Mini Mandala

It's the end of our process challenge and time to reveal the full quilt.  I have to say that this was a tough one for me to document - I so seldom actually have a full plan before I start, and then to actually stop and think about what I was doing along the way??!!
My early thoughts were captured here and here  I left you wondering how I was going to add colour and whether I was going to use trapunto.
To pick it up at that point, I decided to use two layers of batting and forego the trapunto.  I quilted up my outlines

and decided I would start with thread colour and see where that took me

some stitching - I gave myself some guidelines this time, and used a Frixon pen, which you will see in many of the pictures.  Being a wholecloth quilt, I wanted to stick to tradition and have it fairly symetrical.  The lines helped with that.

I started with the yellow centre, then moved onto the orange petals

Then to the green cross hatching - I used my rulers here

then to the blue - I started doing a feather but didn't like it so actually did some reverse stitching, which is pretty unusual for me, but I'm glad I did.

you can see I also added some pink in the form of the circles in the corners.  Next the background was quilted - I contemplated going with another colour, but then decided that there was such a thing as too much colour, so I dialed it back to white!

Finished the cross hatching, and then did matchstick quilting around the edge.  A quick hit with a hot iron and the green marks are gone

I decided that there was already enough colour, so I didn't get to try my pastels, this time.

I added the binding last night

and I am very happy with the final result! 

Thank you for another interesting challenge Vicki!

(My apologies about the quality of the pictures, seems I just wasn't ready to take any while the sun was actually shining!)

Open to Change

Open.

So many different ways to interpret this.  As someone who likes to experiment, and my "creations" don't always match my original plans and expectations, I really have to be open to change!

 

 

In a recent workshop day with Catherine Nicholls, we were experimenting, (or more correctly playing!)  with pen and ink.  This is something that I have absolutely no experience with, but oh what a great day it was!  We had some fun with playing with dots - lots of fun in fact!  (more about that in a future post on my blog)

 

 

and eventually, we reached the point where we were to paint cherry blossoms using Inktense pencils, washes and shading.  The fun with this is that it is so unpredictable as to what you will get.

I am no artist.  It soon became apparent that I was not creating a cherry blossom in any way shape or form!

 

 

decidedly not cherry blossom like

 

Much more tulip like.  I was open to this, and worked with what was presented, adding some shading with pencil crayons and dots.  Some faux trapunto, some dense quilting (whaaaaattt?!) and my end result

 

This is an example of what I like about creating - being open to what is revealing itself as you progress and being open to change to take a project in a completely different direction!

You never know what comes next!

 

Thank you Gina, I really enjoyed this theme!

 

Janet

Finished size 16" x 16"
Wholecloth, painted, pen & inked, traputoed and quilted,
Superior Bottomline thread top and bottom