Ad Hoc Improv - Exploring Fabric Possibilities

This week with I'm doing something I've never done before: writing a new post before I've finished reciprocating and replying to the previous one.  That makes me feel a bit guilty, but Tuesday is the monthly Ad Hoc Improv Quilt Group link up at Sew Slowly and Fret Not Yourself and I don't want to miss it.  I will still catch up with everyone who commented last time, I promise. 

If you have been doing any improvisational sewing this month, be sure to head over to Ann & Kaja's blogs and join their Ad Hoc Improv linky party.  Even just for the reading pleasure, it's worth a look. People's posts are always so thought provoking and inspiring.  This is a really fun group!

I haven't made much progress on my Improv quilt, except that I did a preliminary fabric pull and have been exploring the possibilities, by pinning fabrics to the wall.  I'm playing around with the idea of creating two quaking aspens on the left side of the quilt.  I'm pretending that they are lit up because of the glow from a campfire, and standing out against a starry night sky.  I have a few more ideas of where to go after that, but will take one step at a time.  This is what was up on my design wall:

Frankly, I'm a bit stalled here.  I thought maybe I'd do the leaves and bushes in improv triangles.  Or maybe random squares and rectangles.  Some of those gold fabrics seem too bright, so I was thinking about over-dyeing them.  That's Carrie Bloomston's Indigo Stars fabric in the background.  The stars are represented by little bits of paper, like they were torn from the pages of a book.  Less of it will show by the time I do the bushes in the foreground and the leaves.  I'm concerned about making things too chaotic, because I really want this quilt to communicate a sense of peace.  But it will also look a bit like altered art when I'm done... I plan to add an excerpt from an Edmund Spencer poem.  All these elements and still a sense of peace... maybe that's too tall of an order. 

What do you think? Is the starry background too much?  And would randomly shaped triangles look better for the leaves and bushes, or rectangles and squares?  This is a learning process for me and I welcome your thoughts.   

Thanksgiving and all the preparation seems to take a very large chunk of time out of this week.  We also had a baby shower for our daughter Kaitie, which Alina & Gonzo drove in for, and our son Sam is home with us all week. It has been wonderful though.  I'm sure many of you are just as busy, but I would love to know what your plans are for the holiday (or the week, if you are not celebrating the holiday in the U.S.)  Also, I decided to wait to share Ruth's Mug Rug Swap with you next week, when hopefully we'll all have a little more free time.  

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Also linking this post to Cath's Design Board Monday at Bits 'n Bobs - which is open 'til Sunday!