Lightbulb...

...moment in the middle of the night.

The first thing that came to my mind for my blue scheme collage was hydrangea. I may not always stick with the flower/plant theme for these monthly collages...but I guess it's where my head is right now. Maybe it's because I'm getting sick of winter....we've had a slushy snowy couple of days.

Just one blossom....a whole bouquet?  How could I make it work? My first thought was to cut out and fuse individual petals....but that could get tedious. I knew stitching would be an important element...so I kept mulling it over.

I loved this image I found on Pinterest....it originated here.

Then last night I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea and I had to get up and sketch it out so I could go back to sleep.

"Stitch...then cut out...then overlay....even 1" were my middle of the night night notes. This would allow me to cut out chunks or even one set of petals to layer and overlay to create depth. With a few beads and/or french knots in the centers I think it might work and actually look like hydrangea! Yay!

One of the first things I did this morning was give it a try. I chose a piece of vibrant blue hand dyed fabric and backed it with Wonder Under. Then I free motion quilted a set of petals and cut it out.  I can see in this photo that I need to dust my sewing machine. 

I think it worked out pretty well for my first crack at it. Now I just need to make several more sets of different sizes and come up with an interesting background in other shades of blue.

Maybe tonight I'll sleep better.