"Oh, Look at You Doodle..."

My new graphics tablet...

That was what hubby said as he saw me guiding a virtual pen across my computer screen.

Back in July, I purchased a graphics tablet to assist with my fabric design efforts.

After spending hours and hours digitizing my sheep drawings using a mouse, I finally decided that there was a better way to go.

A week of looking at various options and reading reviews convinced me to forego the name brand in this space in exchange for a bigger working surface. Thus it was that I ended up selecting an XP-PEN Star G960S Plus instead of a starter Wacom model.

The working area of my tablet is 9" by 6". Contrast that with the 6" x 3.7" working area of a Wacom One. Ratings on Amazon are quite close (4.6 vs. 4.3 with advantage to the Wacom), but my decision to buy was prompted by finding a $30 coupon on the XP-PEN unit. It brought my price down to $76.99 CDN before taxes. (The Wacom was around $92 last I looked.)

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As I said above, the point of purchasing the tablet was to ease my fabric design processes. But when I finally started to practice my free motion quilting in the middle of the summer, it came in unexpectedly handy for that too!

Learning two things at once is too cool!

Fellow blogger Daryl at Patchouli Moon Studio commented that it would help the FMQ process by practicing drawing the designs on paper. Well, as much as I tend to caution people against the "kill two birds with one stone" philosophy, this ended up being an excellent way to do just that.

Free motion doodling...

I could familiarize myself with how to use the tablet and learn some FMQ "movements" at the same time.

As much as this activity reminded me of the "zen doodling" that I did several years ago (which I have mostly stopped due to experiencing a retinal migraine one time while doing it), the part about keeping the pen down is different and takes discipline to maintain.

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In terms of actual FMQ, I have read that stippling is difficult to master. It certainly seems stressful in having to have an idea of where to move so that the entire surface gets covered.

It's hard to stipple even when just doodling...

Someday I hope to be able to cover a quilting project with FM stipples. In the meantime, I may just stick with loops and curves.

Doodling loops...

Of course, being me, I couldn't stay too long away from practicing on the actual sewing machine.

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Here is some loopy FMQ. (Tackling relatively small areas is helpful when it comes to practicing on an actual project.)

Practicing on a real project...

This circle measured about 3.5". Other parts of this project involved small vertical panels, which I did with alternating loops and tight waves.

Alternating loops and waves...

I decided to do this particular project for its small quilting opportunities; you'll be able to see what it actually is next week.

Several weeks ago, I said that I was going to try a new thing here and ask readers to send me sewing stories that I can feature every now and then, to assist in creating ongoing content for the blog.

Currently, I am asking you to submit to me (via email; click through to my Blogger profile on the sidebar at left to get the address) a description of the best thing that you've ever sewn and why it deserves that title — along with a photo, of course. Be sure to let me know how you want to be identified; feel free to use an alias if you want. (I will respond to every submission that I receive, so please check your SPAM if you don't hear back!)

There's no time frame/limit for this; however, if the idea fails to gain any traction within the next couple of weeks, I won't repost this notice.

'Til then...