Quilt 3 - 2012  'Fallera Major'

 

RaNae Merrill had, in the meantime, produced a follow-up book, 'Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts',

and my reading of this happened to coincide with the holding of a regional competition to produce a quilt which had to include some pieces of the typical Valencian fabric from which the very colourful dresses worn in the local fiestas are made.

 

It is a very thick and expensive silk fabric and I can only describe it as a cross between that used for heavy duty upholstery and that found in luxurious living room curtains. As it is extremely prone to fraying the best way I could think of to incorporate it into my mandala quilt was to make it into the centres of the spirals and then, as soon as it's immediate  neighbours had been sewn to it , to cover it with protective paper to avoid snagging it as I worked on the outer spirals.

 

I imagine that by now you can guess what type of fabric I used for the rest of the quilt! The result was "Fallera Major," which is the name given to the queen of the fiestas. I was delighted when it won first prize, an award not decided by a panel of judges, but by the votes cast by every visitor to the month-long exhibition.   

 

Click thumbnails on the right to enlarge.