Hey check me out! I accidentally made a wooden Christmas quilt!  :)  How does one make a Christmas quilt accidentally? Well let's find out, shall we?

You start by painting your plywood base flat black:



and then, you start playing with this:




Which is a sheet of tin.

I started out by seeing what it could do, and discovered that if I cut out triangles and then cut really thin strips into it, they curled up all by themselves, like this:



(that's actually a couple of said ribboned triangles put together).

So I painted my aqua swoops and used my silver tape to outline them, and then started laying my triangles that hadn't been beribboned on the background (I wasn't thinking "trees" at all, by the way), I was just laying them out in a pattern that pleased me.


and then I started decorating my triangles with washers, and bird wire:


with which I made a saucy/naughty triangle:




and by the time I added my little tin curlicues and some silver leaf dots and some big silver-coloured circle thingys (when I went to the hardware store I just bought things I thought I might be able to use - with no thought for what they actually were or how they were supposed to be used - or you know, their names!)....

So, by the time, I was done all that and looked at it, I realized I'd made a really big, wooden Christmas card! But for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what to call it.

Which is where YOU come in.    Can you help me name my Christmas card?

And if you pick a name that I like - as a reward, I will give you an iteration of this:



Now I know you might  be thinking, "Whatevs, Kit - that's just plain quilted tote bag" - and you're kind of right.

But if you've been with me a long time, you also know that in the last two years, I've made about FIFTY quilted tote bags of my own design, and this one is my favourite one.  Not because of the fabrics, but because it's perfect.

LOL

No, no, I'm not overspeaking. It's the perfect size, it's the perfect length to fit comfortably on my shoulder with a purse and the bag, it has two inner pockets to tuck my shoes in for work without getting the rest of the stuff in the bag dirty, it has room for my laptop in the non-pocketed section, the outside has a pocket for a book and another pocket for an umbrella (perfect for communting) - seriously, it's the best tote bag I've ever made, and despite the fact that it rarely goes with what I'm wearing, I use it every. single. day.

And if you pick a name for this quilt that I like, I will make one in your choice of colour scheme, just for you!

So, if you're a follower (one I can see over there ------->) leave me your best name (or names) for the quilt in the comments, and if I pick your name, you win the tote bag!

ETA: leave comments today or actually, through the weekend, and I'll announce a winner on Monday, October 24.
Gimme your names!

So, after I painted the plywood background, I laid window screening over it  (my "batting) and held it down with the metal tape.  Then  I took all those little bits of balsa wood, painted them, decorated them and laid them on the batting - more - after the jump:

"What the heck are you doing with this stuff?"





This is a big panel of light plywood, drawn on and then scored to prevent the paint from running,


And this is the wood painted.
                          
Tommorrow - you'll see how I put these (and other) elements together, to make an unusual materials quilt.

'Til then....

Hi all, hope you had a great weekend.

I had a working weekend, trying to complete some upcoming challenges due in the next couple of weeks, some things on my "to do" list,  and holy cow - The Bloggers Quilt Festival is in TWO WEEKS. 




(And I don't have my quilt done for it yet.  But I'm not panicking, nooooooooooooooooooo. )

It's been an unseasonably warm fall here, so the leaves are only beginning to turn when they ought to have fallen off completely by this time.

Not that I'm complaining, mind - but I was hoping to get some "fall colour" shots for you.  Instead, hear are some "early fall colour" pics I took last weekend when we were out and about...  some of them will certainly be inspiration for future quilts!






I took about 20 pictures of these ruins for instance...


And about 50 different angles of this church, which definitely feels like a series in the making.



Taking this pic was taking my life in my hands - literally - I'm allergic to bees and wasps, and those red vines were full of them. But that's what a zoom lens is for. Avoiding bees!



Hope you're having a great weekend.

This week I'll have a couple of finishes, some weird and wacky, and another giveaway. 

Should be fun!    :)

I live in an area that is "gentrifying", which is probably a fairly terrifying thing for the working poor who live here, as a neighbourhood that gentrifies never works out well for them. :(




The advantages for a family like ours though, is that the neighourhood is affordable, there are lots of amenities at our doorstep while still having a "family" feel, and there are all kinds of funky/cool things going on here. Real estate agents call our neighbourhood "vibrant" . I must say, it's a lot of fun to live here.


You can't throw a stick without hitting an art gallery or a bistro and unusual home-grown clothing stores abound, but it's still quite mixed use.  There are some quite well off folks in the neighbourhood, lots of middle class people, working poor and some down and outer's all living quite happily together.

There's a women's shelter around the corner from the organic butcher, which is across the street from a park; where most Saturdays people from the neighbourhood play live music and kids play in the leaves, while other folks walk their dogs, or stop in at the neighbourhood coffee shop for a cuppa.





Next to the butcher is a wool shop where most days a group of ladies are knitting in their circle, which is beside an Indian take-away, which abuts an art gallery, which is beside a large applicance repair shop which is next to a high-end pet supply store.



Within walking distance, there's an assisted living centre, a library, a retirement home, several very upscale restaurants,



a diner, a run-down bodega that has just about everything, a shop that specializes in eyebrows only (which never seems to have an empty chair!); a second-hand goods shop, a tea shop, a charity shop, an adult puppet theatre that puts on shows four nights a week (no, I'm not kidding!);



two vets, a beach, a bird sanctuary, three big box stores, four shops that sell funky clothing made by the proprietors, and a consignment shop that sells designer-only clothing.  And did I mention a bistro, pub, bar or high-end restaurant every few feet?



I think it's because four companies have their film studios a stone's throw from our neighbourhood that it's so artsy and mixed use. Perhaps as a result of this funky/cool vibe, one of the really fun things that happen here is Guerilla Art.  It's everywhere, and as is the nature of it, constantly changing.

This was a recent installation.  What do you think the artist was trying to say?