Archive | February, 2019

Ice Dyeing

By Ellen Lindner on February 28, 2019 in Uncategorized

Have you tried ice dyeing? Oh my! It produces BEAUTIFUL brilliant colors and complex patterns.

At a recent group dyeing day, Dij taught us how to do it. First, she showed us various ways to bunch, scrunch, and secure the fabric. Like tie dye, the folds in the fabric affect the way the dye penetrates and they help create the patterns.

Before reaching for the dyes, Dij talked to us about color selection. She has made charts showing how each dye separates into other colors, and she keeps this in mind. (Check out the black swatch, bottom right.)

After manipulating our fabric, we placed it on elevated grids in plastic boxes and dumped a bunch of ice on top. Then, before grabbing the dyes we put on our dust masks. VERY IMPORTANT

Next we sprinkled 3 colors of dry dye powder onto each fabric.

It didn’t look too great at this point.

We toted our containers home and waited for the ice to melt. (This is why the fabric was elevated: so it wouldn’t sit in the resulting puddle of mixed colors.) Then, it was time to thoroughly rinse and dry, and voila!

Can you believe how gorgeous these 2 fabrics are?!? The one on the left was loosely scrunched. The one of the right was folded into soft accordion folds and secured with rubber bands. I love these!

To say that all this dyeing was fun would be a huge under statement. It was joyful and exhilarating!

Ellen Lindner

Dirty Dozen Dyeing Day

By Ellen Lindner on February 26, 2019 in Uncategorized

My local art quilt group, the Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists, had a dyeing day recently, at Ruth Anne’s “barn.”

We started with Gabriele explaining wet cyanotype to us.

It’s similar to sun printing, but with chemically treated fabric that turns dark blue. That is, until you add water to the process. After that the results are much less predictable, but always interesting.

The treated fabric is sprayed with water and greenery or other resist items are placed on it. Glass is secured tightly on top to hold it all in place, and it’s put in the sun.

After a few hours it’s ready to come inside for curing, rinsing and drying. This involves leaving it in a dark environment for a while and a few other techniques. Finally, it’s ready.

And the backs are pretty, too. I think I’ll use them as yardage and actually cut them up as needed.

Sandy taught us about low immersion dyeing. She’s very subdued. NOT!

A common technique with low immersion dyeing is to manipulate the fabric in some fashion and to put it into a small space with the dye, so it stays in that shape. This prevents the dye from spreading evenly and interesting mottled colors can be achieved.

These are some of my resulting fabrics. Very useful, right?

We also did ice dyeing that day and I’ll show you that in my next post.

I’m SO lucky to have this intrepid group of fiber artists to hang out with!

Ellen Lindner

Derek Gores at Foosaner Art Museum

By Ellen Lindner on February 21, 2019 in Uncategorized

There’s a fascinating exhibit at my local art museum right now. It features the work of Derek Gores, who makes collages from magazine pages.

Like this.

Isn’t it wonderful? As you can see, he interprets things in a somewhat abstracted way, which I think is VERY compelling. Check out this detail shot.

Don’t you love it? Here’s another one, about 12 x 12.

And the detail shots. The eye:

And the mouth.

Are you blown away yet? How about this?

In his collage, Gores let the woman’s dress disappear into the background. The museum curator took it one step further, finding matching wallpaper to add to this one wall. Brilliant!

By the way, several of Gore’s pieces have a high fashion sensibility. In them, he often adds a cat, which is a whimsical nod to the cat walk. I love that!

Probably the most memorable piece in the installation is, in itself, an installation. It’s a 3D collage filling an entire room with hanging pieces of paper. You can walk all the way around it, but the image is only discernible when viewed from front and center.

Can you tell what it is?

Here’s the reference photo.

This is just a taste of this amazing exhibit. I’ve seen it three times and I’ll be going again this week, because I keep taking people to see it. If you’re in the Melbourne, FL area, you’ll WANT to see this exhibit! It’s at the Foosaner Art Museum, which is free, through March 23rd. If you can’t make it to the museum, I encourage you to check the collages on his website.

