Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The one where nothing works out as planned.

Once upon a time, on a website far, far away (called design*sponge), a listless house-princess saw a bewitching image:

wall art

Said image came from Tali's website Growing Up Creative and it gave the aimless princess an idea for her own drab cottage walls.

She sang for her woodland friends to come help her but only a small disgruntled deer appeared. We're all going to Cinderella's wine and toga party, he said with a sneer, you'll have to decorate the shack yourself. So whistling a happy song, she rolled up her raggedy sleeves and set to it.

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She'd saved many, many toilet rolls (those dwarves poo a lot), which she pressed, cut and then painted. Dark aqua on the outside, light on the inside - except for a few she painted red.

She found her enchanted glue gun and stuck them all together until she had her own paisley pattern. Or maybe it was a goldfish. Or the number 9.

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Anyhoo, it didn't really matter what it was - the princess knew it wasn't right. There were too many holes allowing too much of her drab wall paint to show through.

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Another idea dawned and she quickly went to work painting a cheap canvas (which she'd picked up from the 2 gold coin shop) with a paint knife, to create some texture. Once it was dry, she grabbed a pencil and used the toilet roll pattern as a big stencil, then painted in all the smaller shapes. To finish it off she plucked a twig from a mystical weeping willow* and used it to dot white paint around each of the shapes.

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The princess wiped her hands on her grimy apron and proudly hung the painting on her wall.  A loud hiccup interrupted her admiration. That stupid pitcha dunnt look anyfing like Tali's, the returned deer slurred beneath his halo of wine fumes, before collapsing in a heap on the floor.

The princess smoothed the deer's furry brow before wrapping him in aluminum foil and popping him in her big wood-fired stove.

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That night the princess set the table beneath her new picture and enjoyed her favourite meal: venison with red wine jus. Superbe!

Another thing that didn't turn out as planned. I used these pillow cases:

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To make some stripy blocks (yes, I know I'm supposed to be basting the colour graduation quilt, but I got distracted):

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Which were supposed to end up in a symmetrical, geometric design. Somehow I ended up with this retro thing. I'm not sure I like it yet, but I think with some hand quilting in the white squares, it might turn out okay?

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A question from a machine quilter - what thread does one use to hand quilt?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

* Okay, it was really a wooden BBQ skewer.

12 comments:

Pene said...

Love the picture and the story made me laugh. Have been collecting toilet rolls for a while, wasn't sure why but now I know!!
Pene x

nato said...

Bonsoir Kirsty, just love what you did with the toilet rolls, and the painting just original. But this comment is actually about my package that arrived yesterday. ITS LOOOOOOVELY, I adore . Just ADORE THE BAG. I love the colors, the beads are so adorable , the colors is one of my favorite.
Especially your card is adorable. Thank you a LOOOOOOT. My husband still does not believe that i'm gettting gifts from total strangers. I tell him that there lovely ladies spreading around. I will show them on my blog.A hug and a Kiss for a very adorable LADY.

DianeY said...

Such a funny story! I actually love the picture & the quilt! I would be prone to quilt in some of the green squares as well, maybe in light blue right inside the edges. But what do I know?

Dianne said...

Bonjour kirsty ~ retro is good !! I've tried quilting but I'm afraid to say your's is far superior to mine. attention to detail is not my forte.

~Dianne~

Maevy said...

You really got me smiling with your princess tale, and the result is very nice. Love the retro quilt, all that green with light blue is very eye catching.

Lauren said...

Love both of these creative efforts. Sorry, can't help with the hand quilting thread because I never actually get up to that stage on my projects - I usually don't get past the planning phase.

deedee said...

I love what you did with the toilet paper rolls, and the painting, also.

Susan said...

Your green retro quilt is stunning! When I hand quilt I usually buy a reel of specialised hand-quilting cotton from my local store. But you may not have a local store close by? Good luck! Look forward to seeing how it goes!

Eva said...

This is just to show that sometimes it's good things don't turn out the way one had thought. And like any good fairy tale your story has a happy ending. :-) (... except for the deer turned venison perhaps ...)

Christine said...

cute story! was the venison delicious after marinating for so long in the red wine? ;-)
I also have a bunch of toilet paper rolls and I don't know why.....
you know, if you turn the picture upside down, it looks like the back of a girl's head, with her hair braided. do you see it?

magpie chic said...

It is a true genious who can extrapolate a toilet roll into such a work of art, gazoil or no gazoil. I love it when you whinge, it's so entertaining. Like when the baby trashes the project!! More whinging I say!
A bientot!

Kirsty @ Bonjour Quilts said...

Christine - yes, you're right. It's funny, nearly everyone who's seen it thinks it's something different. Like of of those blotchy diagrams they give you (supposedly, at least on the movies) at the psychologist's and ask you what you see.

Ms Magpie - don't tempt me. Don't unleash the whinging. Even more destructive than releasing the baby!

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