by Ruth Stanton

During this Covid 19 season, I have used my time to paint two mats for my kitchen. The first one, featuring the official provincial and territorial flowers, is actually a repainting of the mat that lies in front of our kitchen sink. It received so much wear that I had to scrape and sand away the old design so that I could repaint the mat.

With the second mat, I turned to the quilt block motif. I chose the colours, but the designs are generally old traditional quilt blocks, used by housewives in making quilts for the home. Several years ago I found these patterns in McCall’s Quilt Block Patterns. You can still locate the blocks here: https://www.quiltingdaily.com/free-quilt-block-patterns-library-from-mccalls-quilting/

The site has many patterns, but I chose 16 and then used the flying geese motif to separate the rows. As with the first mat, I painted on the back of a piece of scrap linoleum, purchased at Ranger Carpets in Alexandria. I paint the back rather than the front because I find, when lain right side up, the edges tend to turn up and trip me.

I used white wall paint for the base coats, sketched in the designs with a graphite pencil and painted them with acrylic paints. For my colours, I use the inexpensive acrylic paints that I find at the dollar store. These give me a fairly wide choice of colours at a reasonable price. They work well enough for a floor mat, but I’d want better quality acrylics if I were painting something to hang on the wall. Once the mat is painted, I varnish it with a water-based varnish. My mats are not indestructible but they do last from ten to fifteen years depending on how much wear they suffer.

Collectif members, send an image (or a few) of very recent work to cagac.ca@gmail.com with up to 100 words describing what you did, materials used, inspiration, etc. Maybe share how you’re feeling & how creativity helps. We’d like an informative, inspiring show & tell. Writers, send us poetry, lyrics, a short piece or excerpt.