Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Doodle Pad

The other day, I was watching a video on "The Quilt Show".

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Their guest machine quilter was, Judy Woodworth. She was doing some demonstrations and she made herself a tool to help her audition machine quilting designs on her quilts. I thought it was neat. The tool is a piece of vinyl and it is used in combination with dry-erase markers. These are all things I have in my stash.

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I don't think she had a name for this tool, so I'm calling it a doodle pad. I made this doodle pad in 15 minutes flat. That's how long it took me to bind an 18 x 24 piece of clear vinyl. (The vinyl can be any size).
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It's hard to see in this photo but my doodle pad is laid over a section of my beauty. I'm trying to decide what free motion designs I'll be using for the center and the four circles. Can you pick out the straight black edge of it? I'll use the dry-erase marker to doodle free motion designs on the clear vinyl. A simple soft cloth wipes the dry-eraser marks off.

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I've pulled my doodle pad away from my beauty so you can see my first doodle. Nice, but I'll try something else to see if I like it better.


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Here's another doodle. Yep, I think I like it. I'll use this one in each of the four circles.
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Now, with my free motion design decisions made, I'm ready to start stitching -.... tomorrow that is.
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I think I'm going to really find my new doodle pad very useful.

3 comments:

Michelle said...

Gail! That is an awesome idea! I think I will have to pass this one on to my quilting friends! Thanks for sharing!

MissesStitches said...

I saw that show, too, and what a good idea it is. Thanks for showing us how you did it.

West Michigan Quilter said...

What a great idea. Thanks for sharing.