This month, I have several looming deadlines. To help me de-stress, I stitched up two mini Wholecloth quilted Mandalas. Some might think this an odd choice for stress relief, but I really enjoy the Zen and meditative nature of these mandala designs.
The first mini mandala took a little over 2 hours, but almost half of that time was spent ripping out the background stitching. Initially, I used the same Medium Butter thread from the center mandala design and went with my comfort zone of
Zig Zag Meander for the background. Almost a 3rd of the way through quilting the background I ran out of bobbin thread. While initially frustrating, this proved to be a good thing as it gave me time to reevaluate and realize that the background quilting was all wrong for this design! So I spent almost 45 minutes ripping out all the stitching. Again, this gave me time to reevaluate what was needed in the background and come up with a much better design solution involving a contrasting thread color and a much better motif that just radiates out from the mandala.
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| Celestial Mandala, Finishes 12" x 12" |
I had so much fun creating this mini mandala that the next morning, I set out to quilt a companion quilt in under one hour using a different set of thread colors. As I was using the same basic design, I found more efficient pathways.
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| Ocean Waves Mandala, Finishes 12" x 12" |
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| Zen Quilting |
Aurifil 50-weight threads were used for all the quilting:
- Celestial Mandala: Medium Butter (2130) and Storm at Sea Variegated (4655)
- Ocean Waves: Bright Orange (1133) and Creme de Menthe Variegated (4662)
I love how the variegated threads add wonderful contrast, color & texture to the background.
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| Aurifil Adds AMAZING Contrast, Color & Texture!! |
Ok--enough procrastinating for me...back to tackling my quilting deadlines!
I saw your photos on Instagram but enjoy reading details. Blogs are so wonderful, especially yours. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing some destress sewing, too, with a different looming deadline.
Oh I agree--Instagram is great for eye candy...but I love reading about the process via blogs. Hence why I really enjoy your blogs and learning more about your fascinating design process!! Wishing you lots of Happy quilting and happy blogging to de-stress!!
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