Seed Packets V2-Help Needed

I mentioned last week that my mom and I did a couple of new technique mini-projects over the holidays (BTW, how is February already over??).  The first was the painting technique I already shared, and the second one was making stamps out of meat packages.  This was also an idea from a magazine, but alas I've forgotten which one.  We cut out flat sections from foam meat trays and used a pen or pencil to carve into them. Mom did the two on the left and I did the one on the right. I really love tiling designs, so tried to make a pattern that would repeat across the edges of each print.

We were somewhat limited by the amount of meat tray that didn't have other stuff already imprinted on it.  We tried to get the men to get us some more meat trays while they were suffering through the holiday-grocery-store-nightmare, but our small town walmart didn't have any meat trays without meat on them and no one needed any more meat, so we just went with what we had.

After "carving" them, we just used regular acrylic paint to make prints.  Here's a strip of test prints from one of mom's.  Her second block (the flowery one) made a really nice repeating design but I didn't get any pictures of it.  

I started printing mine to make a 16" square, with our 16 x 16 seed packet challenge in mind.  I didn't have quite enough green mixed up, so my first panel wound up have lots of different shades of green.  We also weren't quite sure how much paint to use, so some prints were globbier than others.  I kind of like the variation in green but not the globbiness.  Anyway, I was gamely printing along, then got to the last row and ACK printed one of them upside down.  I could have screamed.  I finished up the pattern, then just printed another panel.  The second time, I mixed up extra paint so I had more uniform colors and I managed to print them all in the correct orientation.

First panel

Second panel

Here are a couple of close ups so you can see the repeat a bit better.

So here's where I  need help.  I have absolutely no idea what to do with these (either one or both).  I thought about using them as a background for something else, but what?  They're pretty busy.  I thought about just quilting them and finishing them as a whole cloth, but I have no idea how I'd quilt them and I feel like they'd be a bit flat.

Any suggestions?  I really have no idea at all!

Linking up with Nina-Marie as ever!

Seed Packets V1

My mom and I usually like to try some new (to us) technique or small project over the holiday break.  For one thing, it's fun for us to experiment together, and for another, it's always nice to have a small project to be working on that's no pressure and not for a deadline.  This year we highlighted two things to try.  The first was an Esterita Austin technique that we saw in Quilting Arts.

Basically you take a drawing and put it underneath parchment paper (so you can see your drawing), then paint the parchment paper.

Then you put organza backed with misty fuse on top of the paint and iron it. The paint transfers to the organza basically giving you a painted, fusible applique shape.  Since mom and I have an upcoming SAQA New Mexico showcase requesting 16x16 "Seed Packet" quilts, we decided to do plants.  She picked the lilies (below) and I did a teddy bear cholla (above).

Mom decided to do a confetti background for hers, but I decided to just quilt mine normally.

I don't have finished shots of Mom's, but here it was in progress:

And here are some final (sort of) shots of mine:

Both of us thought they were looking pretty flat.  Mom stitched a bunch of stamens onto her flowers, beaded the centers, and then made some extra 3D flowers (out of white vinyl) to stitch on the front.  It is about 100x more dimensional now, but alas I don't have a picture.  It's in the upcoming Dallas quilt show so I'll try to get a picture.  I didn't do anything nearly as cool with mine, but I did go ahead and add some beading to the centers which I think helps some (sorry for the crummy phone pictures, I had to snap them quickly before sending this off).

I actually think my favorite part of this quilt is that awesome background fabric coupled with the ombre piping and purple binding.