Blog – Page 12 of 60 – Adventure Quilter

More Work from the Dirty Dozen Exhibit

By Ellen Lindner on April 3, 2022 in Uncategorized

In order to be in the Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists, you have to make a self-portrait. This has worked really well as a litmus test of how good the fit is between the prospective member and the group. Those who embrace it with minimal trepidation are likely to be a good fit, while those who are scared off are not likely to be.

We often show these self-portraits when we have our exhibits, especially if we have never members and, therefore, new quilts.

Although somewhat out of focus, you can see the diversity, above. These were made by:
Top row, L-R: Sandy Shenker, Andrea Luliak, Ruth Anne Parker, Perlie (Phyllis) Petrillo, Jill Brown
Bottom row, L-R: Joan Engel, Becky Stack, Kathryn Robinson, Marilyn Seibring, Gabriele DiTota, and me.

Continuing onto the next panel are two more. Top: Dij Pacarro, Bottom: Laura Ruiz.

We also provided “How To” information about cyanotype, ice dyeing, and weaving.

The final two panels of our exhibit featured some of our favorites.
They were made by, Top Row, L-R: Jill Brown, Gabriele DiTota, Kathryn Robinson, Dij Pacarro
Bottom row, L-R: Sandy Shenker, (Gabriele DiTota,) Marilyn Seibring, Joan Engel

These were made by, Top Row, L-R: Andrea Luliak, Perlie Petrillo, Becky Stack
Bottom row, L-R: (Andrea Luliak,) Ruth Anne Parker, and me

In addition to our quilts, we also had a table of 3D work. I’m sorry I don’t know exactly who made what. However, I think all these pieces were made by Gabriele DiTota, Marilyn Seibring, and Jill Brown.

What a creative group we have! We were very happy with our exhibit which included 47 quilts and about 10 3D items. We greatly appreciate the Seaside Piecemakers for offering us this opportunity.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. We’ll be offering our “Measure of a Woman” and “In the Style of” challenges as traveling exhibits. Need something special for your quilt show?

My Episode on “The Quilt Show”

By Ellen Lindner on March 29, 2022 in Uncategorized

I have to admit: it’s pretty exhilarating to be on an episode of The Quilt Show! It went live a few days ago and I’m really happy with the results!

Check out the trailer:
Ellen Lindner on The Quilt Show. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

In this episode I teach three different segments.
1 – Drawing inspiration from a photo. (But not reproducing it perfectly.)
2 – Design basics: focal point and balance
3 – A glued collage technique I call “Sticky Fingers.” It uses fabric, but there’s no stitching. Super easy!

The Quilt Show has an online membership format. If you’re a member you can view all the videos and other content at any time. If you’re not already a member you can sign up for a free 7 day trial. Either option will get you access to the episode.

Watching the episode I was reminded of how much fun we had that day. I hope you’ll get to enjoy it!

Ellen Lindner

Working on a New Class: Sticky Fingers

By Ellen Lindner on March 24, 2022 in Uncategorized

I’ve been BUSY getting a new online class ready to go. It’s called Sticky Fingers and it’s a glued collage technique. This is the class sample:

I really love it.

For the purposes of the course I needed to make another one, so I could record it. And I chose pastel colors. VERY unusual for me, but I really like these bright and happy hues just as much.

Here it is, in-progress.

Along with a very wet in-progress detail shot.

And here’s the final result:

Ooh, me likey! What do you think?
Which do you prefer?

This was really fun to make! (I have such a great job.) ~~I’ll have the class published in a few days.~~ Update: the class is now ready to en joy.

Full class details

I think you’ll really like it.

I’m getting excited!
Ellen Lindner
P.S. In case it’s not obvious: this is a non-sewing project. Anyone can do it!

Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists: “In the Style of…”

By Ellen Lindner on March 12, 2022 in Uncategorized

For our second self-portrait challenge, the Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists made quilts in the style of their favorite artists. These included abstract, pop, impressionist, and whimsical styles, to name a few.

These were made by Marilyn Seibring and Andrea Luliak.

These were made by me, (Ellen Lindner,) Sandy Shenker, and Becky Stack.

Jill Brown, Dij Pacarro, and Laura Ruiz created these quilts.

Gabriele DiTota, Kathryn Robinson, and Ruth Anne Parker made these pieces.

Can you find pieces inspired by “Whistler’s Mother,” the work of Peter Max, and Andrew Wyeth?

Ellen Lindner
P.S. See the associated posts about our other self-portrait challenges.

Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists: Live and On Stage!

By Ellen Lindner on March 8, 2022 in Uncategorized

I’m very fortunate to belong to a small art quilt group called “Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists.” The group consists of twelve very skilled and VERY creative fiber artists who don’t mind trying new things and taking risks. We LOVE to get together and share our passion for art quilting (and other fiber media!) We always have fun when we’re together.

Occasionally we give ourselves challenges, primarily so we can show our work to others in a cohesive way. This really worked to our advantage, recently, when the Seaside Piecemakers, of Melbourne, FL, invited us to take over the entire stage as part of their biennial quilt show. We had multiple challenges to show off and it made for an excellent exhibit! See what I mean, below.

Check out the quilts on the two left panels. They’re our self-portrait challenge called “The Measure of a Woman.” Each one is the height of the maker and no more than 12″ wide. They’re arranged by height. Isn’t that neat?

Here’s the left panel. L-R the quilts were made by me (Ellen Lindner,) Marilyn Seibring, Ruth Anne Parker, and Dij Pacarro.
(I’m always the shortest in any group.)

And the right panel. These were made by Laura Ruiz, Jill Brown, Sandy Shenker, Gabriele DiTota, Becky Stack, and Kathryn Robinson.

