100 Days of Dice Doodles: Week 2 Update

And the rolling, doodling, and stitching fun continues with my 100 Days of Dice Doodles!! Here is my Week 2 Update featuring dice doodles 10 through 16. 

Dice Doodle 10/100

Small cacti photographed at Quilting in the Garden 2019 was used as the inspiration source. The doodles on a dry erase notebook helped me brainstorm shapes and patterns to capture the essence of the cactus. Layers of stitching using variegated threads really brings this design to life. I would love to revisit this design on a darker colored background and/or incorporate some trapunto to better capture the dimension!

Dice Doodle 11/100:

I explored many different songs from some of my favorite artists, trying to find inspiration for this doodle. Thank goodness for Neil Diamond and "Forever in Blue Jeans." I went into my closet and dug out a pair of blue jeans, which I hadn't been worn since Covid-19 kicked in, but thankfully still fit!! After photographing the jeans, I realized there were quite a few details in the stitching that I really wanted to capture. To help me transfer the placement of all the stitched details, a 4x4 grid was layered on top of the photo print out as a reference. Ruler masking tape was placed around the perimeter of the square to help align all the elements from the photo. Instead of Levi's, I stitched Neil into the back label and included a small pop of red thread for the tag on the back pocket.

Neil Diamond had this to say about his song: "The simple things are really the important things." This sentiment is especially relevant to our current climate.

Dice Doodle 12/100:

A quote by American professional Boxer, Activist, and Philanthropist Muhammed Ali served as the inspiration text for this doodle: "Don't count the days. Make the days count."

When Covid-19 and Shelter-in-Place first began here in the Bay Area, I found myself losing complete track of the days and hours, especially as my teaching engagements were all cancelled. I decided early on to consider this pandemic a gift of time and I was determined to come out a better artist.  I resumed making to-do lists in my Bullet Journal, which included daily art sessions thanks to the 100 Day Project. Naturally a calendar served as the foundation for my doodle, with a thread change to capture how we can choose to count the days or consciously incorporate art and meaning into our daily practice. May you all live your life to its fullest...

Dice Doodle 13/100:

I love it when we BBQ as that means Doug takes care of grilling the meal, which included sweet corn on the cob! I paused to capture a few photos of my dinner, to use as inspiration for my event-based dice doodle. Rows of elongated pebbles stitched in the perfect Superior King Tut Raffia variegated 40wt thread really captured the rows of corn kernels.

I'll pose the same question I did on Instagram: How do you eat your corn on the cob?

• Across the cob in rows like a typewriter?
• In a circular rotation?

And much to Susie Q's chagrin--she did not get any table scraps from that delicious meal!!

Dice Doodle 14/100:

Lately I've been seeing all these word search games circulating on Facebook, where the first word or color you find indicates something about your personality and/or future. I thought this would make for a fun text-themed dice doodle. I found a Word Search worksheet generator on education.com which allows you to create your own word search by uploading words, choosing the letter case, and orientation of the words before it generates a word search puzzle that you can print out and play!

A 10 x 10 grid was stitched out before filling in each box with the corresponding letters. Working left to right was fairly easy although required some focus to make sure I stitched the correct letter into each box. Alternating rows required me to stitch right to left, which required LOTS more focus!! By row 7, I took a much needed ice cream break, as I feared I might start making mistakes. Yeah--that's my story and I am sticking to it!!  :-)

Below is the stitched block. I thought about using red thread to circle the various words, but wanted to preserve the game aspect for others that may want to play. Once again, that's my story and I am sticking to it!! So if you'd like to play, hidden in this word search puzzle, there are 14 positive wishes for 2020, plus one bonus word that relates to my first dice doodle (which was randomly placed there by the worksheet generator!!) Scroll down if you would like to see the list of words to find...

Word Search List:

1. Create
2. Family 
3. Friendship
4. Fun
5. Grow
6. Happiness
7. Health
8. Hope
9. Joy
10. Kindness
11. Laughter
12. Learn
13. Love
14. Peace
15. Canoe (Bonus word)

The answer key, with the 14 words circled, is posted below. 

Dice Doodle 15/100:

I've been struggling to find inspiration music that is positive, well-known, and leads to some kind of  visual imagery. After listening to songs for nearly 2 hours via youtube and even going through my cd collection, I was starting to feel the pressure. Just as I was able to buckle and reroll the die, I was prompted by the song "Under Pressure" be Queen and David Bowie. I doodles and stitched lots of arrows along the perimeter all leading in towards the center of the square, represent the various forces that exert pressure on our worlds. Initially I was going to stitch some pebbles to represent boiling water in the center only, but decided to fill in the entire negative space to represent boiling water.

Dice Doodle 16/100:

I went to doodle in my studio and grabbed some Nacho Cheese Doritos for a late night snack. They certainly made me happy and served as inspiration for that evening's dice doodle! You can see the variety of doodles I drew featuring triangular shapes.

Zig zag meander was stitched into each Dorito chip using Superior's King Tut #911 Flower Pot variegated 40wt thread, which really captures the texture, coloring of the nacho cheese seasoning, as well as the old-school logo and packaging. I made sure I washed my hands before stitching, so I didn't accidentally transfer any of the Dorito dust onto my quilt.

And here are the first 16 Dice Doodles...

And the answer key for Dice Doodle 14/100 (with the word Canoe located horizontally across the first half of the 5th row down)