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Well, how did the doodling practice go? Easy? Difficult? Hopefully you were able to squeeze in some practice each day if not plan to dedicate at least a couple times a week going forward! Doodling consistently will help train the muscles in your hands/arms to work together with your brain to draw straighter lines and smoother curves and to fill up a space without having to think too hard.

With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us it will be difficult to find time to focus on doodling but try to squeeze in a couple 15 mins sessions if you can. Below is a doodle I did in a meeting at work (shhh…don’t tell my boss) in less than 20 mins on 3×5 inch piece of paper. I started with the small hook shape in the center and kept building off that shape as I moved around the page. You don’t have to be perfect this is just a technique to fill space quickly without having a plan.

So, pull out a black marker pen (no erasing allowed) and a small piece of paper and start drawing circles, spirals, hooks, squares, diamonds, etc. then connect them with lines or curves, fill them in or echo their shapes…before you know it you with have a very unique design!

This can be fun so don’t think just let loose!

Are you hesitant to drop the feed dogs and machine quilt your top with anything other than straight line quilting? Well, I hope to help get you thru the initial fears and help guide you to freeing yourself to experience Free Motion Quilting! Over the next several weeks I will post steps to practice for the week – this is a process which requires practice practice PRACTICE! If you jump into quickly your brain won’t be trained to think outside the “square box” and frustrations will set in. Quilting should be fun not a dreadful task inhibiting us from taking our quilt project to the next level.

I’m a strong believer in doodling! If you can’t draw it you can’t sew it so this week’s practice is FUN and SIMPLE…make a stack of all those old spiral binders or scrap sheets of paper you don’t know what to do with and start doodling. Draw continuous loops and hearts and if you get bored move on to flowers or whatever shapes you fancy – big and small. Fill up the paper as you are listening to music or a movie or sitting on the deck enjoying a sunny day. Don’t worry if you have to start and stop but see if you can keep your pen down the entire time. Focus for 15-30min intervals a couple times a day or every other day. It’s all about practice and training your brain and hand to work together…remember when you started writing in grammar school?! It takes time.

So…Kitty says “get doodling”!!