Now, I want to grab some paper and a glue stick!

Ellen Lindner

Award of Merit in Mixed Media Show

By Ellen Lindner on February 20, 2019 in Uncategorized

I was delighted to receive an award of merit at a local mixed media show. My piece,Vine Ripened, won this recognition at 100% Pure Florida, a show for Florida residents.

It’s always nice to win an award, but I’m especially thankful when it’s in a mixed media exhibit. These shows draw viewers who may not be familiar with quilts as art, so it’s great to educate them.

You can see my piece and the rest of the exhibit at Fifth Avenue Art Gallery, in Melbourne, FL. Hurry, though, because the exhibit ends February 23rd.

And, if you go, cross the street and check out the wonderful exhibit at the museum.

Ellen Lindner

World Quilt Show Florida 2019

By Ellen Lindner on February 15, 2019 in Uncategorized

There were many amazing quilts at the World Quilt Show Florida, recently held in Tampa. This show actually features two competitions. The first is the Best of World entries, which travel to all the Mancuso managed shows. Plus, there’s a competition for Florida residents only. Here are some of my favorites from the world quilt show entries.

Although I didn’t get a good shot of it, Christine Roseberry’s quilt was well deserving of Best of Show.

Amazing, right?

The second place quilt was made by Margaret Speed.

It was made entirely with silk and it had a wonderful luster.

I loved this piece by Kathryn Hamer Fox, from South Africa.

She adds detail with lots of messy stitching, which I think it’s very effective!

I didn’t recognize the imagery in this next quilt right away.

Then I read the title: “Percussionist.” Ah, I saw it.

This quilt was made by Grace Meijer, from the UK. Check out the detail shot.

And here are some quilts from the Florida competition. My friend, Laura Ruiz, won second place with her quilt called “My Colorado Garden.” The entire quilt background is made from log cabin blocks, including the green lower portion.

The flowers are painted on stretched silk, cut out, and appliqued on. And Laura’s quilting is beautiful.

Another friend, Kestrel Michaud, won Judges Choice AND Viewers’ Choice with her steam punk quilt, “Rose.”

I think this quilt has over 1000 pieces in it. Kestrel designs her quilts on her ipad and then creates a cutting diagram which she sends to her Cricket cutter. It spits out the desired tiny shapes and she assembles everything together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

And, I had a quilt in the show, too: “Jubilation.”

Not sure why it was hanging wonky. Any ideas?

Here, in Florida, quilt show season is in full swing. I hope you get to see some great shows in your area.

Ellen Lindner

Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists “Paris to Provence” Exhibit

By Ellen Lindner on February 13, 2019 in Uncategorized

My small art quilt group was thrilled to have our work exhibited collectively at the World Quilt Show Florida, recently held in Tampa, FL.

There was LOTS of prep work before the exhibit was ready to hang: photos, proposals, layout planning, technical figuring, signs to make, attaching quilts onto felt panels, and finally, installing everything. Some of us went over a day early to accomplish that, including Jared, the husband of one of our members. He designed the signs for us and helped hoist the high stuff.

Nine of our members (and former members) had work in the show. They were Jill Brown, Gabriele DiTota, Terri Drake, Elizabeth King, Ellen Lindner, RuthAnne Parker, Dij Pacarro, Kathryn Robinson, Laura Ruiz, and Becky Stack.

The exhibit featured the results of three group challenges and was called “Paris to Provence.” It filled six panels, plus a title panel. This is where the sign was and it featured one quilt from each of the three challenges.

Shown below are Kathryn’s “Parisian Flower Market” piece, Ruth Anne’s “Welcome to Provence,” and Laura’s self-portrait.

The first panel featured our self-portraits. These are important because they’re a requirement to join the group. They’ve worked very well as a “litmus test” of sorts. Those who are comfortable making a self-portrait are generally good candidates for the group, and vice versa.

Top row: Jill, Gabriele, Elizabeth, and Dij. Bottom row: me, Kathryn, Ruth Anne, and Becky. The harsh lighting made these look a little odd.

