Tulip Fields and the point of no return...

 And for today's journey we head to Lisse in south Holland to visit the magnificent tulip fields.  Every year from March to May, the bulbs erupt into masses of gorgeous color.  Not only tulips but daffodils, hyacinth, and other colorful bulbs.  I imagine it's a similar breathtaking experience of seeing the Cherry Blossoms on their peak day in our nation's Capitol.

I wanted to make something abstract and modern and found inspiration in this Daily Overview - Tulip fields shot.  

It's stunning.  The author of the IG account says that the fields remind him of one of his favorite artists, Piet Mondrian, a Dutch painter.  You can find his story here  Piet Mondrian.  This particular piece of art must surely have been influenced by the beautiful grid work of those bulbs of spring.

So starting the endeavor was easy.  Grab fabric, start cutting.  I tried mapping this out on my graph paper but it didn't seem to feel right doing it that way this time.  I felt that while this needed some accuracy in lines and grids, it needed a little improv in the mix.

Don't you hate pulling these collections apart...  It's like breaking the seal on a box of chocolates...

I felt like Houdini...I whipped that table cloth right out from under that set of priceless china!

And then there was the cutting and sewing and cutting and sewing....

Lots of tiny scraps after this project.  The straight lines don't create awful waste like fussy cutting shapes.

Of course, no project is complete without some unsewing.  (Please note my luxurious and fabulous seam ripper, again, which makes the unpleasant task a little easier to bear...)

    

 I had to do a lot of referring back to photos.  There are countless examples on Google images or IG (#tulipfields).

I decided making the fields in blocks and then sewing those together made more sense.  It went from here:

Then onto here:

And the point of no return I referenced...It's when you make a huge design decision and you need to make that fateful cut.  That cut ...knowing you have no more of that special Oakshott fabric color left...so once you make that cut...it's a wrap...

To here and here and here:

Too large of a field in the corner

Better...but not quite right yet...

And then finally...I was happy.

Quilting starts in a few days.  I'll probably do another face binding on this so there is no other border to add.  I'm very happy with the end result!

Have you ever been lucky enough to see these in person?  Been the Cherry Festival in Washington, D.C.?  Or the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, NC?  Or the Rose Festival in Tyler, TX?  I'm an East Coast girl...unsure of any flower festivals past TX....  What's out there?

I've got some great linky parties on my sidebar - I'll be linking all week.  I'd love to hear your thoughts!