The other day I saw some doodling with thread on Pintrest and I just had to dash to my sewing machine to give it a try. Well….my first effort didn’t look as good as the beautiful “doodles” I saw on Pintrest but I have definitely discovered a new way to play with my sewing machine! And with practice I envision another new art form for my art quilt Etsy shop.
My first effort was to create a doodle-like garden of whimsical flowers. I thought my selection of fabric was smart but I realized in retrospect that it was still too dark in color to really see the stitching. 
This practice quilt will likely become a center table decoration for a basket as it doesn’t quite make it as a wall quilt.
I’m not a sketcher or drawer of lines when I free motion quilt so these are the outcome of just sitting down and starting to sew with an idea in my head. I think for “doodling” I may need some thoughts on paper as drawing with thread with a moving needle means I have to have a very good idea of what I want. These free 
motion designs are a lot more compact and detailed than the free motion quilting I do on quilts. On quilts you are often repeating a design or traveling throughout your quilt with wavy lines or doing some other design that has a bit of a pattern to it. Once you get into the groove of making it with your sewing machine, it sometimes feels like you could do the design all day. But with doodling I think I will need a sketch. I’m excited to try this again, on a slightly lighter shade of batik with a better idea of the types of “flowers” I want to create. I want to try to imagine being an illustrator for Dr. Suess and his crazy worlds and creatures and plants. Doodling those would be fun!!