The next two panels showed off our “Parisian Flower Market” pieces. With these, we were all inspired by this photo.

Here’s panel one. Cool, right?

Above, top row: Jill & Gabriele, Bottom row: Elizabeth, me, & Gabriele

Panel Two shown below. Top row: Dij, & Ruth Anne. Bottom row: Laura and Becky

Isn’t it amazing how different they all are? That’s what we love about these challenges.

For our “Welcome to Provence” challenge, we used this photo as our inspiration source. We always choose an image with a lot going on, knowing that this will produce more diverse results.

Panel One below. Work made by Jill, Terri, and Gabriele.

Panel Two below. These pieces were created by Elizabeth, me, and Dij.

And the final panel, with pieces made by Kathryn, Laura, and Becky.

We weren’t all able to be at the show at the same time, but we did manage to get a photo with four of us. L-R: Gabriele, Ruth Anne, Kathrn, and me.

It was great to have our work shown to a new audience! These same pieces will be in three AQS shows later this fall: Grand Rapids, Paducah, and Charleston. I hope you get to see them!

Ellen Lindner

“Tall Grasses” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on February 11, 2019 in Uncategorized

After several interruptions, I was finally able to finish my quilt, Tall Grasses.

Tall Grasses

It was inspired by some of the landscape grasses growing in my neighborhood. When the setting sun hits them, the cream colored heads glow an almost pink. As you can see, I ran with that idea, adding my favorite bright colors, and using an abstracted representation of grass.

This is the first quilt I’ve made using almost exclusively my own hand dyed fabrics. Very fun!

I wanted to play up the curves in the background so I drew it in with a fine permanent marker. It’s very subtle and I like it. As a matter of fact, I’m happy with the quilt in every way.

It was made as a companion to this quilt, Palm Fronds.

Palm Fronds

Don’t you think they’d make a good pair? Maybe I’ll make one more in the series.

Find out more information about Tall Grasses, including how to audition it in your own home.

Ellen Lindner

More Designing in Houston

By Ellen Lindner on February 3, 2019 in Uncategorized

Meg’s photo gave her a clear cut design path.

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

But, she still had to think about how to best depict the background and about the best proportions. This is what she came up with.

Oops, I see she had moved a couple of blossoms as I took this photo. They were actually all joined to the stem at the end. I think the slimmer proportions really play up the vertical nature of this hanging plant.

And then Meg started another composition!

Sarah had an excellent starting photo of flowering cacti.

She wisely decided to include only the main elements, and to zoom in on them. Just look at her results.

She’ll add some hand stitched needles as a finishing touch.

And then she also started on a second piece. This is her photo, a close up view of the edge of a succulent.

She made good progress in the remaining class time.

If I remember correctly, Elizabeth was one of the students who had never made an art quilt. This was her photo.

She didn’t own a stash of fabric and brought a limited selection. But that didn’t slow her down much, as you can see from her quilt. Later, she completely quilted it during class.

Martha worked diligently on her quilt, “drawing” with her scissors as I had shown her.

And here’s her quilt, almost complete.

Kathy’s photo had lots of strong lines from the leaves and delicate shapes and colors from the flowers.

She wanted to play up the flowers but keep the strong leaves. She was willing to edit and resize to achieve that. And just look at her final quilt.

She improved on the colors and sizes of the flowers and represented the leaves in an interesting way. Kathy definitely achieved what she wanted.

I’m SO proud of all these women! They were willing to experiment and to work in completely new ways. As a result, they learned A LOT and they each made a striking quilt. Way to go, ladies!

The students in this class, “Design Your Own Nature Quilt,” always get great results. I’d love to come teach for your group, as well. (But DO plan on the 2 day version of this class!)

Ellen Lindner

Navigation

Archive | February, 2019

Ice Dyeing

Dirty Dozen Dyeing Day

Derek Gores at Foosaner Art Museum

Award of Merit in Mixed Media Show

World Quilt Show Florida 2019

Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists “Paris to Provence” Exhibit

“Tall Grasses” Complete

More Designing in Houston

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