Mandala Series

This Mandala stitched on 2 layers of Tear Away Lite pulled a bit too but was "rescuable" with the iron and lots of pulling and tugging. I will do future ones using a machine embroidery hoop to prevent the distortion. I was trying to avoid that as some of the straight radiating lines are bigger than my largest hoop so I would have to move the hoop midway through a straight line and I thought stops and starts might create wiggles in the middle of the lines. I have sandwiched this one with some cotton wadding and am in the process of stitching on some sequins. This first one will be simply stitched in circles so I don't have to think about the design too much and can concentrate on the accuracy of the circles. I have lots of ideas for future ones including spirals and uneven division of the circle - so I don't think developing a series will present any problems.

Mandala

It was just as I feared - the stitching pulled the work into a dome shape. Oh Bother! I thought. Or at least my thoughts were along the lines of Oh Bother :-) I have traced another circular grid onto Tear Away (Lite) and am currently stitching exactly the same design with the same fabric, same threads and same machine settings to see if that improves things. I used 2 layers of the Tear Away as I thought one layer might not be sufficient. I have stitched approximately 1/3 of the radiating lines so far and have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to pull in a bit too. I think it is a function of the radiating lines - ie proportionally there is more stitching per fabric area at the centre of the design compared to the outer ring. If this sample pulls significantly into a dome shape then I think the only solution will be to use a hoop when machine stitching this design. So I am prepared for the fact that I might have to stitch a 3rd sample before I get a satisfactory result.

Mandala Series

I have decided to create a series of Mandala. I need to think about where I'm going and what I'm doing as a textile artist so I thought a Mandala series might help as I meditate on this. I started the first one today. First I used CorelDraw to create a semicircular grid so that it fit on A3 paper. I printed 2 copies and taped them together to get the full circle. I traced the grid onto lightweight interfacing and pinned it to the back of the fabric. I stitched all the lines using a thread to match the fabric so that I could see the whole grid from the front. I have started to couch some metallic thread on the radiating straight lines from the front using a narrow zigzag stitch. I am a little worried that this circular quilt will become dome-shaped as I stitch but we shall see what happens.