Archive | January, 2018

It Was a Good Day to Dye

By Ellen Lindner on January 31, 2018 in Uncategorized

Are you a Star Trek fan? Do you know about Klingons?

They’re a very fierce fighting clan who’s motto is “It is a good day to die.” So, when I headed out the door to a recent dye session my husband pronounced it as “a good day to dye.”

And indeed, it was. The weather was perfect as the Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists gathered at Ruth Anne’s “barn.” Kathryn kept us busy mixing, and timing, and mixing procion dyes inside.

It was a good day to dye. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Kathryn

We had each previously stitched, folded, bound, and prepped our fabrics for dying. It was time to mix the dye and throw them in! At one point four of us were lined up stirring bundles of colorful fabric and watching the clock.

L-R: Jill, Becky, Dij

I was out of sight on the right. Someone said we looked like witches stirring our brew and Ruth Anne got a witch’s hat and plopped it on my head!

Outside, we did something almost magical: dying with indigo! Oh my! Becky was the mistress of the pots.

Have you ever dyed with indigo? I hadn’t and I found it to be totally amazing! The fabric comes out of the vat almost yellow. But, it very quickly turns yellow-green. Within a minute or so it’s green and eventually, after absorbing enough oxygen, it turns dark blue. The transformation was mesmerizing.

This is one of my fabrics, shortly after coming out of the vat. Can you see that some of the most exposed areas are starting to turn blue?

And here it is a few minutes later.

Kathryn bound the heck out of this piece of fabric. Here it is shortly after coming out of the pot.

And a few minutes later.

All those little rubber bands will create white rings and the pleating will create some variation as well.

Gabriele was smart enough to string up a clothes line. This was great because hanging our fabrics allowed oxygen to penetrate from all directions. It all looked like an abstract art installation.

Ruth Anne’s “barn”

The photo above shows the barn. Aren’t we LUCKY to get to play in such a fabulous place? Ruth Anne is a very gracious hostess.

Fabrics are being washed an ironed as we speak, so I’ll have some photos of finished fabrics in the next post. Can’t wait!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. My apologies to Ruth Anne and Gabriele, whose photos I didn’t get.

Two Steps Back

By Ellen Lindner on January 23, 2018 in Uncategorized

Well, I just wasn’t happy with the in-progress quilt I showed you last time. It seemed a little static.

I tried to analyze what needed to change and I referenced my original black and white sketch.

Wait a second. It was different from the working sketch I’d been using:

At some point I had switched the values of the two loosely horizontal lines. I had worked with the one showing the lower line dark and the top one very light. But now, looking at what was currently in my sketch book, I thought the other (top) version was definitely better. Could such a subtle thing make that much difference? Well, in my mind it clearly did.

So, I decided to make some changes. In addition to the value shift I wanted to really play up the red as the primary motif color and to make the lines fatter and more irregular. (Again, more like the sketch.) I took all the motif pieces off and started again on the plain background. (Two steps back.)

My redo was much easier than my first attempt, probably because I had a clearer idea of what I wanted to achieve. “Play up the red” was my first priority.

Bam! As soon as I put this up I liked it SO much better! There was the drama I had been missing! After auditioning some red fabrics, I came up with this.

Yes! A definite improvement. From here my goal was to add interest without detracting from these strong red lines. Which meant that most of the lines would be low contrast. Like the aqua lines I was adding below.

Auditioning green for the lower line: I was liking it better than the previous yellow. Of course, it needs to tuck under at least some of those lines to avoid getting too much attention. Did you notice that I tweaked the red “horizontal” line?

But, should I add some yellow somewhere? I was still fiddling at this point, but getting very close to finalizing everything.

There you have it: 3 steps forward in my previous post and 2 steps backward in this one. But, I don’t let that bother me, especially since I eventually moved forward I figured out what was wrong and corrected it. There’s often some trial and error in art making and I don’t let it discourage me. In fact, sometimes I think I just have to get that wrong thing out of my head before I can properly entertain something better. Does anyone else have that experience?

Ellen Lindner

Three Steps Forward

By Ellen Lindner on January 20, 2018 in Uncategorized

After completing the background of my abstract quilt, I was ready to tackle the primary motif. I used my sketch as the idea.

Next, I had to choose colors. I thought some red might be dynamic.

I used photo editing software to audition several different color options.

I wanted to play up the red (above) but the yellow provided so much contrast that I decided I needed to work with it in my planned focal point. Maybe this:

Or maybe I should drop the red altogether.

I decided to forge ahead with this arrangement.

Which meant auditioning red and yellow fabrics.

And eventually I got this.

Hmm. I liked it but it didn’t have the drama I expected. Did the shapes need to be wider? More experimentation would be needed.

Ellen Lindner

Taking Inspiration from the Starting Fabric

By Ellen Lindner on January 17, 2018 in Uncategorized

As I worked on the abstract quilt, I continued to take clues and inspiration from the original fabric. Since it was very angular, I wanted my pattern to be the same. Can you see how the shapes and lines of the side fabrics are extensions of the central fabric lines?

Same for the quilting. First, I stitched parallel lines on the two sides and in the middle I stitched around each little line.

