I decided to make my version of Robbi Joy Eklow's "Steampunk Sublime" larger than the original, because I love the gears and I didn't want to lose any of them in the border. Of course, that means I also need more pieces to fill in the next ring. For the loopy arcs, I was going to use a seamed strip of yellow and orange hand dyed fabrics, but they were part of a strip set, so I only had enough to make the 20 or so arcs of the original. Now I need 50. This Laurel Burch print is one of my favorites accents. I usually use it for binding and piping, and it's too loose a weave for raw edge applique, unless you cover the edges. I am using hand dyed cotton braid from YLI, which I'm holding down with a thin line of Elmer's glue, and then zig zagging with monofiliment (My personal favorite is Sulky invisible thread, because it's polyester instead of nylon and handles so much better). I've also been very careful to not fuse down the edge of the blue inner circle, so I can tuck all the edges under it. One arc down, 49 more to go
