Dropcloth ~~ a modern finish

I decided about a month ago that I wanted to enter a few quilts into QuiltCon. Hopefully, the jury will accept them, but for now I just want to try. I tried last year but missed the mark, so this year I decided to try a different tactic. I'd make a quilt especially for this purpose.

To that end, I read the rules. Several times. Then I pondered and mulled and thought. And I read the rules again. I decided. One quilt would meet the requirements of the two-color challenge, and the second would shoot for the requirements of the small quilt entries.
Small quilts – A modern quilt that measures 36" or smaller per side. The quilt can be any shape as long as it does not exceed the size limit on any side.

Hmm, that seems doable. So I had an idea. I once saw a painting on a sitcom that I liked. I don't even know if the show is still on the air, but I remembered some things about the painting that I really liked.  A couple of circles in lime green and orange-sherbet colors were important. So I started there and planned an asymmetrically pieced, neutral background so the colors would really pop. 

Then there was a problem. The quilt didn't want to be what I had in my mind. It wanted to be a drop cloth. You know, the kind of cloth painters put on the floor to catch drips. That's what the quilt wanted, and who am I to argue? I let it be a darn drop cloth. The circles became the rings that are caused when paint pools at the bottom of the can. A few droplets appeared. The quilt was doing its thing. 

Since paint can look different when it dries in different ways or when the light hits it, I played with colors using fabric and threading painting. But still it just looked like circles and blobs, and the quilt didn't really want that.

So I added a bit of a footprint. As though the painter stepped on the edge of the cloth while working. I just pulled off my own shoe and used it for a pattern. I really liked that. The footprint made the difference. But when two construction workers come in and they don't recognize a drop cloth when they see one, maybe it's not a drop cloth. Yet.

So I pointed out the obvious and they sort of agreed with me. "Except the thing is too clean, and who knew that was a footprint anyway? It doesn't even have a heel," he said.

So I added another footprint. Bigger. A bolder footprint to satisfy a hard-headed son. I used his dad's shoe for size and decided that maybe this guy stepped in or on the blob just for effect. And I was really happy.

Happy enough that I started quilting it and finished before another construction guy could come in and dash my joy. And as soon as I had a good 200 or so stitches in, I had the brilliant idea that maybe this is one of those drop cloths that you can see through. So I removed some of those first stitches and started building blocks with different motifs in each. Kind of a changing tile floor. Or maybe this is a showroom floor. I'm not sure, but it's definitely a floor because a construction worker came in and recognized the drop cloth lying on the back of the sofa. A different son. One who has a better imagination and knows what he's looking at when he sees a drop cloth.