Islamic Prayer Niche

While searching through everything I could find on Islamic Architecture I was captured by the beautiful prayer niches that form part of the inner mosques.  There were outstanding examples of this subject and was overwhelmed by the varied and intricate designs of all of them.  I then decided to make a design of my own which does not even come close to the workmanship of these pieces.

Having designed and made 9 banners for two local churches in my area I was fortunate to have all the right fabrics I could use - lots of gold and cording.  Looks very simple, but it took me quite a long time to actually get my design right. At first I used a stencil, which I placed on fabric and used oil paint sticks through the stencil design, but after putting this on my piece it just didn't work, so off that came, and I virtually had to start over.  In the end I used the blue and gold fabric which fortunately I had in my stash and which worked for me. The gold cord had to be glued on and then sewn over with metallic thread once the glue had dried, and I used metallic thread to quilt the central plain blue to mirror the floral at the top of my piece.