Well, I am back in my studio and, more importantly, I am EXCITED to be back in my studio!!

When I heard about the Modern Quilt Guild’s Diamond Challenge, it immediately piqued my interest. I love piecing diamonds and thought it would be fun to do.

I spent a lot of time looking for patterns, especially looking at various Rangoli designs from India.

This is a post that I wrote explaining what Rangoli are…..

Rangoli Inspiration

I loved this design…..

…but couldn’t come up with an easy way to do the circular bits.

This one also looked interesting…..

…and I even played with it a bit…..

I really like this one, but it would take a lot of intricate graphing and piecing, and frankly, that is not what I want to be doing right now!

I photographed this one on our first trip to India back in 2008…..

…and the design has always appealed to me.

When I laid it out…..

….. I realized that there were going to be some large empty areas that would need something and I didn’t think that I wanted to add flowers. Having said that, I woke up one night and thought “QUILTED MANDALA” designs!! That would solve the problem!

BUT, my mind kept going back to this inspirational wall from some airport, somewhere…..

It has diamonds…..sort of!!

I drew out a similar version….

…and started getting excited.

Come back on Tuesday and we will pick out some fabrics!!

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Do you know what a Rangoli is?

We learned about them on our first trip to India….

Rangoli is an art form in which patterns are created on the floor or a tabletop using materials such as powdered lime stone, red ochre, dry rice flour, colored sand, quartz powder, flower petals, and colored rocks. It is an everyday practice in many Hindu households. Designs are passed from one generation to the next, keeping both the art form and the tradition alive.

They are usually made outside the threshold of the main entrance, in the early mornings after cleaning the area. Traditionally, the postures needed to make a rangoli are a kind of exercise for women to straighten their spines. The rangoli represents the happiness, positivity and liveliness of a household, and is intended to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and good luck. It is believed that a Hindu household without a clean entrance and rangoli is an abode of daridra (bad luck).

• From Wikipedia

I was interested that it talked about the “posture” of the creators. This is what we saw…..

When we were there in 2016, during the Festival of Ganesh, the Rangoli became more and more elaborate, with one hotel using flowers….

But I have digressed…..let’s get back to the inspiration…..

Wouldn’t this be a fun quilt design….60-degree diamonds and flowers!!!

Is this something that you would make??

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Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

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