Friday, November 6, 2009

Auditions and Rejects

One of my favorite shows is "So You Think You Can Dance".  It's real dancers (okay, if you ignore the few delusional folks in the beginning) with extraordinary talent. Sometimes everything in a dance works together so perfectly it touches my emotions.

Someone said that picking fabrics is auditioning them.   

I was auditioning the "petally" flowers.  "Step right up to the stage..."

You're pretty, but you seem to blend in too much with the background. 



Looked at other hopefuls.  These next ones did make the first cut... enough for me to go to the trouble of cutting them out. But they were told they weren't what we were looking for.  



Go red?  No, got enough red already... the apples and other flower is red.  Medium pink seems to work.  I liked the variety of prints in the first choice, but my stash wasn't cooperating with that thought. Buy more? That'd be fun, but nah... it's good enough.



Next up, stems.  (Didn't realize we were auditioning stems in the pic above, did you?)

Lighter, or darker?  (I'm so glad we live in a digital age.)
Darker it is.



I still wonder about the butterfly.  I am not a butterfly person. I wanted something pretty, but a little subtle. Love the fabric.  Might be too subtle.  I'll stitch more of the block while I mull it over.



I needed thread.  The kind I like is 40 minutes across town.  Took care of that the other day... along with a few more fabrics - small cuts for $1 each and a few fat quarters.

Marked the background. That wasn't an easy decision as I've read others' cautions about this technique. I did test it carefully first. I like the freedom from the vinyl overlay.

I'm stitching the stems, but that looks to boring to show you. I'll share my progress sometime this weekend.

7 comments:

Crispy said...

I love where this block is going. I think your butterfly is wonderful (I'm not a fan of them either).

Crispy

paulette said...

Funny that you should mention butterflies...when I was at the dentist yesterday they had paintings on the wall (with price tags on...) There was a pic of hydrangeas and I loved the pictures but the artist put a butterfly on the corner and it spoilt the whole painting for me. My advice (and I do like butterflies) is stitch everything down, then place the butterfly and step back and ask your self-does the picture really need it? I bet the artist of the painting was wishing he/she had done that...or maybe not??
Have a great day! Love the way you write! And yes, I watch 'So You Think you can dance" and "Dancing with the Stars" ...good sewing shows!
Paulette

Anonymous said...

Very pretty!! Yep darker stems really pop!

Kaaren said...

You certainly aeem to be on the right track, color-wise, Beth. It's looking great to me. And the appliqued pieces look mighty fine to me as well. My goodness you catch on quickly. Great job!

Carrie P. said...

I am busy auditioning fabrics for my Tisket, A Tasket blocks.
I like your butterfly. Instead of a butterfly it looks like a Luna moth to me. I like it.

Robin said...

Wow! You are making some quick progress. The colors you are going with are just lovely! I think the butterfly is just right... like a little bit of flutter and lightness. :)

Cathi said...

I like the butterfly you've shown. Seems very light and fluttery, like a butterfly. I think the camera is one of my favourite tools when checking to see if fabrics work. Often I see something when I look at a photo on the computer screen that I didn't notice.