From Doodling to Done

When I'm on the phone at work, I sometimes doodle free-motion quilting designs in an old spiral notebook.  Not while I'm having a conversation, but when I'm on hold for a representative, which can be a few seconds or minutes.  I flip past the work notes to a back page and start scribbling.

Lately I've been doodling ideas for quilting the Four-Lily block, which I wanted to finish as a table mat or wall hanging.  I came up with various ideas for the different sections.  Unfortunately, the notebook I doodled in stays at work, so last night I recreated it on a piece of freezer paper, with an eye toward getting the scale right. I traced my block templates onto the paper.

There was no way I was going to try to freehand quilt that elongated tri-lobed shape in the lily parts, so I grabbed a red Pilot FriXion marking pen and drew it right onto the fabric.  Then I made a few more reference lines (and screwed up others).  It was kind of a mess around the center.

But it worked to keep me (mostly) on track when I went to quilt it.  I think I've mentioned this before, but I sort of suck at following the lines, even the ones I draw to be followed.  Here is the "after."  The marks disappeared completely with the heat of the iron.

The quilting shows up better on the back.

And here's the full view of the front.

I had never used this pen to mark a quilt design before, so this was a first, and I'm happy with the results.  I know the marks can come back again with very cold temps, so I'll be sure not to set any ice buckets on it.

Now I am looking forward to starting something new, or at least working on something different for a while.  Maybe a string quilt? Quilt one of my UFOs?  We'll see.

If you'd like to try making this block, the tutorial for it starts HERE (or see the Tutorials tab above).  Have fun!

Music to ease you toward the weekend!