sweet sultans {for my hun}

Last week, these lovely warm fabrics popped up in my (still) snow-covered mailbox courtesy of Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery Fabrics.  Having had some time to think through my concept for her upcoming blog tour, I quickly set to work pulling coordinating oakshotts to complement the fiery tones in the prints.

Originally I was deciding between two ideas:  one inspired by free people's Valentine's feather arrow, and a second that incorporated this traditional block (Sweet Sultan, BB #800.8; coming soon to the INDEX).

Initially I opted for the arrows, but after getting the idea to fussy-cut the bees from one of Bonnie's prints for the center piece of each sweet sultan flower,

I'm happy to report I came up with a design that incorporates both.

The next few days will be full of feathers (of the paper-pieced variety), and once I've completed the top I hope to try my hand at hand quilting before my stop on the tour next week.

With the help of my color consultant, of course, who wisely added the lavender hues back into the mix after I had (foolishly) considered omitting them ;o)

What do you think?  Did we make the right call?

linking up with Lee