More Fabric Flowers and an Inspiration

I think I have almost enough flowers to start my Garden piece.  Here they are laid out on my counter.  Some are painted, others are pieced from fabric.

I still need a couple of tulips and I plan to embroider some foliage and flowers onto the background but I started to lay them out yesterday on my pieced sun printed background.  I don't want to give everything away but I have to show you this serendipitous piece of inspiration.    After I laid them out on the counter in the late afternoon sun, the sun's rays suddenly appeared across the piece (the sun made my colours look a bit faded - actually much stronger colours).

Since I placed the flowers on a path radiating out from the large sunflower in the upper left this was a stroke of genius - thanks, sun!   I decided to add 'rays' radiating down from the top corner using gold organza.   The whole piece is actually square.    This is just a portion of it.  It reminds me of two things.  One, a plan is never set in stone.   Two, inspiration comes in many ways.   This one was pure serendipity!   

Now I will attempt to free motion stitch each flower.  I need to add some little printed signs - the theme is friendship.   I was planning on embroidering words but just now got the idea of printed ones (like the little signs you see in public gardens).     The pieced background is not exact but I am hoping that machine and hand stitching and then quilting will do the trick.  It looks like a long process.  And I want to finish it by the end of February.