Archive | February, 2016

AQS Prize Winners

By Ellen Lindner on February 29, 2016 in Uncategorized

The prize winners at the Daytona Beach AQS quilt show were quite wonderful. These are some of my favorites.

Claudia Pfeil’s Fern Rising won Best of Show and it was very well deserved.

The shadows added to the fern shapes made it look extremely 3D. Plus, the use of sheer fabrics (for the spirals) and an abundance of crystals made this quilt literally sparkle.

A Passion for Purple, by Andrea Brokenshire had everyone stopping in their tracks.

It won the award for best workmanship on a home machine. Appropriate, don’t you think?

Although I’m a machine quilter (or maybe because I’m a machine quilter,) I’m always impressed by dense hand quilting. And this quilt, by Donna Douglas had it in spades.

It’s called Flourishing on the Vine and it won the award for Best Hand Workmanship. I can’t begin to imagine how much time went into making this quilt. It was stunning.

The next quilt, by Lois Podolny was a little awkward to photograph, but I think you can get the idea.

As you can see, she’s carefully cut and pieced symmetrical fabrics to piece these wonderful radiating kaleidoscope designs.

It’s called Magical Moments in Time.

A beautiful and interesting selection of prize winning quilts!

Ellen Lindner

“People and Portraits” Exhibit

By Ellen Lindner on February 26, 2016 in Uncategorized

For me, one of the highlights of the AQS Daytona Beach quilt show was SAQA’s exhibit “People and Portraits.” Even though I had seen these pieces before, I thoroughly enjoying studying them again.

Mary Pal’s cheesecloth portraits were some of my favorites. This one is called Homeless Love.

As you can see, she shapes tiny bits of cheesecloth against a black background to create stunning portraits. Most of them are of the elderly or homeless.

This one is called Stogie.

Aren’t they wonderful?

Joan Sowada is well known for her portraits and images of every day life. This one is called Flow.

And this one is Flight Zone.

Maria Elkins does a fabulous job with a variety of media on fabric. This is called Windblown and is featured on the cover of the exhibit catalog.

Check out the quilting in this detail shot! Although the quilt was beautiful before, this added texture really elevates it to another level.

Maria has another very touching piece in this exhibit, called Surrender.

If I remember correctly, this quilt was made as comfort for a family that lost their newborn child. Can you see the transparent hands coming in from the right?

On a happier note, Pam RuBert has one of her zany quilts included. It’s called Towers of Babble. In it even the dog has a cell phone!

Another quilt with social commentary is Hmm, by Pat Kumicich. It’s about the 2008 presidential election. (I’m thinking she might need to make another one this year.)

Like Joan Sowada, Lore Lupe Pelish’s quilts always show people in every day situations. This is called We Were All There.

This detail shot gives a hint about all the print fabrics she used.

Finally, this quilt by Jenny Bowker drew my attention. It’s called Hassan and the Glass.

The portrait is very well done, but I also think the composition and colors of the rest of the quilt support it very nicely.

This exhibit was just part of the much larger quilt show that’s still going on through April 27, 2016. If you’re in the area, I think you’ll enjoy it.

Ellen Lindner

Getting Started on Two Green Quilts

By Ellen Lindner on February 22, 2016 in Uncategorized

After studying my quirky fabrics, I decided to work with the yellow-green silk that had been screen printed. I knew I wanted to play up the red design with more red accents. Then, I threw in blue and yellow for good measure.

After just a little arranging I remembered, “Oh yeah, I’m not really good at abstract designs.” (It’s good to know your strengths and weaknesses.)

Knowing that I wanted to make two companion pieces, I did a couple of quick sketches. And since my fabrics were green, why not leaves?

Pretty simple, but I thought I could bring it to life with the right fabrics.

Speaking of fabrics, I started to second guess my original choices, and instead tried something new.

Oh, yes! I definitely preferred this. See those red squiggles? I want to feature them.

So, I got started. I fused a lightweight interfacing on all the silk fabrics and I drew my sketch onto a muslin base. Next, I began cutting and placing fabrics. Placement was determined by a desire to mix values, but also by the size of each fabric piece in my collection.

Those squiggles are looking pretty good, huh?

