100 Days of Dice Doodles: Week 1 Update

Week 1: Blocks 3-9

I am really excited about this new 100 Day Project: 100 Days of Dice Doodles! Each evening, I roll a die to determine my source of inspiration for the next day's doodle. This provides me with the time and focus to choose a photo, music, text, event, memory, or something that makes me happy. Later that next evening, I use a dry erase marker and notebook to doodle various designs that can be achieved with free-motion quilting. I've especially enjoyed incorporating a variety of thread colors, weights (40wt, 50wt and 80wt), and fibers (cotton and metallic) to enhance my doodles. I'll share more about each of my blocks from this first full week...

Dice Doodle 3/100:

Let's just say that I am thankful that I rolled a 3 for Text as I quickly learned that I am unable to doodle yoga poses!! 

I really liked the unfurled yoga map and swapped out yoga poses for phrases that guide my yoga practice: Breathe, om, flow, hold, stretch, and Namaste. 

Dice Doodle 4/100:

A refreshing margarita prompted me to choose Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville" song for this doodle's inspiration.

As you can tell from my doodles above, I have a difficult time drawing symmetrical shapes (hence why I tried drawing plain cups that didn't really capture the margarita essence. So I created a simple paper template by folding a piece of paper in half, cutting out one half of the margarita glass, and using a few loops of blue painter's tape to hold the template in place while I stitched around the perimeter. Initially I had planned on stitching the background limes in green. But after stitching out the margarita glass, I realized it needed some kind of lime green filler. I then proceeded to stitch out 5-6 background limes in the same light grey, and quickly discovered that I needed more contrast. It took almost 45 minutes to rip out all those tiny travel stitches in those 5-6 stitched limes, before I could switch to a medium grey 80wt thread and fill in the background.

Dice Doodle 5/100:

A significant portion of the day was spent helping to sort through a friend's quilting/sewing supplies, which in turn inspired this block.

Dice Doodle 6/100:

I will confess that my day was rather boring filled with lots of computer work, and not much in the way of design inspiration. After many dead ends for finding inspiration, I discovered that it was National Thread the Needle Day. Not only was this quilting inspired, but there were multiple meanings to this holiday, including facing the many challenging scenarios we may find ourselves in these days, navigating contrasting politics, and finding our own path towards resolution. Below you can see my evolution towards contrasting thread doodles featuring a large sewing needle stitched in metallic thread.

As part of my stitched meditation, I reflected on learning needle arts from both of my grandmothers, making the needle catcher with my paternal grandmother (and the needle threader she gave me), as well as the needles I use in my current work.

Dice Doodle 7/100:

Today's doodle by dice honors Former US Representative, John Lewis, and his lifetime service as an American politician and civil rights leader. Earlier in the day, the memorial service carried his casket across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, site of the conflict of the March 7, 1965 Bloody Sunday, when police attacked Civil Rights Movement demonstrators (including John Lewis) with horses, billy clubs, and tear gas as they were attempting to march to the state capital, Montgomery. 

Also in the news were the horrific scenes captured during the Portland Protests, marked by federal law enforcement officers, wearing camouflage combat gear, attacking protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets.

I chose this John Lewis quote: "Be inspired. Be optimistic. Never lose that sense of hope." I used a print out of the Edmund Pettus Bridge to outline stitch the arc of the bridge. Everything else was free-motion quilted using the photo as a reference. The text of the quote was stitched in last, using taped print outs as both a spacing guide and spell-check.

I will leave you with this call to action inspired by another inspirational Johnn Lewis quote:

"The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have."

Please be sure you are registered to vote and mark your calendar for November 3rd, 2020.

Dice Doodle 8/100:

Today's dice doodle assignment is to create whatever makes me happy today. Our last guild meeting was in February, so what joy it was to see and hear 130+ members logged into today's first online Zoom meeting!! 

Many thanks to the SCVQA board and committee members for all their planning and prep work to make today's reunion meeting a wonderful experience!!

Dice Doodle 9/100:

This last dice doodle was inspired by a photo, capturing a lovely morning gift from Mother Nature.

I did quite a bit of research about the construction and anatomy of spider webs--in this case an orb spider web, before stitching out my doodle. A light grey 80wt cotton thread was used to outline stitch the spider web frame and radiating lines. A silver metallic thread was then used to stitch out the sticky spiral and turning points. 

I love how the metallic thread captures the morning sun glistening across the web. 

"Poetry is a fresh morning spider-web telling a story of moonlit hours of weaving and waiting during a night."  -Carl Sandburg, American, Pulitzer Prize winning poet and biographer

Thank you for joining me on this new creative journey. I'll continue to post my daily doodles on Instagram (@melbeachquilts), along with future weekly updates here on my blog!