Trying a new technique

I have played around for the last couple of days with a technique that I saw on a video and also in the last Quilting Arts magazine (Dec/Jan).  It is by Beryl Taylor and incorporates reverse applique.  It looks so simple on the video and sounds so easy in the article.
I have spent three days working on it.  I decided to adapt her work and use my own design, based on tiles I saw in Turkey.  The simplest was of stars as they gave me plenty of pieces to cut out to get the colours showing.  However, I had decided to try to use a blue palette based on the blue and white tiles we saw.  Consequently, the design is not clear - it doesn't 'pop'.

This was despite having 45 different fabrics in the piece - 9 piles with 5 fabrics in each.  I had done the classic quilter thing, finding fabrics that go together beautifully. I needed to use some that I would never put together, to get the contrast.
However, having seen the video, I will put this aside and think about some of the other things Beryl uses on her art quilts, things I would never have thought of doing.  It will be a good experimental piece, if nothing else.

Back to the drawing board.  I then thought about other designs we had seen in Turkey and realised that we had seen somes that had circles as part of them, the same shape that Beryl had used.  So more cutting out and putting together of colours - ones that would have a greater contrast this time.

After I had sewn and then cut them again, I attached the squares to the backing and started playing with the sewing machine.  It is a long time since I have done any free motion sewing so the circles are quite wonky - fortunately that is not only allowable in this design, it is necessary, otherwise you don't get the small sections for cutting into.

I even found some metallic thread in my stash.  I could have sworn I have never sewn with metallic thread but there was a bobbin with some on it.  After many re-threadings, I know why I haven't done a lot of metallic thread sewing.