It always seems as if the new year brings too-soon deadlines and a rush of things to get done in a short time.  Why is this?  Notification in December (the holidays) for a January deadline is not enough time for me.  I am busy with baking cookies and making or wrapping presents, and trying to celebrate a birthday.  Well, anyhoohow, I have been working on two small entries for Rend Lake’s  “Repurposed, Renewed, Reborn” quilt exhibit.  These are each 19″x 19″ square. I showed one in the prior post that is finished except for the binding/facing part.

The other one is the section of quilt that I flipped over to the back and put black gesso on it.  I painted it with Lumiere paints and have added some recycled cup beads from an old necklace.   With the paint I have created a new design using the piecing and stitching lines that are there. I am presently “weathering” metal washers outdoors and they will be added next.  Not sure if it is done at that point or not…we will see.  Here it  is so far (washers aren’t on there yet):

I am calling it “No, It’s Not Lamé”.  That’s because the Lumiere paints on the black gesso look like lamé.  I thought it would be interesting to keep the original blocks of the quilt available for viewing, so if one flips the quilt over, the original is there to see.

The old quilt is pretty ratty in some places, but I am going to patch it and lay fusible web over it and fuse everything down.  The muslin on the back was in perfect condition.

Today I must work on that pesky “possibility” of a commission proposal.  How many of you would spend hours and brain power to work up a proposal for a commission you might not ever get chosen for?  You see, this is my dilemma….I know that if I don’t do it, I definitely won’t get chosen.  And if I do do it, I still might not get chosen for it.  How many people would do this?  I am always weighing that in my mind.  Even if my designs don’t get chosen, I rationalize that I will still have the experience…and the designs.   At this point, I am probably 2/3 of the way through it.  Do I sound whiny?  Off to work.