Cutting into the "good" fabric

The piece I spoke of in the last post is now pieced and ready to be sandwiched, for quilting.  I got to thinking about why I had wanted this to be a special piece so much.  The fabrics used were some of my special mandala-dyed fabrics.  These take a lot of work and can be expensive to produce when all of the fabric, dyes, and bags of ice, are considered, let alone the time involved in preparing the fabric.  ( I was preparing a small piece today and spent over an hour with it, and still haven't finished).  My willingness to cut into them ( there were four of them), took a lot of gumption!  Even if the piece refused to let me make a very involved mixed-media "thing", actually producing a finished piece, traditional in character or not, is still an accomplishment.  So I will use it to practice my FMQ'g skill and do the best job I can.  I'm even willing to share what it looks like, so far. It is about 40" square, and not, at all, in my preferred palette, except for the barn red, which I laughingly call a neutral.