Brain Spark

You know in comics, when someone gets an idea, there's a lightbulb above their head? Mine comes in sparks. Once it sparks though, it's kinda hard to stop the neurons from spreading the spark all over the place. ;) About a week ago, we got an ad for Joann's home decor fabric. Inside said ad was this picturesque picture of someone's couch. On said couch was a bunch of mundane, normal pillows, but then, there it was! A gorgeous pillow with a chrysanthemum fabric flower sewn right on top. I had to make it. I didn't have any directions but I absolutely had to make this pillow. For those of you who have gone shopping with me to any boutique-y store/bazaar/show, I have an obsession with unique pillows. I have a few pillows in my room now, but this surely would be the piece-de-resista'nce! I sat all through dinner brooding this sudden surge of creative juices and how on earth I would piece this together. I decided a protractor would be necessary. But how many petals? How big should they be? Well... when I finally found the protractor, we only had one size. So that answered that question. But how big should the finished project be? How much fabric? Could I use all the fun scraps that I can't use for doll dresses? Would those colors all work? The questions just kept coming. My dad suggested to search the web for directions. Not a whole lot out there... There was one felt pillow, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. But it did give me another lead. Then I decided to check Joann's website. I searched and searched. Finally, I found it. At the bottom of the last page of free projects. I was so excited I almost couldn't contain myself! But as I read the directions, I was taken over by the dark cloud of 'what the heck am I getting into?' To feel what I experienced, just click the link:
http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/projectdetail.jsp?projectFlag=true&CATID=&fullPath=home+decor+%26+fabrics&PRODID=prod342161&subCatName=home+decor+
I decided I could do it easier and more streamlined. I pulled out the protractor and a big plate (because I can't draw circles to save my life) and got to cutting. I didn't know exactly what I was going to do, but I was going to do it. I found some fun fabrics in my stash that were too small to do anything else with, cut them up, and sewed them together. As I sewed them onto the big circle (the plate size), the flower suddenly emerged. I kept going and then finally decided to just stick them all on there to see what this thing was going to look like when all was said and done. ;) Here's what I've come up with so far:

Isn't it gorgeous?! Sorry for the horrible picture... It's what I get for using my webcam. ;)