Archive | October, 2023

Elegant Threads is Worth a Visit

By Ellen Lindner on October 30, 2023 in Uncategorized

If you’re anywhere near Tequesta/Jupiter, FL you really owe it to yourself to check out the Elegant Threads exhibit at the Lighthouse Art Center. As the name implies, the exhibit includes wearable art, but also 3D fiber art, jewelry, accessories, and some large invitational pieces.

My favorite piece was this quilt by Bisa Butler. Her work is all over the internet, so perhaps you’ve seen it. This was my first time to see one of her pieces in person and it did not disappoint. This piece is called Mighty Gents.

Don’t you love their body language?
Here’s a detail shot. (Slightly distorted, since I was standing close and looking up at it.)

There were many wonderful wearable garments on display. (Some more wearable than others.) This felted piece was made by Charity Van de Meer Musma, and is called Mysterious Bride.

Amy Blicher calls her quilted and painted red coat Migraine.

And her yellow coat is called Daisies.

The wearables were hung from the ceiling or displayed on mannequins. It was a very nice presentation.

These are just a SMALL sampling of what’s on display. See it for yourself, if you can. It will be on display through December 2, 2023. (And, there’s a fashion show in November, if you can handle the $100 ticket price.)

In my next post, I’ll show you another VERY interesting piece on display in this exhibit.

Ellen Lindner

Twigs of Teal and Red-Orange: Creating a Diagonal

By Ellen Lindner on October 26, 2023 in Uncategorized

Here’s that featured fabric loosely put into place. Not bad, I think. But what now? I think I’ll probably need to cut into the twiggy fabric some in order to create more energy.

Perhaps a diagonal will work well.

Hmm. It has potential.

Time to fill in the corners. Of course, I could use blue-green in the bottom right, but that seems rather predictable. What would yellow look like?

Not the best choice, I think. What about pink?

I was not at all convinced about the pink, but I left it in place for most of the rest of the design process.

Because I really liked the stripes, I decided to group them all together. Now, THAT I loved! These stripes were printed on the diagonal and I think that really helps.

A better look at those stripes, not yet pieced. This was exciting me!

LOTS more trial and error lay ahead.

Ellen Lindner

Twigs of Teal and Red-Orange: Getting Started

By Ellen Lindner on October 23, 2023 in Uncategorized

I dyed this fabric last year and it’s one of my favorites.

I was really happy with the way I had a viable design without doing anything more to it, but HOW do you design with that? I had a false start last year and am now trying again.

These are the collection of “featured” fabrics I thought I might be able to use. I call them featured fabrics because they have high amounts of contrast in them, which will draw the viewer’s eye. When working with such fabrics, I try to put them in place early on and then fill in with less dramatic fabrics, as needed.

Next, I pulled out every fabric I thought might work. As you can see, I like these colors and found that I had quite a collection.

But, maybe it needed something unexpected. What about accents of yellow?

Hmm. Maybe.

I liked the large twig (center right) on the dull orange print. But, I didn’t like the background fabric. So, I stenciled on a couple more using paint.

These should be usable.

I had my fabric decisions (mostly) made, so it was time to start moving things around on the design wall. (The challenging, but fun, part!)

Ellen Lindner

Finishing Up the Red and Yellow Quilt

By Ellen Lindner on October 6, 2023 in Uncategorized

After finishing up the left 2/3 of my red and yellow “bean” quilt, it was time to tackle the right yellow portion. It came together pretty well. (Still in -progress below.)

During these final stages I also considered added some skinny lines, for energy. (See them pinned on at the top in the photo above?) I eventually decided against them, however, because I thought they’d attract too much attention. I wanted the other contrasts to be the attention getters. (And those bean shapes, of course.)

From early in the design phase I thought I’d probably want to applique on another couple yellow beans. (If you look back at the first post, you’ll see that I had one little piece of yellow fabric sitting on the red – near the top – as a place holder.) I auditioned that idea further near the end.

I also considered adding some red ones. That’s what the red blobs are for in the photo above. I decided I just needed one. I made it a partial bean, like the other red ones.

And then I cropped both sides. (But, I later added some of the red side back.)

Finally, I had it all put together and quilted. As you can see above, I added some more bean outlines during the quilting process. I really like using a double black line for emphasis.

Then, it was time for photography.

You can see the full finished quilt here. I’d really appreciate your thoughts about it – especially what you think about these two colors together. Yay or nay?

Ellen Lindner

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Archive | October, 2023

Elegant Threads is Worth a Visit

Twigs of Teal and Red-Orange: Creating a Diagonal

Twigs of Teal and Red-Orange: Getting Started

Finishing Up the Red and Yellow Quilt

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