This pattern is for people who want to design their own quilt using many techniques all done in your lap.  Most people look at my work and say it looks like a lot of work.  It isn't work, it is fun.  I end up in a zone, I am relaxed and let the quilt talk to me and tell me what to do next.  Think of this process as a journey, who knows where we'll end up.

You can start with one hand dyed wool fabric block and decorate it, then add more fabrics to the left, right or above or below this block.  Each block is overlapping the first block by 1/2" and poking the two fabrics together with the felting tool.  The felting tool I use has 3 barbed needles.  It tangles the fibers together to temporarily hold the fabrics together until you embroider over the joint.  Then add more blocks as the first ones are decorated.  It is easier to decorate the quilt top by keeping it small, then as you work, you are only stitching on the edges of your project.  You can even work on strips of blocks and add them as a unit.

I started by wiggling a wool yarn and poking it with the felting tool.  When I looked at it, it reminded me of a rabbit.  I couched the yarn to the background, then filled in the rabbit with straight stitches to resemble fur. Then I added flowers in embroidery and circles of wool appliques.  I took selvedges from the hand dyed wool fabrics and stitched and embroidered that.  The whole design was taking on a life of its own.  I kept filling in the empty areas with more wiggling yarns and embroidery.  With each added piece, I stitched over the areas joined together.  These stitches grew on basic stitches when I added fly stitches, single chain stitches or continental stitches (which are similar to French knots).  Some of the images are felted by pushing wool fibers into the appliques (bird portrait) or using no appliques (basic flowers) to make them look more realistic.

This quilt is a crazy quilt with rectangular blocks.  My Doodle quilt #1 in the photo above, measures 31" square.  Yours could be any shape.  In the pattern, I've included images of the birds, and fish, frog, and mushroom, and the 3-D butterfly, birds, and fishes of the second quilt that I am working on now.   There are some basic instructions on embroidery stitches included with the pattern.  Understand that some of them are better-learned from videos on YouTube.

You can view the Doodle quilt 2 by clicking on "More Details" under the Doodle 1 photo above.  The Doodle quilt 2 measures (currently) 46" x 32".  I have no idea what the quilt will look like when it is finished.  There is still a lot of work to be done.  I especially like the 3-D flowers with beaded centers. I work on it for about 1 or 2 hours a day.  I'm not in a rush to get it done.  This is the definition of "slow stitching".