Phoenix Mandala

This is my latest finished quilt. I started it end of last year, then got busy with other projects for classes and commissions. I did the studio clean up and then got back to this one. I've had the lovely Asian inspired fabrics for a couple of years now, generously given to me by friend and former student, Cherie. I always had a rail fence/ mandala style design in mind but wanted to work out a different construction method.
I made this using a quilt as you go technique with large blocks, quilted simply in the ditch on my domestic sewing machine. The central medallion was free motion quilted around the phoenix and there's a quarter inch peeper as a fine border around it too.
I used my favourite environmentally friendly 100% bamboo wadding of course.
I'm happy with the result even though I lost interest during the making!










The back was made from left overs and compatible pieces to the front. You can see some of the joining strips. I attached the quilt by machine, but then hand sewed down the joining strips so there were no stitching lines other than quilting on the top.
Finally, the quilt was bound using a quick machine attachment method and a bias tape maker. I always feel a bit guilty about this as it doesn't give the lovely finish of the hand finished binding for shows... but I still feel "quilty" because it's contemporary, really smooth and goes on all in one line of machine stitching!
I will be teaching classes in this quilt.

Hope you like it.