Progress on the tiling piece

It's been a while since I updated on the piece I'm currently working on.  In contrast to the QN piece which feels very last year (in my weird brain), this piece feels very immediate (and currently irritating since I'm struggling with monofilament quilting).  In case you don't remember I started with these tiles I designed while in a workshop with Jenny Bowker.

I decided to incorporate them into a piece to fit into my ongoing liturgical series.  In addition, the timing was right to try to finish it in time for the current open call for entry for a quilt with a quote or saying on it.  The show is one of the  IQF ones this year (I think it's actually called "Just Sayin").  I decided to feature the text from the peace; the time in a traditional Catholic or Episcopalian service (maybe others too?) when congregants greet one another.  The actual words in our prayer book are "The peace of the Lord be always with you" and people respond "and also with you".  That was too many words to fit in my shape though, so I went with the more common greeting between people- "Peace be with you.  And also with you".  Inspired by a gorgeous piece of Islamic art/tile work/illumination, I decided to fit my words into a round piece to go in front of the tiles.

Here is my paper pattern as I was drawing all my letters into the round shape.  It was tricky to get them to angle properly and fit right.  I'm not 100% pleased and a typographer or calligrapher probably would have done much better, but it was the best I could do!

And of course I then cut the letters out of four different colors of gold fabric (because you always need more sparkle).

Here they are all fused down.  In case it's completely illegible, it reads "Peace be with you" around the outside and "and also with you" around the inside.

Then for the tile borders I decided to make myself crazy and foundation pieced this chevron pattern.  All these fabrics are different golds (about 10 I think) all different weights and textures, all ravelly and all a giant mess, but I love the way it turned out.

Here it is so you can see more or less the main composition.  There is now a big (6-8") solid maroon border that goes around the whole thing.

I decided to bind the edges of the gold pieced border and the round part since there were a bunch of raw edges.  The gold border especially was way to thick to turn, but I really wanted it to be on top.  I also couched sparkly razzle dazzle thread aroudn all the letters and I hope that makes them a bit easier to read.

Linking up with Nina-Marie as always!  Mike and I are leaving for Alaska on Saturday, keep your fingers crossed we don't get caught in a tide or eaten by a bear.