Archive | April, 2019

Working on an Abstract Quilt

By Ellen Lindner on April 30, 2019 in Uncategorized

In an earlier post, I showed you a quick exercise for generating abstract designs. After making several “postcard collages” I decided to use one of them to create a quilt.

This was the original collage.

I cropped it and got this. I think it’s much more dramatic skinny like this.

I played with it just a little bit on the computer and got this as my sketch.

But, oops, I had lost the skinny drama, so I had to change that back.

Next, I pulled out hand dyed fabrics, and others, to see if I had what I needed. Yes, I thought I could make it work.

I placed a piece of muslin on my design wall and drew out my planned size. Then, I started working on the large black shapes. I figured they were the keys to the whole design, so I needed to get them in place first. Since I work in raw edge collage it’s a simple matter to cut the fabrics to shape and place them.

Later fabrics were tucked under the adjacent black.

Since all the designing had been done beforehand, and because I was working with fairly large shapes, it came together pretty quickly.

How do you like my visual cropping tool, above? That’s right, it’s toilet paper.

At this point, it was ready for a light gluing and then on to stitching. I’ll show you how I tackled that in the next post.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. What construction tricks do you have?

A Week at ProChem

By Ellen Lindner on April 27, 2019 in Uncategorized

I’m one lucky girl. I got to spend a week at ProChem taking a week long dyeing/printing class with Pat Pauly. What an EXCELLENT class room set up!

I was anxious to get started, wearing ratty shirt #1. (These dyeing shirts definitely “spark joy!”)

See the paper on the wall behind me? That’s because the top parts of the walls are pinable. Very useful. We each had a full table and a comfy chair. We had 5 laundry sized sinks at our disposal, plus one power sprayer/washout tub. PLUS a washer and a dryer!

But, this is where it really got exciting: our drying clothesline.

Look at the size of this thing! It goes way back to the left wall, with lines about every 6 inches.

I called it the fabric forest. And I got more than a little color on me because of going into it. (You KNOW I didn’t mind that!)

For fabrics that were too goopy to hang we had a large rolling structure with flat drying trays which slid out. This thing got a lot of use.

I’m already trying to figure out how hubby can make me a smaller one that disassembles. He’s an engineer and an expert wood worker, so I know he’ll figure it out.

I was really spoiled by the set up at ProChem and I really recommend it. If you get a chance to take one of their classes, do it!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Of course, I’ll show you some of my fabric soon and other class photos.

Abstract Design from Scratch

By Ellen Lindner on April 25, 2019 in Uncategorized

Have you done any abstract work? I have and I often find it difficult to come up with the original design. One exercise that’s been floating around via Pat Pauly and others it to randomly cover an index card with fabric scraps and let that become your design. So I tried a few.

Some of these (like that last one) were real dogs, so I tried a more deliberate one.

It was only slightly better.

But wait, there’s more! If a composition isn’t appealing try visually cropping it to see if you can find a more pleasing design. Like this.

I do this with paper or cardboard L shapes. With them you can easily crop the image much smaller. It’s important to rotate it, too, as this often helps the design quite a bit.

Here are a few more crops.

I think these are much more dramatic than the originals (although they may still require some editing!)

You can also do the same exercise with printed photos. I had several vegetation photos which I stacked and cut into mostly squarish pieces. This was my first arrangement.

It already had good contrast and interest, but there was a lot going on. I rearranged a bit more, now confident in the results I knew I could eventually get. This was that second arrangement slightly cropped.

But, I took it even further.

That would make a pretty great quilt, don’t you think?

I’ve found this technique to be useful and have just finished an abstract quilt designed in this way. I’ll get it photographed and show it to you soon.

What tips do you have for designing abstractly?

Ellen Lindner
P.S. This is one of the tools Pat teaches in her “A Dozen Ways: Design for Art Quilts,” a class which I recommend.

Floral Improv in Tallahassee

By Ellen Lindner on April 9, 2019 in Uncategorized

The students in my recent “Floral Improv” class, in Tallahassee, FL, produced wonderful results!

After learning to make simple daisies and poppies, we talked about design and composition and they spent some time working on their arrangements.

Floral Improv in Tallahassee. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Elizabeth at work

Flowers were placed first, then stems, then leaves.

Diana with her stitching in-progress

Next came the stitching. This is especially important with the poppies because details are added with black thread.

Elizabeth stitching away

Cheryl nearly finished hers!

Kerry with her completed piece. (She used dark green thread on her poppies.)

Pam with many flowers stitched. Notice her background quilting. Students bring their quilt sandwiches to class already stitched and this is the pattern I suggest.

Erin with most of her stitching complete. She’s a brand new art quilter and was thrilled with her results!

Leslie’s patterned fabrics gave an interesting pop-art look to her composition.

For leaves and stems, I encourage the students to select fabrics close to the background, so contrast will be minimized and the blossoms will be the stars of the show.

Elizabeth with partial stitching complete

As the class coordinator, Ruth worked hard both in class AND before and after!

And just look at her results. Can you see how much definition the poppy stitching adds?

From Erin with her first (or second?) art quilt, to Kerry and Diana’s black leaves, and Leslie’s print flowers, this group was not afraid to experiment. I loved it!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Learn a little bit about design: Composition here, and Focal point here.

Apples, Apples Everywhere!

By Ellen Lindner on April 2, 2019 in Uncategorized

My class, Double Reverse Applique, is the most popular one I teach. And with good reason: the technique is easy and the results are always exciting. I’ve taught it recently in both Boca Raton and Tallahassee, FL.

Clicking on most images will show a larger view

The goal: dramatic apples (and maybe even some pears.)

My samples are shown above.

The Process

The technique involves two types of reversal. First of all, all the stitching is done from the back.

Which involves heavy use of a light box in order to place the fabrics properly on the front.

Excess fabric is trimmed away from the front, like typical Reverse Applique. Slowly, an apple takes shape.

The Boca class was very full so I didn’t have much time for picture snapping. But, I did get this one of Johanna with her apple.

And looky there: “life imitating art.” This was part of a student’s lunch.

The Results

The Tallahassee class was much smaller so I got to take more pictures. Here’s the entire group of 9. Don’t they look great? I love how they always look different from one another.

This class had a first for me: two women working together on the same apple. Mary and Elizabeth did a great job of working together and I gave each of them a “cooperation prize:” a postcard. That’s them in the back of the room, while Lucy labors away in the foreground.