Archive | March, 2016

Twisty Tomato Leaves

By Ellen Lindner on March 24, 2016 in Uncategorized

What is it about little twisty leaves that add so much character to a simple tomato? I’m not sure, but it’s clear that they’re a wonderful addition. Per Susan Carlson’s instructions, I had left the edges of the red pieces unglued so the green leaf fabrics could slip right under. At least I THOUGHT I had left them unglued. Apparently I got a little carried away with the gluing, making it difficult to add the green. I’ll need to tweak my technique for sure.

See the blue circled area above? Those are little individual leaf motifs which I’ll use to merge the fabrics. Perhaps you can find a few of them in the next picture.

Here’s what it looked like when I finished the leaves. I’m very pleased with them! They don’t have quite the definition I’d like, but I’ll remedy that with some black outline stitching. (Oops, ignore that out of place red piece on the left.)

Even though I declared this “finished” in the above picture, I did find something that bugged me: the highlight on the right side. I decided it was just too light – causing a very strong contrast in that area. I switched out the dark outer fabric and started fiddling to soften the light center.

And ended up with this.

Eventually the pink patch below the highlight also bothered me and I changed it as you can see below.

You can really adjust something like this forever! But, I had my fill after a while.

As you might imagine, all those little snippets go everywhere, making for a messy work station. (Not that mine is ever that neat.)

Having completed this first tomato, I’m assessing the technique.
I like: softening the edges with little overlapping bits of fabric, and working sitting down.
I don’t like: the difficulty tucking tiny green leaf fabrics under the red ones. For the next tomato, I think I’ll apply the leaves on top.

I’m happy with this tomato and fully intend to integrate it into a full composition. But first, I need to get back to my leaf quilts!

Ellen Lindner

My Train Jumped the Track

By Ellen Lindner on March 19, 2016 in Uncategorized

I was making good progress on my two large leaf quilts when I got BADLY distracted. The culprit was the book Serendipity, by Susan Carlson. In it she explains her fabric collage techniques. In many ways they’re the same as my own, but with a much higher level of tiny details. It was all SO intriguing and I just had to give it a try. “BAM! SCREECH!” The sounds of my leaf train derailing.

I pretty much never switch gears once I start on a quilt, but this time I did so quite gleefully. I searched my photos for inspiration and decided to work with a photo of three tomatoes. I tweaked the composition and will probably do some more down the road.

Susan typically constructs her design elements as stand-alone units. This enables her to move them around later and to easily audition background options when the time comes. So, I followed suit and drew a 20″ tomato.

I drew the design onto muslin with a Frixion (heat-way) pen. The mini iron was my “eraser.”

The idea is to fill the shape with the proper VALUE, leaving the detail areas as cutouts.

This was my first draft as I was nearing completion of the red fabrics. The space was covered, but it was lacking some finesse.

I switched the light spot from yellow to pink. But, it still looked pretty chunky.

Next, I started fiddling with the details. Susan explained the basics in her book, about how to soften any hard edges. From studying her blog and website, I could also see that she often cut little motifs from her fabrics and used them to merge the colors and patterns better. Like this.

Instead of abruptly cutting off a motif, soften the edge by continuing it onto the next fabric.

Well, that sort of thing is totally addicting! AND it adds a lot of interest to the piece, as well as softening hard edges.

Here it is after a ton of fiddling (with the leaves still showing as cutouts.) Much better, right?

I’m really having a lot of fun working this way. Perhaps it will become too persnickety for me in the future. We’ll see.

On to those twisty little leaves.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I’ve made several other quilts featuring produce. Like Mangolicious.
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Leaf Quilt Progressing

By Ellen Lindner on March 17, 2016 in Uncategorized

After getting started on two big leaf quilts, things went pretty smoothly. (The photos in this post show the left quilt.) Having previously drawn the design on a large piece of muslin, I auditioned which green to use where.

Can you believe I had to buy MORE fabric? Very unexpected.

Here’s the final arrangement of greens. Which ended up being not so final after all.

I was beginning to audition vein colors and widths. I loved the color above, but thought it was a little fat. More experimenting was needed.

In the photo below, I’ve changed some of the bottom right fabrics and I was continuing to add veins. I REALLY liked these colors!

Here’s the final version, with veins complete. I was quite happy with it.

Then, I got to thinking about adding shadows to make the veins looked raised. I did a little experimenting and decided to do this with two layers of black tulle.

I covered the entire quilt with the tulle (2 layers.) Next, I decided on the light source and did some crazy calculating (and guessing) to determine the correct width of the shadow at each location. I drew in the shadow dimensions and stitched them with dark monofilament thread. Finally, I cut away the extra tulle.

In the photo below the entire quilt has tulle on it. I’ve stitched the first few shadow lines, on the right. allowing me to cut away the tulle in those areas. I was pleased to see that it was developing as I had hoped.

