily like the alternatives. Yeah, because basically I made a comment which was supposed to be a joke, but apparently a few people didn't take it as a joke where I said foundation paper piecing isn't quilting.
>> Well, it isn't quilting because quilting is quilting.
>> Oh, here we go. I'm not getting into that commitment with you again.
>> I mean, it's piecing. It's not quilting.
>> Yeah, you be quiet now. Zip it. Just zip it. up with that. Anyways, I think the point here is that in general under the big umbrella of quilting, there are many different techniques and you use that which get serves your purposes. And if you don't like doing something, then don't do it. Simple as that.
>> Okay, that's it. All right, so we're going to say goodbye. Goodbye. Bye, everybody.
>> Hi. I'm just going to interrupt my program for just one second to remind you to like the video, to subscribe to the channel, and hit the bell for future notifications. That's all I ask of you.
Show me a little love. Thanks.
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