Archive | January, 2019

Designing in Houston

By Ellen Lindner on January 25, 2019 in Uncategorized

As “Design Your Own Nature Quilt” continued in Houston, the creativity was flowing and the fabric was flying. This is the view from Susan’s table. I think she may have won for the most fabric brought to class, but the competition was strong all around the room.

Designing in Houston. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

This is Nasreen. At first, she seemed none too sure about my methods, but she persevered and was on a roll by the end of class.

Her image included a MASS of poinsettias as the primary subject. She wisely focused on three and ended up with an excellent representation of these colorful flowers.

Darshana had a wonderful inspiration photo.

She translated it to fabric very well. I love those vibrant colors! She’s got a little more tweaking to do, but her composition is basically complete.

Louise spent a good bit of time getting her piece exactly to her liking.

It was time well spent. This is her final piece, with little purple squiggles marking locations for future beading or embroidery.

Judy’s photo showed a plethora of poppies. Like Nasreen, she chose to focus on only a few. Her use of striped fabric added a lot of interest. In the photo below she was beginning to work on buds. Stems and leaves will be last.

Caroline had never made an art quilt before class. However, she came armed with a fabulous photo and a courageous spirit. Here’s her photo. Great, right?

She jumped right in and her piece developed quickly.

She was excited with her progress. And here it is almost complete.

All of these women worked in ways completely new to them and every one of them had such fantastic results. They were excited and so was I!

Still more to come about this class in the next post.

Ellen Lindner

Fierce Students in Houston

By Ellen Lindner on January 23, 2019 in Uncategorized

Not only were the women of the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston friendly and welcoming, but the students in my “Design Your Own Nature Quilt” class were fierce! They courageously tackled work that was outside their comfort zones and they achieved marvelous results.

My hosts were FABULOUS! This is Susan, who chauffeured me around, took me out to dinner and made sure I got the rest I needed.

Fierce Students in Houston. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

She made a wonderful poppy quilt, working almost independently. Don’t you love the way those colors POP?

Also going above and beyond in taking care of me was Marcia. She also ran me around, took me out to eat, and provided me with lunch and water. These two women spent A LOT of time catering to me! I really appreciated it and I enjoyed their company, too.

Here’s her background, almost complete. She’s used a lot of different fabrics, just like I enjoy. The center area will be covered by flowers, but it’s still best to fill it in to avoid edges shadowing through her light fabrics.

Marcia started out making a quilt with three yellow flowers.

But, she fell in love with one large flower and eventually narrowed it down to just that.

In the photo above she was just beginning to play with scaling up the central portion of the flower. This is often tricky for students and is worth spending a little time on.

Gina and Sharon sat next to each other and both worked on mountain scenes with trees in the foreground. Sharon’s photo was not too colorful when printed, but she had a better version on her phone for reference.

She used a variety of fabrics and made her piece MUCH more interesting than the photo. (Here shown in-progress.)

I didn’t get a picture of Gina’s inspiration photo. Like Sharon’s, it was also pretty colorless. But, she wasn’t afraid to kick up the colors and got great results.

Look at that orange against the blue!

Maryellen had a beautiful photo of hydrangeas in front of a picket fence and window. She jagged cut her fabrics and was able to interpret it very effectively. A little stitching will make these flowers take shape.

Rather than sewing, however, she switched gears and started work on a second piece. Can you see these becoming snap dragons? (Actually, I think her flower was something else, but I don’t know what.)

I can’t wait to show you some of the other awesome work done in this class!

Ellen Lindner

Hangin’ Day

By Ellen Lindner on January 14, 2019 in Uncategorized

My local art quilt group, Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists, is preparing an exhibit for an upcoming regional show. It has been A LOT of work, but it’s finally coming together. The culmination of our planning and creating was Hangin’ Day, the day we pinned everything to black felt panels to create a cohesive exhibition.

There was a complex master plan and everything had to be measured and pinned.

Quilt Hangin' Day. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog — Jill at work on self-portraits

Don’t we have an awesome space to work? One of our members, Ruth Anne Parker, is VERY generous with her “barn.” It’s a fabulous space for projects during the cooler months.

After pinning, we could peel back each quilt to access the hanging sleeves and tack though those with one of those tacking gizmos. It worked beautifully and we finally got to see the rewards of our work. This is one of the sections in the Parisian Flower Market challenge. It looks pretty awesome, right?

Of course, it will hang much higher when on display. We just kept it low to preview with easy access.

I’m so proud of us! I think this is going to be an extraordinary display. It will include 29 quilts which make up our Self-Portraits, the Parisian Flower Market Challenge, and our Welcome to Provence Challenge. The self-portraits are a requirement to be in the group. The other two are challenges we did in which we were all inspired by the same photo. The different interpretations are really interesting!

Where can you see all this creativity? Glad you asked. All six sections of quilts will be at the World Quilt Show Florida, at the Tampa Convention Center, January 31 – February 2. I can’t wait!

Ellen Lindner

Creating a Background

By Ellen Lindner on January 11, 2019 in Uncategorized

My idea for this quilt was to more or less mimic the background of Palm Fronds.

Click any image for a larger view

Palm Fronds, an art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com — Palm Fronds

I cut strips of white-with-black fabrics and began laying them in a horizontal arrangement.

Creating a background. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

As you can see, I also began to play with the idea of adding contrasting strips between some of the leaves. White strips added the definition needed, but they weren’t too exciting.

Back to the background.

I was happy with the background, but thought that it, too, might need some more definition between sections. Should I define the background sections with more skinny strips? To be determined.

Meanwhile, I tried black strips for contrast. I liked this much better.

At one point, I used the computer to loosely audition a black strip between every leaf. And also grey stripes in the background sections.

Hmm, I think the black strips are taking over. But, the grey has potential. More experimenting required.

Ellen Lindner

Starting a New “Grassy” Quilt

By Ellen Lindner on January 9, 2019 in Uncategorized

When I drew the sketch for Palm Fronds, I drew several others in a similar format and size. This is the sketch for Tall Grasses, (working title.)

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Starting a new "Grassy" Quilt. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I envisioned green for the grasses and fuchsia for the tips. I had several fabrics from my first dyeing session and I dyed several more long, skinny green pieces to round out the selection. First, I drew my design onto muslin, and then I began to audition fabrics.

I liked these fabrics but I could see that I would have to be careful with them. The colors and values are very similar, so I knew I’d have to arrange them in such a way as to play up contrasts.

Here are the first few pieces in place.

And most of the green pieces. Hmm, as suspected they sort of merge together. I’ll have to work on that.

But first, I went ahead with something I was confident about: fuchsia tips. First, audition time.

And here they all are in place.

I’m happy with the colors and the composition, but I think I’ll need to either switch out some green fabrics or add fabric strips for contrast. But, I’ll probably do the background first.

Ellen Lindner