Lily, Lily, No Rose...*

I have become a woman possessed! This process of finishing the lilies is like doing a jigsaw but making up the puzzle as you go along. I am moving to basically the focal point of the whole piece and it definitely requires the most attention to make sure there is a change in value or size or texture so that it is emphasized. Each piece must be pondered, accepted or thrown aside -- many times after being sewn together. Of course I have modified the pattern has I have progressed through each section and next time may just not even attempt to do the fine detail until I get to this stage of the project! As you get more familiar with your subject while working on it, you understand it better and therefore can make better line and color decisions than originally.




If you look at the picture above, you will see a small piece of fabric peaking out from under the lily piece. It is the bottom part of a piece of hand painted fabric I bought 10 years ago in the infancy of people doing hand painting on fabrics. I have never known what to do with it but it had the perfect colors in it for the greenish inner part of the lily so the former painted mountain scene is now just fabric with a couple of holes in it. I have NO problem cutting into any fabric!! I have used some of my hand dyes and one of my marbled pieces in this as well.
Now here is my guilty secret! This is how I work when in the midst of a project like this!! Fabric surrounds me -- this is on the floor next to me and I have to step over it to exit the room.

This is piled up next to me and this surface also doubles for trimming pieces and making new pieces if I have to. Usually there is a cat right in the middle of it which does inhibit the process at times as I don't want to rotary cut his big fluffy tail! But if I can machine quilt with a cat sitting on the quilt, having a cat in the middle of my fabric is no big deal!! At least he doesn't wrap himself around the machine like he used to!! Now that inhibited sewing....

*This is an allusion to the painting by the American painter John Singer Sargent a poster of which hangs on my stair landing. It is of two young girls with day lilies in the background. It is called Lily, Lily, Rose.