100 Days of Dice Doodles: Celebratory Wrap Up & Reflections

"100 Days of Dice Doodles," Finishes 39" x 39"

The last Dice Doodle was stitched on October 27th. The nice thing about doing 100 days of free motion quilting is that all that was left to do was to trim, label, and bind my quilt!! I even added a quilt sleeve!!

And while finishing the quilt went by quickly, it's taken me a bit longer to write up a Celebratory Wrap Up and Reflections blog post. Allow me to share some reflections from the 100 Days of Dice Designs...

Inspiration:

While I only rolled one die to determine the source of inspiration, I was amazed at the variety of designs that were inspired by these 6 categories: 

1 = Inspired by a Photograph

Quite a few photographs were captured as part of my daily walks around the neighborhood, along with a few sourced from my pre-Covid travels. I enjoyed studying the various lines, shapes, textures, and colors within the inspiration photo and creating my own stitched interpretation.

2 = Inspired by Music (Song Title/Lyrics)

Music inspired rolls always challenged me to find a song that was uplifting, well-known, and included strong visual prompts. Some nights, I found myself listening to 20-30 songs before choosing one to inspire that night's doodle. While they required a bit more time, these music-inspired designs were often my favorite!

Here is the Ultimate 100 Days of Dice Doodles Playlist (top left to bottom right):

1. "Margaritaville," by Jimmy Buffett
2. "Forever in Blue Jeans," performed by Neil Diamond, co-written with his guitarist Richard Bennett
3. "Under Pressure" performed by Queen and David Bowie
4. "Queen of Hearts," performed by Juice Newton 
5. "Put One Foot in Front of the Other," written by Jules Bass & Maury Laws and sung by Mickey Rooney & Keenan Wynn
6. "Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In" written by James Rado & Gerome Ragni, music by Galt McDermot, and sung by The 5th Dimension
7. "You Spin Me Round" performed by Dead or Alive and Michael David Percy / Peter Jozzepi Burns / Stephen Coy / Timothy John Lever / Michael Percy / Peter Burns / Timothy Lever
8. "Changes" written and performed by David Bowie
9. "Heat Wave," performed by Martha and the Vandellas and written by Edward Jr. Holland/Lamont Dozier/Brian Holland
10. "Blue Skies," written by Irving Berlin in 1926 and performed over the years by many artists: Belle Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, Willie Nelson & Kenny Rogers, and Star Trek Next Generation's Commander Data.
11. "Here Comes the Change," performed by Kesha, Written by Drew Pearson, Kesha Sebert, and Stephen Wrabel
12. "Bend and Stretch," from Romper Room.
13. "Fight Song" written by Dave Bassett and Rachel Platten
14. "What a Wonderful World," written by Bob Thiele and George Weiss, Performed by Louis Armstrong
15. "It's a Small World," written by Robert B. Sherman, Richard M. Sherman
16. "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours," Sung by Stevie Wonder; Writer(s): Stevie Wonder, Garrett Lee, Hardaway Lula Mae, Wright Syreeta
17. "You Raise Me Up", Sung by Josh Groban and written by Brendan Graham / Rolf Lovland
18. "Celebration," Performed by Kool & The Gang, Songwriters: Eumir Deodato / Robert Bell / Dennis Thomas / Earl Toon / Robert Mickens / James Taylor / George Brown / Claydes Smith / Ronald D. Bell (block not shown)

3 = Text Inspired

I had fun exploring different ways of incorporating text into my daily doodles from stitching our words, quotes, calendars, word puzzles, and word play!

4 = Events (World/Local/My Life)

These blocks served as a stitched journal chronicaling the 100 days in both world and national news, as well as my own daily life. Some days I was inspired by stories making headline news, other days it was celebrating a National Day, or merely some aspect of my daily life (teaching, online connections, and creative play).

5 = Memories

It was always fun to take a stroll down memory lane. Oftentimes, I poured through my photo albums from my childhood, summer camp, college, and more recent albums to find interesting sources of inspiration from my past. Whenever possible, I tried to include a photo in these postings.

 

6 = Artist's Choice (Create whatever makes me happy that day!)

Artist's Choice rolls may have been my favorite as it was an opportunity to find the good in each day and celebrate whatever made me happy that day. Online quilting connections and snacks seemed to be two recurring themes in daily happiness!

Themes:

Over the course of the 100 days, a few themes emerged in my daily doodles:

Food:

My daily diet often provided a source of inspiration for a stitched doodle...many of which were less than healthy. Here are all the food & drink themed doodles: ice cream, margarita, corn on the cob, Doritos, Pudgy Boys (camping treat), m&ms, bagels, waffles with strawberry jam, peppers & onions, Funyons, and Cheetos Puffs.

Snack Attack Inspiration

Fitness:

Thankfully there were several fitness and exercise themed doodles to work off all those snacks: yoga, walking, warrior poses, dancing, stretching, and 1-minute planks.

Finding Inspiration through Fitness

Current Political Climate:

Most days, watching the daily news was downright depressing. I tried my best to channel my fears and anxieties into positive message of hope and to encourage others to vote in this election.

Daily News and Daily Doodles

California Weather & Climate Change:

Somewhat overlapping with headline news was the crazy weather patterns we experienced here in Northern California including the loudest thunderstorm I've experienced since moving to California, terrible smoke from the many wildfires, heat waves, and thankfully a return to beautiful Bay Area weather.

Weather Patterns

Teaching & Creating:

It should be no surprise that quilting inspired quite a few doodles including my quilting friends, online teaching engagements, and my projects. And in turn, my doodles made frequent appearances in my lectures and workshops, including a brand new creative play mini workshop: Dice Doodles!!

Creative Connections

Camping Adventures:

My camping days frequently inspired my stitched doodles from canoe regattas, campfire treats, lifeguarding, archery, platform tents, and swim camps. I enjoyed reliving all the wonderful adventures and friendships forged during my camping days.

Camping & Creativity

Family:

Of course, my family also inspired several of my dice doodles including a visit to Joshua Tree National Park with my father, my three rescue pups, my cousin's friendship bracelets, Panda's injury (which was thankfully brief), my mother's strawberry jam, my Aunt's gorgeous lace knitwork, Panda's baths, and my grandmother's crocheted afghans.

Family & FMQing

Miscellaneous Musings:

• A variety of threads were incorporated into my doodles: Aurifil (especially 40 and 28wt); Superior King Tut, Omni, and Metallics; Wonderfil; Signature variegated, and whatever other threads I have in my stash.
• At first I planned to stitch  most of my designs in all black. By Day 2, I found myself incorporating pops of color, followed by more and more color. Many days still used black thread as I used almost all 7 bobbins of Aurifl 50wt black!
• Most of my dice doodles were stitched between 10 PM and 12 midnight (with several being finished after midnight). While I was exhausted, I really enjoyed wrapping up each day with these meditative stitching sessions and waking up to see a variety of wonderful comments in response to my daily posts on Instagram.
• Within a day or so of finishing the binding, I shipped this quilt off to its first destination. Stay tuned for more information to be shared in the New Year!
• Special thanks to all who joined me along this creative journey via my teaching engagements where the stitched blocks frequently made cameos, daily Instagram posts, as well as weekly blog posts which you can access below.

All Dice Doodles Blog posts: 

• Dice Doodles: A New 100 Day Project/Set Up
• Weekly Updates: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12, Week 13, and Week 14