Mandala XV

 

(Above:  Mandala XV. 28 1/2" x 28 1/2".  Hand stitched on a section of an antique Grandmother's Flower Basket quilt section.  Assorted found objects include: textile mill spindles, felt piano hammers, brass lamp fixtures, keys, Nehi bottle caps, slides, buttons, metal washers, pieces of a folding yardstick, clock gears, perle cotton labels, square cut nails, assorted paper clips, U-shaped brackets, single pronged drapery hook, bolts, plastic and metal rings, and hardware from a bi-folding door donated to my stash by my Facebook friend Kim Davison.)

 

 

(Above:  Mandala XV, detail.)

I was a little sad when the last scrap of the antique blue-and-white quilt turned into Mandala XIV.  Why?  Well, I didn't have any more of it left.  I was going to have to find another vintage or antique quilt to use as a base.  I wasn't sure I had such an old quilt but then I found this battered, well worn Grandmother's Flower Basket quilt in my stash.  It presented a challenge.  Could I go from the now familiar square blocks to one with all those little hexagons? 

 

(Above:  Mandala XV, detail.)

Not being a traditional quilter and never really inspecting a Grandmother's Flower Basket quilt as closely as needed for this project, I was temporarily stumped.  The rows of hexagons don't actually line up.  The rows can be viewed horizontally and vertically but also on every diagonal imaginable.  Stretching a quarter of the quilt over my stretcher bar took a lot of concentration but finally worked. The only way to approach this was to first trace two giant circles around the center motif.

  

(Above: Mandala XV, detail.)

Once the two circles of brown buttons were stitched down, the spindles were put into place.  The rest of the piece came together quite quickly after that.  I'm already stitching on the next mandala ... so come back again!