collections quilt: decisions, decisions

a few cows in repose

 I am working on my Quiltart  challenge quilt, "Cool Collections"
Among other things I collect Cows, Flamingos, Poodles and Betty Boops. 
I started with a brainstorming session where I sketched out 12 really cool ideas, but couldn't get excited about making them. What's that all about??

I like to try something different with each challenge, and the computer is still a black hole of scary to me, so that's where I started. I set up a portrait studio and walked around the house pulling my collection  items to see how they would look grouped together. This was the first step. It was a creative exercise itself, the arrangement of items, which items to use and what to group together, how to lay them out. I grouped like items, and mixed items. Took many pictures.  Fun!

 With the digital pictures chosen, which was  a challenge in itself as I have a hard time making decisions, I arranged them in powerpoint, and printed them onto fabric. The instructions said to let set for a minute, then submerge in water. I seemed to lose some color after this step as some ink washed off. I was not told to iron. I ended up painting on the image with textile paints to liven them up.

Placing fusible on the back of the photos, I cut out individuals, of which there are nine as that is what fit on the three sheets of printed treasures I had, and finally decided to use one of my pretty black swirly fabrics to fuse them to.  Then I had to  decide how to place them in the line-up.

SO MANY DECISIONS!
I won't even bore you with all of them but just know, if you ever think a person just "knows" what to do, it's not that easy.
This is a small mountain of rejected fabric for just the border around the black and photo center.

The turquoise fabric won the race to be the first border and my collection of  fabrics the next border, and also chose the binding.
Whew!
Now it's just work. Construct, quilt, bind, embellish. The hard work of decision making is over!

By the way, when I wanted to include cow, flamingo, Betty Boop and poodle fabrics, I shopped in my stash and THAT was a big decision as I love all my silly fabrics. I know some artists only use their hand dyes, and I like to use my hand dyes when I'm being sophisticated and artsy and all that.
 But y'all, I loves my silly prints! It's a collage!
 A collage of Kitsch!
In the words of Michael Kors, it looks "Becky-Home-ecky" with colored rick rack and that cluttered feel.
 Pretty much sums up my vast collection of items around the house! I have made quilts in the past with each of these on them but none with ALL of them on them. Til now.
Did I mention this is due in a week? Which brings me to my Fred Babb poster hanging next to the cutting table in the studio:

Deadlines... Friends or Foes?

Neither, just a stimulant.

If you need me, I'll be in the studio. Crazed.

LeeAnna