Doodles

Though I don’t always consider myself an artist, I fully embrace the title: Doodler. Ever since I could hold a pencil, I have been drawing bits of nature. Ever since I had to endure long periods of sitting still (aka school), I have been doodling.

Focus is not my strength from an active-listening point of view. I hear a few key words from whomever is speaking. A certain word or phrase will launch my imagination into a world of its own. Putting pencil to paper helps me listen. Watching my pencil wander over a pad of paper or along the edge of my notebook frees my mind from distraction and allows me to concentrate on the words people are speaking.

Now that I work alone in my home office, there is not a lot of conversation going on around me. My doodling occurs while I’m listening to someone on the phone. I have a giant 17″ x 11″ pad of graph paper right in front of me on my desk. I only make notes with a pencil, which turns into a doodling tool at a moment’s notice. I fill a page with doodles at least once a week.

Doodles are important to me because they are jumping-off points for all my design and art. Doodles also have the potential to form into concepts or words, which can ignite any writing I need to accomplish. I photograph the doodles I love or I transfer them into one of my sketch books.

These paisley patterns are available as fabric and wallpaper in my Spoonflower shop!

I thought I would share the doodling side of my life because so many quilters want to become better at domestic and longarm free-motion quilting—a form of doodling. Next time you sit in a guild meeting (or any meeting), wait for an appointment or talk on the phone, grab a pencil, a pad of paper and start to doodle! You will gain valuable free-motion skills and develop myriad quilt designs to explore.

Happy doodling!