I'm so Blue.....

About two weeks ago, while I was still waiting for the final bits I ordered for the NJF piece I am working on, I decided that I needed to do a challenge piece.  By challenge piece, I mean have someone challenge me to do a piece that was all one color.  Now this could also work for things like all floral prints, all solids, etc.  For this one, it was color and my partner picked blue (and thus the title of my post!).

I also decided to restrict the piece by size (no more the 15" x 12") and I could only use items I already had in house - no ordering decorations or fabric or anything! luckily, I had navy blue binding I could use for the edges!). 

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I used the same process as I do with the bigger pieces - pin together and look at it for a few days, changing things around before starting to sew. I also went with a technique on the binding that I have used only once before - which is instead of simply sewing the binding onto the piece, I would embroider the binding onto the piece. 

As you can see in this photo, I have used a (non-exciting) embroidery stitch to attach the binding to the piece. I did the same thing for the blue challenge piece but I used different shades of blue embroidery thread and slightly more interesting stitches!

I was pretty excited, too because it let me use for the first time special tabs I made to sign my pieces!  They were pretty inexpensive and I like the look.

I also sewed a pocket on the back to insert a dowel in order to make it easier to hang up the piece.

Overall I love the look and am pretty happy with how the piece turned out.  My first finished piece of 2015!