Doodled

Doodles are what doodles are, and rarely have I given them a second thought. Until a few weeks ago, when a random meeting doodle needed to be translated into fabric.

I had a few new stash additions, palette stacks by Marcia Derse, which I'd bought at a guild meeting where Marcia spoke; and Grid by Kimberly Kight for Ruby Star Society. The basic 'block' was quite simple, and I alternated between two versions. Nothing spectacularly clever, but satisfying nonetheless.

So I made a bunch of blocks, at some point adding a gray grid in with the black as things seemed a little dark. Eventually I put them all up on the design wall but nothing was really speaking to me. I rearranged and rearranged, and still I wasn't sure. So finally, I just started sewing, hoping it would figure itself out. I had a bit of an inkling that things were too crowded, so I cut a stack of rectangles from each grid fabric, and randomly added one in as I sewed the rows together. One thing I did love all along though, were those fabrics.... the colored print was just so interesting all cut up and dispersed, and those grids were the perfect geometric counterbalance.

By some miracle, it all worked, and by the time the top was pieced, I'd grown some fondness for it. So on to quilting! A grid was the obvious choice, and I decided to go low-key with some Aurifil 50wt #2600 (light gray). This was some fun, stress-free quilting, and I used Erica/Kitchen Table Quilting's method of quilting the right half, rotating 45-degrees and quilting the right half, rotating, and repeat. Both times I've done this it worked out really well, no puckers, and less bunching under the machine's arm. Yay. In no time I was binding it off with more of that black-and-white grid, which was the perfect frame.

So the whole reason I started this little (42" x 40") quilt was 1) as a way of procrastinating working on those larger wips hanging around and 2) a chance to play with those new stash fabrics. Even though there were bumps along the way, it was definitely a fun exploration, served its purpose well, and I'm ready to face those wips again.

This project was on my 2019 Finish-A-Long Q4 list!
Linking up with Meadow Mist Designs' Favorite Finish Monthly Linky!
Linking up with 2019 Finish-A-Long Q4 Link Up!