Mandalas!
A whole lot of fun!
If you’ve been wanting to try creating mandalas or a feature block for your quilt, try using the Dagubi lace set Illustrator files* (if you have Adobe Illustrator). Mandalas are made in real time so whatever you draw in the drawing segment of the grid, it is immediately reversed and repeated around the rest of the grid. You can see a video about it in the link above. It’s fantastic! There are many apps and programs that mandalas can be made in, this is just the one I chose to use.
Of course once you create a design, you can take apart the elements to build other designs. Here are a few of the designs I’ve made so far from the one session. This first one was just a carefree “add a curve or shape here” to see what would happen.
Not bad for a first go!
Now the game was on. I gathered together some of my elements you may have seen before to see what I could do with them. Although this next one was busy in the middle, I found it gave me a lot to play with and directions to go.
The stylus started flying around the tablet and the brain cell lit up.
Here’s one of the alternatives to create a more unusual shape. It’s not been worked on yet but there’s plenty of potential for a feature quilt design.
Here’s number four, a more simple shape but no less wonderful.
I also changed out some of the elements to create slightly different designs.
Just had a bit more fun and Photoshopped it.
More fun….and a little reworking.
Then it was time to create some square designs and of course, there are plenty of designs coming out of these ones.
I’m still perfecting these designs, but I feel a new book coming on. I’ve only spent a few days on these but I can see the possibilities. It’s so much fun, so I encourage you to have a play with design in a new way. Can you imagine Art Deco mandalas? Starting new file now…
Stay tuned for more on mandalas. Happy quilting,
Fiona
*I have no affiliation with Dagubi so my endorsement is my own opinion.
Fiona Schiffl 
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