Block for Sharon's class - motif issue

This is the block I stitched to embellish in Sharon Boggon's 3-day workshop.. I did this much in 3 long days and am kinda tired of it right now so it is a good time to evaluate it before I go any further with it. As usual when I gather things for a block there are items that HAVE to be on it for one reason or another. Most often because I am emotionally attached to them as gifts from a friend. Here it was the purple rose made by Theresa Rapstine, pink motifs and trim from Janet Popish and the lace in the lower right from a friend at my senior center...



Immediately there is a problem in that the flowers are almost the same size... I could have placed them together to quickly solve the problem... Since I didn't.... no matter where I placed them the eye would just jump from one to the other no matter how strong your path.. This often a design problem I see on blocks... There will be 2 strong focal points competing with each other... The solution is an easy one... make them unequal by building one up and reducing the effect of the other. Adding additional embellishing to the purple rose and giving it a prime position nearer the center makes it the dominant focal point...With the magic of photoshop you could see that I could even build it up even more. By removing some embellishment (not shown) and placing the other focal point at the lowest right (almost off the block) it is diminished in importance. Doing these two things increased the contrast between the two focal points.



Next is this block really needed stronger elements to draw the eye away the the diagonally path between the two focal points so I ruched the ribbon seam mid center bottom to draw the eye to the left and then back up to the other focal point...likewise the trim and dragonfly on the upper right... The path really need some tweaking yet... but I'd like to point out some points of interest on the seams from the second day of the workshop.... tomorrow...

Maureen B and Cathy K. are both posting great pictures of the adventure... Most of mine were quilt shots and most of the people shots were out of focus..