Chutzpah

I spent time over the weekend reorganizing my quilt collection.  Since I no longer have a loom in my storage shed outside, I bought a portable covered clear-plastic-front closet and now most of my quilts are hanging there.  A bunch of earlier work I no longer want, so I pulled those out to donate to Tailwaggers Thrift Shop, Sequoia Humane's retail shop in Eureka.  But I did put aside a couple of pieces to fool around with.

This piece was (still is, actually) Discharge 2, from two years ago.  Original piece below.  This morning I quilted wonky circles in all the previously unquilted areas, then I painted it twice.  Quite an improvement, IMO.

I have another quilt I've been messing with, another early piece that never hung properly.  I'd tried a construction idea that really didn't work, for one, and then I brought the backing forward and turned a bound edge and because the quilt was too large for that technique, the edges were wavy.  Recently I removed the sleeve and fabric label, opened out the binding, and cut the thing into a proper rectangle.  Then I sliced it in half.  The half I didn't like that well has gotten several treatments already.  I'll post that when I'm farther along.


I've been intrigued with painting/printing on already-quilted surfaces, but haven't really tried it before now.  The best book I've seen on this topic is Linda & Laura Kemshall's The Painted Quilt.  In fact, I just pulled out my copy and am reading it newly now that I'm at that place to give things a try.  I'm also curious to work with discharge paste in this same fashion -- maybe I'll get to that tomorrow!