Linda 4-13-09: I have been playing with more designs and came up with this mandala. First, I drew the five sided spiral and saw wings in the design. After playing with it more, I created 3 birds coming out of the circle. I think the spirals that are not birds would be clouds done in blues and whites. Still playing with it. Hopefully I can do two mandalas this summer.
RaNae: Linda, another stunning design. I love the way you have used symmetry in this design too. You’ve got a real gift for this!
Linda 5-21-09: I have worked some more on the bird design. I was having trouble with the one bird facing out and the other two facing in. I couldn’t come up with a background design and coloring that I liked. So I changed my design and put a flower in the center with all three birds facing into the flower. This is the mandala.
RaNae: Linda, I have to confess that in the last version I couldn’t see the birds you were talking about, but I see them now!
Linda 8-4-09: I thought I would send you a picture showing the progress on my second mandala. 6 of the 10 wedges are done. [Click image for larger view]
I wanted to separate the mandala from the background by a ring of blue so I added some non-spiral pieces to the edges. (R: Notice Rusty, her 6-month-old helper in the corner, upstaging the quilt…how cute is HE!!!!)
I have redesigned this several times. I couldn’t make up my mind about the two wedges which are not birds. The background is a pretty bird of paradise print but it is all chopped up in this picture. It won’t look like this in the real quilt. I am working on the two non-bird bodies today. Then I need to piece the borders and put it all together. Some of the names I have thought of for this quilt are: Blue Birds of Paradise, Feeding time in the nest (mother bird & two babies), Learning to fly. Do you have any suggestions?
RaNae: Linda, the quilt is beautiful (no surprise) and as for a name, I find that my quils usually tell me their names somewhere along the way. I like Blue Birds of Paradise — the twist on “blue bird of happiness” and “bird of paradise”. And it tells the viewers what to look for . . . this design may be like that “is it a vase or is it two people facing each other?” drawings.