Ellen Lindner

Using Quirky Fabrics

By Ellen Lindner on February 20, 2016 in Uncategorized

I’m very comfortable using commercial and hand-dyed fabrics in my creations, but I have a few quirky fabrics that I have to treat differently. Things that ravel, ones that melt, and thin silks.

I recently pulled out a few of these to think about how I might use them. The yellow-green fabrics are the result of a deconstructed screen printing play day. A recent scarf dyeing class produced the blue and blue-green fabrics on the right and top. The remaining fabrics were scraps given to me by Judith Content. All of these are silk, most of them very lightweight.

I was hoping I could use them all together, but I quickly abandoned that idea.

But, what about using just the blue-greens, with a healthy dash of burnt orange?

Yes. That has potential.

What can I do with the yellow-green fabric? Can I play up the red squiggly parts?

Yes, that shows promise.

Now, where to go from here?

Ellen Lindner

Perfectly Flat Quilts

By Ellen Lindner on February 17, 2016 in Uncategorized

If you’ve done much machine quilting you’ve probably had some “friendly” quilts. You know, the wavy ones? This is pretty standard for me so I correct the problem by blocking my quilts.

Take this quilt for instance. Pretty bad, right?

But, a combination of stretching, pinning, and steaming turned it into this perfectly flat quilt.

I recently gave the same treatment to my latest quilt, Coastal Overlook. Here it is with the top and left edges pinned straight and square. I stretched them quite a bit in that process, so the other two sides are still relaxed (and smaller.)

Next, I stretched the bottom right corner to its square position and then pulled the remaining two edges into alignment. This took A LOT of pins and about an hour of my time. Finally, I sprayed the whole thing with water, steam ironed it, and left it overnight to dry.

Here are the final results, nice and square.

Coastal Overlook

I highly recommend blocking and I’ve written a tutorial about it. Read and learn!

Ellen Lindner

Related Post, old blog:
I Don’t Like Friendly Quilts

Dyeing Scarves

By Ellen Lindner on February 10, 2016 in Uncategorized

My sister and I had a great time attending a recent scarf dying class. Taught by my good friend, Jo-Ann Jensen, she provided me with plain silk, knowing that I’d want to use it in quilts. Of course!

She first taught us how to do a tie-dye sort of thing. She calls her geodes. Well, I just didn’t have enough patience for all those rubber bands! Plus, I didn’t choose my colors very wisely. This is what I got, about 12 x 12.

It’s not pretty enough to use as is, but certain parts can be cut and used very effectively.

Next, I tried to paint something that might work as a sky.

I think it will work. Again, I’ll use localized slivers.

Finally, I did a long folded piece using just two colors. The designs I got are really pretty, but I think it will need some over dying to add color to all that white.

This was a ton of fun! If you ever get a chance to take a class with Jo-Ann, I strongly recommend it!

Now thinking about how I might use these fabrics together. Hmm.

Ellen Lindner

P.S. You might also enjoy this post on ice dying.

“Coastal Overlook” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on February 8, 2016 in Uncategorized

My latest piece, Coastal Overlook, is now complete. It’s about 30″ x 40″ and I’m pretty happy with it.

If you’ve been following my blog you know that this quilt was inspired by a drive along the Pacific Coast Highway in California. I wanted to abstract it and, for me, that’s the tricky part. I want to hit the sweet spot where the level of abstraction has added interest, but not completely obliterated the image. I’m never sure if I’ve hit it or not. Of course, a good title always helps give clues.

To add energy I added lots of off-kilter seams and skinny inserts. I think it works.

When I took my inspiration photos I was standing near the edge of a cliff, with lots of golden grasses at my feet. I hinted at these with a little piecing and thread painting.

Learn how you can audition this piece in your home.

Now, I’m kinda enjoying slowly folding fabrics, putting away things, and taking time to think about what I want to do next. As usual, I have several ideas.

Ellen Lindner

Navigation

Archive | February, 2016

AQS Prize Winners

“People and Portraits” Exhibit

Getting Started on Two Green Quilts

Using Quirky Fabrics

Perfectly Flat Quilts

Dyeing Scarves

“Coastal Overlook” Complete

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