Back to the drawing table

This week’s visual inspiration comes from the letters P and Q, as in pens and quilts. It’s fine to mind those p’s and q’s, but also to be a little bit of a smarty pants when you are making something you love by hand. One thing that greatly aids me in my projects, be they sewing or drawing, are a set of great pens at my side, and I use everything from J.Herbin‘s yummy selection of permanent writing and drawing inks and Letraset ProMarkers, to ballpoint pens. High or low, I love them all.  One frigidly cold winter trip to Germany had me cloistered in an inky and paint-smelling art shop where I splurged on Rohrer & Klingner‘s drawing inks. I’ve never found anything else quite like them. Do you have a favorite drawing utensil?

I’m working on a quilt of 16 blocks that will probably be done later rather than sooner, and though sewing fabric blocks is not quite the same as making marks on paper, I find drawing and sewing share two lovely traits: they slow down time to a nice steady rhythm, and they keep our hands happily occupied. Has something you’ve made ever come out of a quick sketch on paper?