Ruminating III -- embroidery or thread painting?

this seems to be an ongoing series

of cows that is

it just seems so appropriate when I'm discussing things that are little bits of thought that I've been turning over and over in my head

mooooooo, moooooooo



I've been working on a competition entry for the Hoffman Fabric Challenge

last year's entry (the first one I had ever done) made the traveling show, which in a way makes the creating of this year's entry even a little more intimidating -- big things to live up to after all

so along the way I'm using some different techniques

like this one

there has been a lot of discussion among art quilters about the use of what they call "thread painting" as a technique for embellishment on a quilt

"thread painting" is done on the sewing machine, but it requires a foot for the machine that I don't have (and that is a pretty pricey item)

I did this this sample piece by hand

it looks like thread painting

the process felt like embroidery to me, but with quilting thread instead of embroidery floss (which actually was less of a hassle and allowed me to put the rows of stitches closer together)

so, when I fill in the entry form there will be the question of what do I call it?

since the competition makes no differentiation between hand work and machine work, I guess I can still call it thread painting

and in the long run I don't think it matters what I call it so much as rather I execute it properly