Summer and Winter Ripples

My summer and winter fabric for a guild exhibit at a weaving conference. I do love this fabric: a 10/2 mercerized warp, sett 24 e.p.i., and a 10/2 tabby weft with a 2/8 wool pattern weft (this is Jaegerspun's Maine Line, I believe.) The pattern is Summer and Winter Ripples from Davison's Handweaver's Pattern Book.

I've finished the cloth, but am 1) afraid to cut into it and 2) not sure what to make. The project is due next Tuesday, June 14th, 2011. I have this convoluted idea for a piece - a muff or capelet - that relates to an eighteenth-century astronomer and has writing inside the garment, but I haven't mastered how to do the writing, and it has been a very long time since I've sewn with handwoven fabrics.

If you have a tip on how to use the sewing machine to embroider/sew words, please clue me in. I've been looking at free-motion quilitng, but here again, nada experience.

Anyway, I'm enjoying just contemplating the cloth. Maybe I could hang it over a dowel rod and call it a table runner?