In the next photo, the left side is still covered with tulle and the right has had the shadows completed.

And here it is finished.

I think the shadow effect worked perfectly. What do you think?

Want to see it up close? I know you do, so here it is.

I think I might use clear thread next time.

The left quilt is now almost complete. I’ll wait to trim and face it until the second quilt is finished, so I can make sure they’re the same size.

BTW, I’ve used tulle to add a shadow, or to change a color many other times. See several examples on this page.
– Misty Morn required four layers of black tulle to create the shadows in the foreground.
– Blue tulle was used to created the shadows on the oranges in Lakeside Citrus.
– Black oraganza (more opaque than tulle) was used for the berry shadows in Ripening.
– Two layers of black tulle created the border for Autumn Breeze. Can you see how the interior image continues right into the border?

TIP: Using tulle in this way is very easy.
– Start with a piece significantly larger than needed. Pin well.
– Stitch along desired lines.
– Trim closely.
Because tulle is extruded plastic it will not ravel! (Other woven sheers generally ravel very badly.)

Have you ever used tulle to alter a color?

Ellen Lindner

A Few More Daytona Images

By Ellen Lindner on March 13, 2016 in Uncategorized

A little more eye candy for you from the AQS Daytona show.

This is Petals in the Wind by Cassandra Ireland Beaver. (Sorry for the fuzzy phone photo.) There is no black in this quilt. The black you see are holes which show the black curtain behind.

Wouldn’t this be pretty against a pale wall, with some excellent lighting? (To create shadows?)

There was an exhibit of small quilts in which the makers had interpreted artwork of famous makers. (I didn’t catch the name of the exhibit.) I’m sure you can tell this one depicts the work of Claude Monet. It was made by Michelle Schaal, from France.

Although this detail shot is rather fuzzy, I thought you’d like to see the very effective way that couched yarns were used to depict the water. Especially the one with a little white in it. Those white bits look like sparking reflections.

One of the special exhibits featured quilts made by Karen Stone and her students. Windsor Gardens, was made by Karen. Although the leaf colors aren’t overly bright, when combined with the dark background they really pop!

Check out the great variety in her leaf fabrics. Wouldn’t this be fun to recreate?

On an unrelated topic, why couldn’t something like this win “Best Use of Color?” It doesn’t always have to be something with complementary or bright rainbow colors, does it? Although beautiful, those combinations are very predictable. A quilt like this required more creative thinking and I really admire that. What do you think?

Ellen Lindner

Downton Abbey Party

By Ellen Lindner on March 7, 2016 in Uncategorized

Are you a Downton Abbey fan? I AM! Big time. So, when the series ended, I decided to throw a viewing party for the finale. Of course, there would be tea and china, and flowers as well. I had great fun deciding on the menu and prepping the table.

The menu included hot tea with milk, a cold tea and fruit punch, and (starting at the back of the top and going clockwise:) cheesecake tarts with lemon curd garnish, chocolate covered strawberries, two types of open faced sandwiches – cream cheese with salmon, cream cheese with veggies and cheddar – chocolate cake, dates stuffed with pecans and rolled in sugar, and fresh fruit. What a feast! I thought it looked quite decadent, if I do say so myself.

The table linens, place settings, serving pieces, and even the flower vase are all either inherited pieces or wedding gifts. I just added place cards saying, for example, “Lady Ellen.”

My friends came an hour before the final episode started and we enjoyed all the delicacies.

The first thing I heard about the Downton Abbey series was how wonderful the costumes were. And they are, aren’t they? I knew that some of my ancestors shared a similar lifestyle prior to the depression, and I just recently received tangible evidence of that. My mom presented my sister and I with 7 evening bags that were used by her mother and her grandmothers. The box was labeled (by a great grandmother, we think) with the dates 1910-1930, so I put them out as part of my party decorations.

And just take a look. Aren’t they incredible?

These are quite small. The blue one on the left is about palm sized and the largest one is about 5 x 6 inches. I guess they’re just supposed to be big enough for a handkerchief. Three of them are sort of like chain mail and they’re slightly transparent. I’d never seen any like this before.

On first glance, the others appear beaded, but only the blue one really is. The others are made of shiny colored links that make up the pattern.

The gold cylinders above hold fountain pens.

My sister and I have to figure out how to preserve or use these. I think the largest one is viable as an evening bag today. Watch out: you might see me sporting it at some art opening.

Of course, I can’t finish this post without mentioning the actual final episode. Wasn’t it satisfying? I LOVED it.

Ellen Lindner

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Archive | March, 2016

Twisty Tomato Leaves

My Train Jumped the Track

Leaf Quilt Progressing

A Few More Daytona Images

Downton Abbey Party

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