What to do with it

This UFO has been laying around for almost 6 years. It was made within 24 hours, and I liked it at that time, but something was missing so I put it away...

It moved along from Singapore to Vietnam and still did not get a closer look. This time around, when this one came out of one of the removal boxes, I thought I better have another look at it.
My design wall from Clover is still hiding somewhere so I put up a flannel sheet on the wall. Well, what to do with it...

Shall I make curves in the rectangular design with my rotary cutter? Nah, too complicated...
I would like to add some more contrast with darker purples, reds and yellows...

Applique! Okay, so this UFO is going to be a background from now on.

Next step is which kind of applique would I like to do? Something on my sewing machine it is.
Because this top is square, the applique could be something of a round shape, a circle... a Mandala!
In Hindu and Buddhist religious art you can find some beautiful circles of repetitive figures. There are many books where you can find designs for coloring and meditation, and can be used for quilting as well. The book I have is Mandala's by M. Gauding.
But I am not going to meditate and sit still, no, I want to work with my fabrics!

Going through my stash of Kaufman's batiks I choose a few to make more contrast.
And while selecting the fabrics I knew what I was going to do: geckos! A design of a circle of geckos which a lady in Singapore, Brigitte Lee, once gave to me.

 

As I do not want the background to be covered too much, I let the geckos make a bigger circle without being connected... oh well, that's the plan so far. Let's see where this takes me! Hilde