Mandala Quilt

Here's an idea I had a little while ago. One of the things I've been making for a while now are photo mandalas. Basically you take a photograph of something, open it up in Photoshop, then take a pie-shaped slice of it, which you then flip, merge down, copy, paste, turn, &c., until you have a mandala, the number of segments depending on the angle of the original pie slice. To wit:

(From an original photo of autumn sumac leaves and berries.)

Mandalas, kaleidoscope patterns, quilt blocks... hmmm, all very similar, aren't they?

So I thought I'd design some blocks with this mandala method.

This wasn't real high-tech, mind you; pretty much I just scribbled for a while on the 45° pie template in Photoshop until I got something, or rather, several somethings, I liked. So these are the 'quilt blocks' I eventually assembled together:

Now interpreting that out to quilt blocks is a little trickier than I thought, but I managed to get one done. From this sketch

I made

I've changed the colors around, since I'm making it in shades of green, with autumnal sort of accents in red, orange and yellow. Sort of the old M&M color scheme, but with an emphasis on the green (Eddie van Halen would be proud). The block is fifteen inches square, and sewn by hand.

Red Pinwheel Quilt

Well here's the first of my works in progress, and, these things being what they are, it's the one I've started most recently.

It's the makings of a pinwheel quilt, done in red and white prints, meaning red and white only, one red printed on a white, not off-white, background. Of course, being as they are all different brands of cloth, the reds are all a little different, which I can't decide if I like or don't like. Here they all are so far, laid out edge to edge.



Why who's this? That looks like a cat, one Mad Maudlin the familiar. Surprised, aren't you? I know I sure wasn't.



I don't know how they know.

Hello Out There

It's an artificial and unnecessarily hierarchical separation, I know, dividing them up into Art (capital A) and craft (lowercase c). I have myself always maintained that if you make it, dammit, it's Art. Knit a sweater, spin some wool, weave that wool, dye that cloth, paint that painting, throw that pot, build that bookcase—all Art. Capital A.

But then I'm pretty sure my patron Goddess is Athena. If She invented it, or She made it it's Art, and, well, who am I to argue?

That said, this is my new craft blog, which I am founding as a separate thing from my Goddessy art blog, Amused Grace. Separate, because the focus is rather different, not because craft is not art.

It will probably be mostly about quilting, with some knitting, natural dyeing, doll and critter making, and maybe even cooking and gardening thrown in. But mostly textiles and fibers, I think. If anything else it will be a way to keep track of all those unfinished object works in progress I've got piling up. Though I should know by now I never have been, and probably never will be, all that organized. Still, hope, you know.

There may be the occasional tutorial, for instance how to do what I did when I re-labeled all the spices in my spice rack to witchy ingredients. I've been cooking with Eye of Newt (allspice) and Bee's Knees (saffron) for years now, and let me tell you it's much more fun.

But always with an eye to the witchy, or, properly, to the Witchy, because that's who I am. A Witch, and a Pagan, and a Goddess worshiper (and writer-about, and painter-of).