Archive | January, 2016

To say that my Floral Improv students rocked it is an understatement.  After a little instruction, they jumped right into drawing and cutting free-form flowers.  Then, they learned a little about composition and design considerations and gave that a try.  Along the way they were not afraid to try new things and they received suggestions beautifully.  What a fun group to work with!

And just look at their results!

Barbara’s palette was delightful.  She’ll add definition to the stems and leaves with dark stitching and then it will really pop!

Sharon’s quilt provides very high contrast, creating a lot of drama.  Most students will define their poppy petals with dark thread, but Sharon will use a light gray.  (But still something dark for the daisies and leaves.)  This is going to be great.

Margaret selected complementary orange and blue with a happy dose of pink and purple added in.  It’s very bright and cheerful!

Look at Kathi’s soft colors.  Didn’t she do a good job with them?  And what about the “body language” of her flowers?  She used her curving stems to great advantage.

Jo-Ann was still experimenting at this stage, but she had some really great things happening.  Like those s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d daisies.  They have lots of personality.  I know this is going to be full of life.

Cindy is fairly new to quilting, but she fully embraced the project.  She did a great job.

Barbara’s dark background really set off her pastel flowers beautifully.  She only has a little stitching left to do.  I can’t wait to see her finished quilt!

Bobbi was speedy and she managed to create a lot flowers in a short period of time.  She also fussy cut some shapes from a pink fabric to serve as buds.  A very nice touch.  It’s bright and wonderful!

Another 3 students packed up before I could photograph their work, but I can assure you it was on a par with these.  I’m SO delighted by these results in the very first offering of this class!

I’m now taking this class on the road.  Let me know if your guild would like to have me add you to my schedule.  (Email link below.)

Ellen Lindner

Color was everywhere as I taught Floral Improv for the first time.  Just look at the backdrop I had for my demo board!

After only a short while students were making free-form daisies and poppies in a myriad of hues.

Oh what fun we were having!  Even the scraps were beautiful.

This was a “guinea pig” class.  The students got to participate at a greatly reduced price (with the funds going to the shop owner who provided the space and promoted it,) and I got their feedback in return.  They were great about that, and I did identify a few things that could be improved.

Like the sweat shop scene below.  Everyone quilted their backgrounds as part of the class.  We collectively decided this could be done as part of the class prep, freeing up about 30 minutes for more pertinent activities.

Great input and great fun.  Thanks to my guinea pigs!

Watch for the next post in which I’ll show you my students’ fabulous results.

Ellen Lindner

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You know all the improvisational piecing I’ve been doing lately?  It’s all Pat Pauly’s fault.  When I saw her demonstrate it on Quilting Arts TV, I jumped in and tried it.  Plus, there were several other segments featuring Pat which included a variety of design and creativity exercises.  These really intrigued me and I tried a few of them.  So, when I learned that Pat would be teaching classes about 3 hours from my home, I decided to hit the road and take a class with her.

The class was called “A Dozen Ways:  Designs for Art Quilts.”  The idea was to show us ideas for jump starting quilt designs.  As you might imagine, the pace was VERY quick in order to cover so much material.

Our first assignment was to cut up a photo and rearrange it.  Here’s mine, before and after.  (Of course, the after would need to be tweaked to square it up.)

Next, we made a small 1″ square opening in a piece of paper.  We used this window to audition different compositions within the pictures we had brought.  This was mine.  There are definitely some great little compositions in this photo, although I think only one of mine was viable.  (Did I mention we were moving very quickly?)

At one point she had us sewing on index cards.  We were supposed to just pull scraps out of our bags and stitch them down with no thinking.  My first one is on the right, and I followed the instructions exactly.  But, gee it was ugly.  I decided a little thinking was in order!  At least I could pay attention to colors.

So, I made the next 4, and liked them better.  Pat’s idea is that these can serve as springboards for larger compositions.  And, if the fabric is patterned with a big circle, the large composition will also need a circle.

I kinda liked this next exercise.  We were to select two complimentary images (from calendars we had brought,) cut them up and turn them into two coordinating pieces.  The two pieces should stand alone or also look good butted up next to one another.

These photos were taken by Richard Jensen.  I selected them because they both featured trees, but they were different in the amount of foliage, weather, and vantage point.

This combo/dyptich idea has been rattling around in my brain a little.  I don’t intend to make this into a quilt, but I like the rather poetic marriage of two subjects like this.

At the end of the day, we quickly created a slightly larger collage.  This time she told us we “could think a little.”  This is what I came up with.  I didn’t really have scraps large enough to create an effective background.  But, I like the color palette.  The scale is off, but with larger blue shapes (and lots of tweaking) this might turn into something decent.

Or not.  It doesn’t have to become anything!  The time and thought I spent creating it enhanced both my artistic skill and my creativity.  That’s time well spent!  And the whole day fit that description.  It was a very good class.

Have you taken any good open-ended classes like this?  I’d love to hear about them.

Ellen Lindner