September TIF Colors and November Birthday CQ

The September colors appeared, and solved a dilemma I've had with the colors for my November "Crazy for Birthdays" ornament - The Topaz is right there, as are the colors so compatible with it and suitable for a fall theme. I like the brighter intensities of the artwork, though, so brightened my thread selections accordingly. The blue Mandarin floss in the picture with the heart looks almost turquoise on my screen, but in real life it is a lovely, soft greyed blue.

I have had to approach this series a bit differently from my other crazy quilt pieces, as the jewels and flowers are the main features, and must be considered when choosing the other colors. I had already decided to use gold beads to make the "topaz" bracelet, as there were no threads that really looked right - so here they are! I used YLI Honey gold ribbon floss for the warp stitches, and Sundance #4 gold beads for the weft - and they give the effect I wanted.

I had already gone through my stash and pulled out lots of fibers in the colors above, and will make the final choices as I go. The gold settings for the jewels were stitched with Kreinik 002V braid, as the soft gleam is so pretty with the sparkle of the beads - sparkling gold braid would have been too much. These designs are only divided into five or six sections, as the flowers and jewels are the focus, so I wanted to not have them quite as busy as some of the others I've done.

The next step was to pull out my silk ribbon - this from River Silks, but I had to send Jean an emergency S.O.S., as the colors are a bit too bright, in my opinion, for the chrysanthemums I will make - after a lot of practice, of course, and a lot of searching for flower images on the internet. I had no idea so many sizes and shapes existed! I'm thinking about lists now, as that is the "thought" part of the challenge for this month - and already am examining my own habits. I have enjoyed so much these Challenges, as a lot of introspection has resulted, and I have examined different aspects of my life, habits, and way of thinking and working (and taking a few breaks!)

Now I have to get back to "October," which is almost ready for flowers and seam treatments. This could get confusing.