I just love this idea and so did our viewers. We got lots of comments and questions. It was fun to interact with quilt lovers and tell them about this challenge.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I have many more photos to show you from this exhibit. Stay tuned.

Going Back and Making Changes

By Ellen Lindner on March 2, 2022 in Uncategorized

Last summer, I made a quilt called Beet Salad. I put a lot of work into it, including dyeing all the fabrics especially with this quilt in mind. This was the final result.

Beet Salad

Although I liked it, somehow it didn’t quite meet my vision. I wasn’t sure what it needed. Recently, (when I finally put it away,) I studied it again and decided the color contrast was just too harsh. Especially with those yellow circles.

So, I removed them, and this is the new rendition.

Beet Salad

I like it SO much better! It was a little bit of a technical challenge to remove the yellow circles, but I think it was worth it.

What do you think? Do you like it better?

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Have you ever changed something after it’s completely finished?

“Floral Improv” with the Arizona Quilters Guild

By Ellen Lindner on February 28, 2022 in Uncategorized

Floral Improv is such a fun class. The students learn a lot AND accomplish a lot in a relaxed atmosphere. The gals in Arizona had just such an experience, and made some fantastic quilts!

(I only got photos of a few.) Victoria’s dark background really created a lot of contrast and drama!

Cindy reversed the values on her poppies to great effect. Her quilt is so happy!

Audrey made good progress and was able to add black stitching to her poppies. Can you see (just barely) how it adds a lot of definition?

Kathy used an unusual combination of colors that made her quilt very lively. (There’s that poppy stitching again.) See the floating circles? They’ll become flowers once Kathy stitches on delicate stems for them.

During class Lynda completely finished stitching her quilt and even FRAMED it!!! She was so pleased.

Oh, I can see this gal’s face, but I can’t recall her name. (Please tell me if it’s you.) This piece is very successful thanks to the high contrast, black stitching on the poppies, and ORIGINAL leaves. I love the shape she came up with.

Finally, Vicki’s smile echoed the joy that everyone felt with their fun quilts. Isn’t hers great?

I sure had fun with this group and I think the feeling was mutual. Maybe your guild would live to give Floral Improv a try, as well.

Ellen Lindner

Over Painting Dyed Fabrics

By Ellen Lindner on February 26, 2022 in Uncategorized

The thing about using fabric dyes is that they’re translucent. They give beautiful results, but it’s impossible to add light colors at the end. For that paint is needed. So, I decided to use some fabric paint and see if I could improve a couple of dyed fabrics.

This was my starting point:

Dyeing: How 'Bout Some Orange? Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I decided to paint on blue and blue-green ovals.

Over painting dyed fabric. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I think it helped. This will be a very usable fabric.

Next, this red/pink fabric.

Learning about Dyeing - Still. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I thought it needed some white, so I held my breath and stamped some on. It was a little heavier than I would have liked, but I still thought it was viable.

Over painting dyed fabric. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

The finished fabric:

Over painting dyed fabric. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Yes! I like it a lot and I can’t wait to use it!

Each of these are 45″ long on the longest side.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I use translucent ProFab fabric paint . (This paint is more translucent than opaque paint, but more opaque than dyes.)

If You Never Fail You’re Not Experimenting Enough

By Ellen Lindner on February 25, 2022 in Uncategorized

I’m not sure where I heard that quote, but I agree with it. And, I’ve been doing plenty of experimenting lately. Yes, you guessed it: I created a big ~~failure~~ rough draft.

I’ve been doing quite a few abstract quilts in a style I call “Slice and Dice.” As the name implies, I slice into fabrics and rearrange them back together in different – and hopefully more interesting – arrangements.

Like this:

A Little Bit Tart

And this:

On the Road to Home

The fabrics I’ve used have been hand dyed, which definitely add to the design of these busy quilts. So, when friends suggested that I teach the technique I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it because of the unique nature of my fabric selections.

Still, I decided to give it a shot. I bought an ombre fabric with several colors in it and fabrics in all the colors. This was my starting point.

I cut each fabric in predetermined sizes and joined them in pairs. I took meticulous notes so I’d be able to teach exactly what to do.

Each pair was then altered, either by adding a skinny pieced line, or by cutting and rearranging the pieces.

I did that OVER and OVER. And OVER and OVER. After a while I realized that no student would want to spend this long altering the blocks. I didn’t enjoy it either. So much for teaching it.

But, I thought I could at least make it into a good sample in case I figured out the teaching angle down the road. I worked and worked, but the white fabric and the dark colors just stood out too much. I sliced into them repeatedly, trying to whittle them down to what I considered the correct proportion. But, eventually, I had such an abundance of bulky seam allowances that the whole thing was barely sewable.

I decided to cut my losses.

This is where I ended up. It was taking a lot of time and it wasn’t getting better. I just stopped.

Do I have angst or regret about tackling this project? No, just the opposite, actually. I had a question and I needed to work it through to find the answer. Now I know the answer. Plus, I recognize the time I spent problem solving and trying new things will make me more creative in the future. I didn’t waste my time and I didn’t waste my fabric. The fabric served a useful purpose, even though it wasn’t the one I imagined.

I feel strongly about the importance of experimentation, which is why I call myself the Adventure Quilter.

~~Have you “failed” at anything lately?~~ (Actually, I don’t call them failures. They’re “rough drafts,” or “experiments.”) Any recent rough drafts?

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Click the title of this blog to see it without the rest of the blog posts. This will reveal several links below which will take you to several other posts showing high levels of experimentation on my part. Beware: rabbit holes ahead!