Fiber Babble: Doodling

Doodling

June 13, 2014

Works for me. "Undead and Unemployed" by MaryJanice Davidson ♦♦♦♦◊

First off, let me remind you that I finally joined and submitted blocks to Block Lotto - I told you about it in my last post, which was way 'back in February. I was so fired up about these blocks and I was so determined that I would win (random draw - so I had SO much say in the matter!). But whaddaya know - I won!

I won! I won! Thirty-six quilters worldwide made 224 Bead on a String blocks; five were picked as winners and I was one of the winners!! I don't quite remember how many blocks I got, but it was in the neighborhood of 45... I think the block(s) that came from farthest away were from South Africa.

All (or almost all) of the blocks were great and I am thrilled with the different fabrics everyone used. Everyone included some sort of congratulatory note (which was fun in itself) and many wrote their notes on postcards - some indicating where they were from, some 'just' artsy-fartsy.

The blocks are in their own corn dog box now. Just this morning I saw this blog post where Jane has come up with a great Flying Geese medallion block for a regional bee in Australia and New Zealand - neat block/medallion, for sure, but what got me was the possibilities it opens up for using my lovely Bead on a String blocks. I'm sharing it with you, but mostly so I can find it again when I grab this corn dog box!

So what does that have to do with doodling?

This.

I chose to keep a couple of the Bead on a String blocks that I made and send some to other winners. I don't have cool postcards to share (I didn't know that's what was done), but I doodled on the mailing envelopes.

It's pretty fun. I use an extra-fine point Sharpie pen; each one of these envelopes took an evening. I found that my hand got a bit crampy or stiff after doing an entire envelope, so there's no production line happening here.

Yes, I was inspired by Zentangles though I guess there are 'official' Zentangle patterns and everything else is just doodling. I'm okay with that.

I've done a few more envelopes for other people, too. Just this week I picked up a new book from the library, The Art of Whimsical Lettering (Amazon link), and have been inspired even further in the ink-to-paper (or fabric) department. I hope that I'll have more to share with you as I experiment more!

Labels: craft, quilting