A Story of Artistic Courage. And Plaid.

Meet Shay.  She’s a lovely quilter with a quick smile and lots of enthusiasm.

Artistic courage in use in a class with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Shay likes to make art quilts.  The ones with the patterns provided or with patterns she makes herself.

Yet, she found herself in my Design Your Own Nature Quilt class which teaches, among other things, how to create WITHOUT a pattern.  However, the supply list included artistic courage and, thankfully, she packed hers.

This is her inspiration photo.

Artistic courage in use in a class with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Very viable.  Especially since she brought a wide range of green fabrics.  Some of them printed to look like actual trees!  Hmm.  I was somewhat skeptical about that one.

And Shay set to work cutting those trees out exactly as printed on the fabric.

Artistic courage in use in a class with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Hmm.  I waited to see if she’d be able to work loosely with such fabrics.

And she did a good job!

Artistic courage in use in a class with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

But then, she was a little stumped.  The foreground of her inspiration photo is filled with rhododendron with lots of busy stems, twigs, and leaves showing.  She asked me about cutting skinny strips to represent the stems.  I said, “Don’t do that!  Find a busy fabric that will do the work for you.”

Since I had shown several examples about the value of using plaids in just such occasions, her table-mate chirped up and said, “Like plaid!” and tossed a plaid fabric onto the composition.

Artistic courage in use in a class with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Did I detect a little flinch from Shay when that plaid fabric hit her quilt?  Maybe it was just my imagination.

Regardless, her classmates were fearless and they quickly started throwing more plaid onto her quilt!  Well, that was just the invitation I was looking for, so I HAD to help her arrange them so she could audition those plaids.

Artistic courage in use in a class with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

She was quite a good sport about it, as I took a picture for a “distance” view.

Artistic courage in use in a class with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Meanwhile, several of the other classmates were egging her on.  They really wanted her to use plaid.

Artistic courage in use in a class with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

And, finally, she agreed.  She even seemed to like the idea.  (I sure hope so.  I certainly wouldn’t want to coerce the poor woman!)

Artistic courage in use in a class with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

This is the audition photo, above.  Those plaids will work well, don’t you think?

I was so proud of Shay for embracing something SO outside her comfort zone.  And I got quite a kick from her classmates who were so “pro-plaid” by the end of the day!  It was fun and exhilarating for all of us.

I’ll have more photos from this class soon.  In the meantime, I’m off to Cleveland to tape 3 segments for Quilting Arts TV.  Woohoo!

Ellen Lindner

2 Responses to A Story of Artistic Courage. And Plaid.

  1. Theresa Olson September 16, 2016 at 7:15 pm #

    You captured the day and Shay beautifully, Elllen! Thank you for a really fun and informative class. Very inspiring! I would recommend to everyone, that if they get a chance to take the Designing Your Own Nature Quilt class, do it!

    • Ellen Lindner September 17, 2016 at 4:58 pm #

      I’m so glad you enjoyed both the class and the post, Theresa.

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