Adventure Quilter
Ellen Lindner uses fabric the way a painter uses paint, with extraordinary results
Although I’ve never been to the Asheville Quilt Show, my quilts have. And this year I get to go too!
I’m really looking forward to stopping in on Sunday to see my two quilts on display.
Vine Ripened, by Ellen Lindner
Second Thoughts, by Ellen Lindner
(And maybe I’ll do some shopping at the vendors too! Hah, “maybe.” I crack myself up!) Maybe I’ll see you there. Here’s the info.
Ellen Lindner
I was really impressed with the gals in my recent “Floral Improv” class, in Hilton Head Island, SC. They caught on quickly and were not intimidated by new concepts. AND, best of all, they made some GREAT quilts!
Why oh why do I always forget to take in-progress photos? I guess it’s because I’m staying too busy. But, I did get a few shots of finished (and nearly finished) quilts as we were cleaning up.
Peg’s quilt is completely finished except for being faced. Don’t you love the contrast?
Donna still has some stitching to do. That will really bring her poppies to life.
Although I like to use low contrast leaves and stems for this project, Rosalyn preferred the high contrast of these green stems. They really add a lot of interest.
Judy also finished the stitching on her piece and it’s all ready for facing. I’m just now noticing the dark centers she added to some of her “daisies.” I love the way everyone interprets these floral landscapes in their own unique ways. Improv indeed!
Maxine sent me a photo of her finished quilt about two days after the class. Can you see the bird she added in the lower left corner? It’s made from what used to be two flowers. (What was that I was saying about improv?)
I think these ladies had a great time and I did, too. And we all loved each other’s results!
L-R: Rosalyn, Peg, Donna, and Judy
Maybe your guild would also enjoy this “Floral Improv” class. Or one of my other classes.
Ellen Lindner
I’ve been thinking about making a quilt inspired by this photo (composite) of my two brothers.
I took quite a few photos that day and loosely merged 3 to get this composite. In the quilt I’ll leave out the extra arm and the clay pigeon thrower.
This will be a special quilt for several reasons.
– My brother Ricky, on the left, is no longer alive.
– It depicts a family tradition: target shooting on the farm after Thanksgiving dinner.
– In shows both brothers relaxed, and in their element. They are/were both excellent marksmen.
– It will complement an earlier family quilt I made. I’ve sized it accordingly.
– It relates well to a current call for art titled “Guns: Loaded Conversations.”
For this project I knew I’d need something I seldom use: a pattern. At least for the two men. I created it with a combination of computer editing and good old tracing.
Next came fabric selection for the faces. Maybe something like this. (Or do I need a darker one?)
I used the “cutout” filter in Photoshop Elements to help me finalize the pattern for Ricky’s face.
My process was to fuse fabrics for the features, cut out pattern shapes, and fuse/assemble them on parchment paper. That latter part was new for me and more than once I fused fabric to my pattern instead!
Here’s his finished face and I’m extremely happy with it.
This looks just like him. So much so that both my sister and mother were startled when they stumbled upon it on Facebook. Yay! I think I’m on track. What do you think?
Ellen Lindner
After so much experimentation with paint and collage I was anxious to see if and how it might translate to fabric. I gave myself this assignment:
– Make 4 small collages, each with paint used at least once.
– Experiment with different ways to get a sheer/transparent effect.
– Start with materials immediately on my work table.
– Start by adding something sheer to every stage.
These were my initial materials, all of which were lying around, (i.e. not properly put away.) They included some hexies which had been stitched to a background piece of muslin, small fused scraps and sheer fabrics.
I cut up the hexies and used them as part of the backgrounds.
I expected the finished compositions to be about 5 x 7. I used a paper frame (above) to help me arrange the hexies for each. These were my starting compositions.
I’ll show you some of what I did. However, I don’t consider any of them finished. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t very happy with any of them. But, I managed to answer my questions, so then I felt find about putting them away.
This is as far as I got on the orange one. As you can see, a layer of organza greatly obscured the layer below. It’s also got paint on top of everything you see here. Except for the little black line which I added with stitching.
This red and green one got a transparent layer with over printing. I liked that effect. Yellow lines were fused on and organza was added to the right side only.
This blue one was pretty much a dud. I added a gridded sheer and then melted parts of it with a heat gun. I didn’t like the wounds. I also used heavy stitching as a transparent layer. It worked pretty well, but was too much work for my liking.
This one was quickly getting overworked and it had questionable color choices. But, I did like the line I added with two lines of stitching.
And here it is when it got so ugly I couldn’t face it anymore!
With all this ugliness, what did I learn?
– I don’t really like sheer fabrics as translucent layers. They tend to obscure the lower layers too much.
– I DO like allover printing as a textural/sheer layer. I can see myself using it again.
– I like adding a black line with machine stitching. I’d like to explore hand stitching it too.
I think I’ve now well and thoroughly put this episode of exploration to bed. On to the next thing!
Ellen Lindner
After getting so much out of Jane Davies’ book about abstract elements I decided to take an online “class” with her. I put class in quotes, because this was not interactive. You just download the content and do the exercises on your own. More like a book – although she does have interactive classes, too.
This was MUCH more challenging, primarily because it involved a lot of – to me – tricky painting techniques I wasn’t familiar with.
The first exercise was easy enough, however: paint a lot of paper in a monochromatic colorway, then combine it in a gridded collage.
I made two.
The ease stopped there. The next assignment was to make a horizontal collage with different background colors top and bottom. That part was fine. But then, I was supposed to sort of merge the background and foreground. This is what Jane does so brilliantly that is completely foreign to me!
