The Sacred Wheel in the sand

I continue to work away at the July BJP. Today I started working on the sand and scatter stitched lots of beads, while I contemplated the problem of the bottom third of the quilt.
In my original sketches for my July piece I had planned to bead some sun umbrellas that showed up in the reflection of my sunglasses in a photo my niece had taken of me that day at the shore. But it just wasn't coming together and eventually I started thinking about beading a sacred wheel in the bottom circle.

In June my husband had bought a sacred wheel by Eleanor Wiley and I have admired it ever since. It seemed to keep wanting to be part of the sand in the July BJP so I gave in today and tried out some ideas. On the left is the pattern I made by tracing a jam jar lid on freezer paper. I used my quilting ruler to mark the angles. Then I cut each triangle out, one at a time, and traced around each one. On the right is how it looked after I traced it, and the sacred wheel is beside it. I meticulously copied the symbols on the wheel, which represent the rituals and differences of all spiritual paths, and then wrote "Sacred Wheel of Peace" using a permanent Pigma marker. It seemed important to me that the writing and symbols be on the quilt, even though I knew I would cover it over with beads.

Then came the fun part - the beading! I felt almost like I was in a dissociative state - like when you're driving on a straight highway and drive for miles while lost in your own thoughts. I was just beading and thinking, and loved every single peacefilled moment. It was wonderful! I never had a single worry of what to do next. It just flowed and whenever an idea came to me, I just went with it. When I needed to make the next decision, I thought "I'll go with what I am sure of". It ended up that I beaded in this order: 1) the outside rim in the beads I knew would go there, 2) the inside rim which consisted of 3 different beads, 3) the centre (I had debated between 3 different stones, the other two were mother of pearl, but I liked this crystal the best), 4) the outside wheel with the brown bugle beads and the gold fill, and 5) the spokes.

It really was the kind of creative experience that I wish I had every time I set about to quilt or bead! I felt sad when it was finished. And then I stepped back to look at the beading I had done. Wow! I am still amazed! Here is how the sand looked after I finished beading tonight.