I'm not quite sure what sort of quilt this antique bed cover should be called. It really isn't a crazy quilt. It was designed in blocks with a large center featuring a black fabric circle. The blocks really weren't put together from random bits of fabric. Yet, the seams were all embroidered with neat herringbone stitches, just like many crazy quilts. For more than two years, I resisted using it, cutting it ... but finally, I had something for the center ... a beautiful porcelain plate. I could resist no longer!
The other thing about this antique quilt had to do with the size of the center block. It was big ... as in the width and height of two of the outer blocks. I knew that a mandala would have to be equally big! Another challenge was figuring out just how much of the surface should be covered. On many of my other Found Object Mandalas, the underlying quilt isn't as obvious. Some people look at all the objects for several minutes before realizing that there's a quilt! Even other quilters don't always "see" the quilt first. With this one, however, I wanted the beautiful antique to be noticed on first glance. Thus, I had to work hard to find the objects that balanced the white of the porcelain plate but also allowed the dark fabrics to still be visible.
I wanted the fabric blades extending from the black circle to still be part of the design. So ... for the first time ... I decided to use glue on sixteen glass prisms. Why? Well ... they are clear! They wouldn't take away from the quilt but they only had one hole ... at the top. Sure ... I know how to stitch them down but I worried that the threads weren't going to be enough to keep them firmly in place. Thus, I did use hot glue. One can see the hot glue through them but it fortunately doesn't look bad! I'm very pleased how this piece turned out!
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