I did 4 of these, with my most successful 2 shown above. In places, I pulled the color of the collage into the background and in other places I painted a background color onto the collage. I had no idea what I was doing! But, it WAS interesting.
Next came an assignment that started with a cruciform composition. That part was okay, but the quadrants were each supposed to be different, and again, the two were supposed to be merged with paint. Again, lots of completely random attempts on my part.
This next 3 examples are so hideous I hesitate to show them to you. Ugh!
Again, these were cruciforms, with paint added everywhere and then wiped off. I completely overworked these three!
Finally, it was time to put it all together. After watching her video twice I was ready to start. First, I referenced my earlier sample papers showing a variety of ways to make marks with paint.
For this assignment I followed Jane’s example of painting over every single layer, (until I got to the last few elements.) Here, the orange circle and the black lines are not painted over. Everything else is.
Finally, I had a little bit of success I think.
Things I learned:
– I love the look of partially veiled paint, but I don’t know how to do it.
– I love the idea of foreground and background merging, but I don’t know how to do that with paint either. Maybe with fabric?
– I continue to be entranced with skinny wild lines, inspired by some of Jane’s work.
Questions going forward:
– Can I get a veiled look with fabric? Maybe with sheers or overprinting with paint?
– What’s the best way to add those skinny lines to my fabric art?
– Can I successfully merge both fabric and paint in my art???
You know me: I’ll HAVE to do some more experimenting as I try to answer these questions. Stay tuned.
Ellen Lindner
Oh my goodness: opening night at the 100% Pure Florida exhibit was mobbed! It was very difficult to move around, but this was one of those “good problems to have.”
My piece “Lava to the Sea” was over in the corner. Not ideal, but that’s okay. It won an award of merit even so! Yippee!
I wore a name tag with an image of the quilt on it and received many nice comments about it. (The quilt, that is, not the name tag.) This is a favorite trick of mine to help viewers connect me with my piece.
Although I took many photos, I didn’t meet most of the artists, so was unable to ask their permission to show them here. So, I just have a few for you.
I really admired this piece, which was prominently displayed.
Caren Sarmiento with her piece, Royal Poinciana Flower
Caren also won an award, but I don’t remember which one.
But, the most interesting part of the evening was meeting and talking with this beauty.
Kestrel Michaud with her pieces, Classy, and Snoozy
Her name is Kestrel Michaud and she’s a fiber artist! She designs pieces like you see here, often with a somewhat art deco look. And always stylized like this.
These are fabric! She told me the cat one has 450 pieces of fabric in it. (My kind of gal.) She uses fusible web, but never stitches her pieces. Instead, they are mounted to foam core, matted, and framed.
Here’s a detail shot of a kitten’s tail and paws. That’s a lot of tedious cutting!
I bent Kestrel’s ear for quite some time about SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates,) framing vs. quilting, and other technique issues. I love meeting new fiber artists!
This is a very nice exhibit, in Melbourne, FL with runs through September 30th. I hope you’ll get a chance to see it.
Ellen Lindner
Continuing with my abstract exercises, I focused next on line. (Although I’d been using it since the very first exercise.)
What kind of line(s) did I like? What came naturally?
I’m still trying to figure that out. On the grid above, my favorite line is the one top right.
The next assignment was to use two shapes and add a line.
I love that little squiggly line above!
The next exercise required multiple shapes, arranged in a grid format, with line added. By now I found myself leaving space for the future line.
I was beginning to smile more and cringe less at my results. It was beginning to gel in my brain, I think.
Finally, I read (or saw?) something in the book that surprised me. First, some background: I’ve often heard that elements in a composition shouldn’t “kiss.” That is, they shouldn’t just barely touch. They should either clearly miss one another, or clearly overlap. Same for elements in relationship to the edge of the composition.
However, Jane’s work often has elements kissing. So, I decided to test the kissing, non-kissing concept. I cut out similar elements and made two different compositions. The first one had no kissing.
And I was pretty happy with it.
Next, came full on kissing!
Hmm, to my surprise that wasn’t too bad. It had a certain edginess to it. I decided I might occasionally ignore the “no kissing” rule. But not at the edges. I didn’t care for that.
How about you: kissing or not?
Ellen Lindner
Update: the title of this lecture was later changed to “Confessions of a Fabric Whisperer.”
That’s the title of my newest lecture and I’m very excited about it! If you’ve been reading my blog for a awhile, you know that I DO exhibit some odd behaviors.
Things like cutting up quilts and putting them back together,
Using unusual materials,
And changing the shape of the quilt.
It’s kinda funny, because when I started searching my quilts for signs of odd behavior there were lots of them! (Of course, I’ve been quilting a long time, so there’s plenty of “normal” stuff too.)
I’ll be presenting this lecture for the first time next week. If you live in western Florida, maybe you’d like to come. I’ll be speaking at The Piecemakers Quilt Guild of Brandon, FL on Monday evening, September 11th. Cost for visitors is $10. (And if you come, please introduce yourself.)
Ellen Lindner
After many distractions, I finally got back to working on my Red Bud quilt. I decided to name it “Spring Forth,” because I was captivated by the way the Red Bud blossoms pop right up out of the trunks.
Spring Forth
I got lucky with the background fabrics. Many of them had colorful dots which worked well for implying more blossoms. I love it when the fabric does the work!
As you can see, I abstracted the flowers quite a bit. That was fun!
Find more details, dimensions, and purchase information on the Spring Forth web page.
Ellen Lindner
P.S. I’m the queen of cropping. It VERY frequently improves the composition. Which I sorta noticed in the second image. I really like that composition, too.