How do you doodle?

Do you doodle?  With pen or with needle?  I do both. 

After years working at a desk I find it difficult to talk on the telephone without a pen or pencil in my hand and a scrap of paper to doodle upon.  I still take a note or two when the conversation includes something I will need to remember.  These days however, instead of a note pad, usually any available piece of paper will do.  Sometimes those important notes are hard to find later!

Silk Eagle Doodle Quilt, 2008, 9" x 12"

More fun than doodling on paper, however, is doodling with a sewing machine needle set in my Bernina 150 or one of my 19th century treadles. In place of the scraps of paper, quilt doodles are done on small quilt sandwiches made from scraps of fabric  and batting  leftover from various quilt projects. 

I use these small sandwiches to set my needle tension, practice new quilting designs, or just practice machine quilting when I spend too much time away from my studio. I also make up a quilt sandwich to play with new fabrics, like a piece of silk a good friend shared with me.  These small pieces seldom become actual quilts, but they can!  My 'Silk Eagle Doodle Quilt' was the result of doodling on a piece of silk dupioni while working out some ideas for an eagle design I was considering for a larger quilt.

Dus, hoe maak je fantasietekening?