Take It Further Challenge for August Complete

Today's postcard

August's challenge topic was "balance." Balance. Hmmm. An ongoing goal, a moving target, never overrated. Without apology becaused it's September, here's my quilt. 14" x 15".

Balance between sturdy cotton and soft, delicate silk. I used hand-dyed cotton for the background and placed dyed silk hankes on top. With sparkly tulle on top of that to keep the silk in place.

Balance between imagination and programmed machine-embroidery.

Balance between strong colors.

Balance between quadrants and flowing curves.

In personal life, flowers for balance and a few sparkles thrown in.

Here's the behind-the-scenes. I had thought ribbon would be a good addition to this quilt and actually bought several rolls trying to find the ones that would look just right. On finishing the quilt last night, or so I thought, I felt uneasy but thought maybe I'd just looked at it for too long.

This morning I knew it just wasn't right. Way too uptight and the outer ribbon was fraying where I cut it too close. I decided to cover the ribbon with fabric. And this is what I learned: for a fused border of this type, a layer of ribbon provides just the right amount of extra stability. It's almost like a layer of stabilizer. A trick I know I'll use again.

I also tried zig zag free motion stitching. Much more freeing, since my usual free motion is pretty precised. Another tool.