Then, I decided to stitch parallel lines in this central area. Oh my! WHAT was I thinking? It was WAY too much starting and stopping for me and I gave up after the few lines shown above.

Plan B: concentric lines. It worked pretty well, except for the fact that my variegated thread gave too much contrast in some of my messy spots. I have a bit of redoing ahead of me.

Next, it was time to think about the main design elements to be placed in the foreground of this piece. Again, I wanted something angular, but when I checked, my sketchbooks I didn’t have anything like that.

So, I turned, once again, to the fabric itself. I took close up shots of several of the fabric shapes and found one I liked. (Although I edited it quite a bit.)

And, so here is the plan for the final motif.

I’m liking it a lot. Next will be determining what color to make the motif. Light or dark versions of the colors already present would be an obvious choice. But, I think I want to do something a little unexpected. We’ll see. Red maybe???

It’s been really fun to let the fabric inspire so many choices.

Have you ever done something inspired by a particular piece of fabric?

Ellen Lindner

It all Started with Beautiful Fabric

By Ellen Lindner on January 14, 2018 in Uncategorized

Back in July I bought this beautiful painted piece of fabric from Pat Pauly.

Isn’t it gorgeous? I knew it could be the start of something wonderful. The only problem is that the scale of this fabric is much larger than I normally use. Which meant that I didn’t have other similarly scaled fabrics to work with. Still, I thought I could feature this inspiration fabric and add simpler fabrics to it.

First, I had to figure out how much of this fabric to use and a rough idea of the size of the quilt. I decided to use half of the fabric.

Then, I auditioned how I might cut it and reassemble it. Folding helped me visualize the new shape of the fabric.

So, I did this. The piece on the right has been turned 180 degrees.

Next, I began to audition other fabrics. I thought these looked pretty good.

At every turn, I used the starting fabric to help me make decisions. Such as the angles for the side pieces. I wanted them to enhance the angular nature of the starting fabric’s pattern. See what I mean?

Here’s the left side completed. (That is, pinned.)

And here’s the entire background when I THOUGHT it was finished.

I decided that one of the yellow fabrics on the right showed up too much, so I had to address that. Trial and error!

Thus far, I’ve shown you only the background. But I was also working on an idea for a foreground motif. I’ll show you that next time.

What would you do?

Ellen Lindner

Prepping for Shibori

By Ellen Lindner on January 7, 2018 in Uncategorized

I’m getting ready for a shibori dying day with my art quilt buddies. (Shibori is a type of dying which uses manipulation of the fabric to resist the dye in certain areas. Tie dye is an example.) There are a TON of ways to fold, roll, scrunch, and stitch fabric prior to dying to get a variety of patterns. This time I decided to do something new for me: hand stitching.

Here I’ve stitched parallel rows. When the threads are pulled tight, they create a sort of messy smocked effect. The folds will make it difficult for the dye to get into the crevices, creating a pattern.

I also stitched little rows of tucks. This photos shows them before being drawn up.

Then I got very industrious. Here, I stitched tucks in small circles and pulled them tight.

With my fabric folded in half I drew concentric semi-circles for stitching. These will yield full circles when dyed.

Allow me to say that this stitching and pulling and knotting took A LOT of time!

Next, I used a long basting stitch on my machine and did some more parallel rows and rows of tucks. MUCH faster! The only trick is to pull up only the bobbin thread.

Finally, I switched to faster non-stitching methods. I used rubber bands to hold scrunched fabric in place.

Check this out: rocks caught up in the fabric and secured with rubber bands. I used a ton!

I can’t wait to dye this stuff!

Update: Our dying day has been postponed due to COLD here in Florida! How weird is that? Our plan was to do it outside with temperatures in the 60s. That would have been fine for us, but not for the dye. The water needs to be fairly warm. I guess I get more time to prep.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I know my “cold” story isn’t getting any sympathy from your northerners and you’re right! I can’t believe the frigid temperatures I’ve seen reported! Stay warm folks.

A Little Christmas Gift

By Ellen Lindner on January 3, 2018 in Uncategorized

What is utilitarian, personal, and decorative? Why hand stitched dish towels with my personal recipes printed onto them.

This is what I made for several close family members as Christmas gifts. My mom and sister especially appreciated them because we tend to use many of the same recipes. So, they had fun hunting up their favorites, recognizing hand writing, and such.

I scanned the recipes individually and created a computer file the right size. I found that it looked too much like a photograph, so I removed most of the color and tweaked it a little on my computer.

I had my computer image printed onto linen by Spoonflower.com . If I remember correctly, I had 2 yards printed and that gave me enough to make eight towels. I just hemmed them and added the hand stitching.

Which was quick and easy.

I changed the colors of thread for each towel, reflecting the colors of the recipient’s kitchen.

This project was super easy and everyone really liked them. (Me too. I have one in my kitchen drawer.)

Did you make any gifts this year?

Ellen Lindner
P.S. A little research revealed that hand stitched towels are very durable. They can be used and washed just like any hand towel. I was even told that the towel will wear out before the stitching.

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Archive | January, 2018

It Was a Good Day to Dye

Two Steps Back

Three Steps Forward

Taking Inspiration from the Starting Fabric

It all Started with Beautiful Fabric

Prepping for Shibori

A Little Christmas Gift

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