Author Archive | Ellen Lindner

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

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

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

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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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