Play Day - Zentangle Stitching

It's been a busy week and I've gotten lots accomplished (pictures of my latest projects are at the end of this post).  So today I gave myself permission to play.  You may remember me writing about Zentangle drawing last summer, and I've been doodling on paper from time to time, practicing some designs, but hadn't yet tried stitching out the designs on fabric.  Afterall - that's what attracted me to Zentangle in the first place - the designs lend themselves so well to free-motion quilting.  So I stitched my first Zentangle quilt block.  The design is called Paradox.  This is what it looked like after stitching it...  Not bad, but look what happens...

...when you add some shading with a colored pencil...

Isn't it amazing what a difference the shading makes?  (Lighting too - the first one was taken under a fluorescent light and the second and third ones were in natural daylight - huge difference in color!)
I can really see myself having some fun with this!  Do you Zentangle?

In case you're interested, here are the "work" projects for the week.  Two custom purse orders in one week!  Woo hoo!!!  First up is a Two-Zip Hipster in Juggling Summer and lined with orange swirls.  The combination of fabrics and stabilizers in this bag is just perfect.  I wish you could feel this bag.  It has lots of body without being stiff, and feels so nice!  My customer will be picking this up later today and I can't wait to see how she likes it.

And this work-in-progress is a City Bag, at 90% of the original size.  I'm still waiting for the strap hardware to arrive in the mail, so it's not quite done yet.  I used a multi-colored batik for the top and faux leather for the bottom and the strap.  Now I get to Zentangle (aka play) while I wait for my package of hardware to arrive!

Cheers!