On to happier things. I've been really interested in the Zentangle books I've seen. I've just never bought one. I've read about them on Cloth, Paper, Scissor's blogs and saved the ebook that was offered. Then this weekend I saw all the books that were out there at the Hampton Roads Quilt Show. There were so many books, I didn't know which one to get. So I moved on. This prompted me to Google it when I got home.
That's when I found tanglepatterns.com This is a pretty cool site. You can subscribe for daily or weekly emails or add to your blog reader for new ideas and new strings. I really wanted to draw this digitally so I could play with it where I was and not to have to worry about having special paper and pens with me. I always have my kindle or phone with me. I downloaded one of the strings to get my drawing started onto my Kindle. It would also work on an iPad, smart phone or touchscreen laptop too. I have a Notier stylus for my touch screen. It has a finer point to draw with than the usual touch screen stylus that are out there. I bought it on Amazon for $15.00. I then loaded Autodesk's Sketchbook which can be downloaded for free on android, Microsoft, and Apple. I opened the app and imported my string to get started. In sketchbook you can use layers, so I selected another layer to put my drawing on. It was so much fun and so relaxing. You can save your finished drawing and you can later find it on your device under the photos. Here is my take on string 146 from tangle patterns.
I think this could be a really good tool to practice your quilting on too! You can treat it like your free motion quilting (FMQ) and come up with really cool fills, etc. You can also use Sketchbook without the Zentangle string to practice FMQ ideas. You could import a picture of your quilt and then use a new layer to practice the possible design options. There are enough features in the free version to allow you to use it for these purposes. You don't need to buy the subscription version. You can also get an account on autodesk for free without having to pay for the subscription.
After playing with all of this, I was catching up on the blogs I read and I came across Quilt Shop Gal's blog post and she has more on it here. She reviews one of the books that is out there. If this interests you, check it out. It's a nice diversion when you need one! There was a giveaway, but it is over :( I should have kept up with my blogs....
Well, I just wanted to share.
Happy Quilting!
