Blog – Page 32 of 62 – Adventure Quilter

AQS Daytona: Photo Quilts

By Ellen Lindner on March 24, 2019 in Uncategorized

Lately, we’ve been seeing lots of quilts that are photos printed onto fabric and then stitched. Although often stunning from across the room, I’m not always enamored with these quilts. That’s because I want to see something more than the photo. I want to see some added texture, drawing with the quilting line, or thread painting that really ADDS something to the image. I want to see “the hand of the artist.” That is, some way in which the artist has expanded or reinterpreted the photo. Otherwise, why not just print it on paper and frame it? This is a quilt. I want to see something that elevates the image.

Not surprisingly, there were several of these photo quilts at the AQS show in Daytona this year. I’m showing you several I think were especially well done.

This magnificent quilt by Sue de Vanny, is a prime example.

Click any image for a larger view

I don’t believe this one was printed on the fabric. Instead, she used a variety of fabrics to create the basic design, and she then used additional stitching to really bring it to life. My photo is a little out of focus, but I think you can make out the abundant zigzag stitching she has done to soften the edges of the fabrics and to add detail. Beautiful!

Constanze Botel started with a wonderful high contrast photo printed onto fabric.

She added lots of personality and details with the quilting. The word “photographer” is stitched into the background. You can just make out the g to the left of his ear.

This bird quilt was made by Nancy Sterett Martin. The feathers begged for stitching to help make them stand out.

Nancy took it one step further, however, by adding lots of textured fabric, as well. I think it’s very successful.

I think I read that this next quilt did not have a printed photo as a starting point. Instead, each subtle bit of shading and detail was achieved with fabric and thread. It was made by Barbara Binotto.

Now, check out some of her fabulous textured details: 3D Branches!

And water with textured bits used to great effect.

I hope we’ll see more quilts like these in future shows. To me, they’re MUCH more interesting than just thread painting.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I fully understand that heavy thread painting is an art and I greatly respect the workmanship.

Correcting and Dyeing and Correcting Some More

By Ellen Lindner on March 20, 2019 in Uncategorized

Ellen Anne Eddy says, “If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.” In other words, don’t expect yourself to master something right away. If it’s worth doing it’s worth your practice time and whatever mediocre results you get along the way. Well, I think maybe I was the poster child for this philosophy in my last dyeing session. It seemed like nearly everything I did was correcting something I’d done earlier.

Like this ugly green fabric.

Click any image for a larger view

I over painted it with fabric paint, using a commercial stencil and I got this. Much better!

Now, the paint shows more than the original ugly fabric and that became the norm as I worked through some other fabrics.

You may remember this GARISH one from an earlier dye session. That UGLY chartreuse needed to be covered! I made a stencil which would print most of the screen, leaving only a few dots of the underneath fabric showing. I tried mixing a deep berry/burgundy color, (which looked black when still wet,) and screened it on.

And it worked! After washing it out this is what I got. Just what I wanted. Woohoo! I love the imperfections.

Now I was on a roll. I began to look for ugly fabrics, like this clean up rag (CUR), and to figure out how I could mostly cover them. For this “stencil” I tried something new. I cut circles from freezer paper and lightly ironed them onto the back of my screen. I wasn’t sure if they’d stay, but they did (until I later washed the screen.) In the example below I screened on what I hoped would be a dark teal. (Since dyes are transparent, there’s often a good bit of guess work involved in such scenarios.)

And this is what I got when I washed it out. Yes!

I tried repeating my good results with the same technique, this time mixing what I hoped was navy blue and adding it to this bright, and very ugly CUR.

As you can see, the yellow below affected the color and it ended up being a greenish brown. No worries. This will be very usable and is actually one of my favorite fabrics.

These are the results of my 2 week dyeing session: 42 pieces ranging in size from “hand towel” to 30 x 42. I’m, very happy with them.

I’m learning that this dyeing business requires some luck, a good bit of color theory, and an attitude of exploration. My kind of thing, for sure!

Ellen Lindner

Floral Improv in Charlotte

By Ellen Lindner on March 19, 2019 in Uncategorized

Gee, I’ve been teaching so much that I haven’t had time to update my blog with all the great student results.

These are the results from a February “Floral Improv” class in Charlotte, NC. With only 7 students, we had plenty of room to spread out and within the first few minutes colorful flowers were developing.

Click any image for a larger view

They look great on dark backgrounds, don’t they? And here are the resulting quilts at the end of the day, made by Eve and Judy, respectively.

Those colors POP!

Of course, softer colors work equally well. As demonstrated beautifully by Robin and Liz, below.

And why not have use blue flowers? Sara and Marguerite did so very effectively.

Rounding out the selection is this great quilt made by another Judy.

The quilting is very important on these quilts. Especially on the poppies, which need some additional definition. See how much the black stitching helps? I recommend a double pass with a rather sketchy line.

Another successful class, with marvelous results!

Ellen Lindner

Traveling with Quilts

By Ellen Lindner on March 6, 2019 in Uncategorized

One third personal, one third class stuff, and one third quilts: that’s about the ratio of my luggage contents when I travel to teach. Since I want the quilts to arrive with a minimum of wrinkles, so I’ve developed a way to let each one pad the crease of another.

I start with the one medium-large quilt I’m taking. I put it in the cavity of my partially packed suitcase, but leave it fully open.

Next, I add the quilts that are a little smaller. These are too big to lie flat in the suitcase, but narrow enough to fit within the width of my luggage. I lay these in the cavity with one end flat, but the remainder of the quilt opened up and hanging over the edges. See the numbered sequence below.

Next, come the very small quilts that are small enough to fit flat into the suitcase. I put in a few of these, but hold two out.

Now it’s time to start folding up the quilts which have already been laid in place, working in approximately reverse order. In the photo below, the purple quilt has been folded up, with the smallest quilts acting as padding for that crease.

Eventually, all of these quilts are folded up. See the folded red quilt, below. Remember that it was the second one to go in. So, it’s time to address the largest quilt which was placed in first. Of course, it needs to have its folds padded too, and this is where the remaining two small quilts come in. In the photo below, the quilt with the oranges was placed with this in mind.

Now the largest quilt can be folded right to left.

And top to center, with the oranges quilt sandwiched in between the folds.

Finally, the last small quilt is added to cushion the final fold and I’m ready to go.

My students and the audience members at my lectures really love to see quilts up close and personal, so these are always a big hit.

I’d love to come show them off at your guild!

Ellen Lindner

Ice Dyeing

By Ellen Lindner on February 28, 2019 in Uncategorized

Have you tried ice dyeing? Oh my! It produces BEAUTIFUL brilliant colors and complex patterns.

At a recent group dyeing day, Dij taught us how to do it. First, she showed us various ways to bunch, scrunch, and secure the fabric. Like tie dye, the folds in the fabric affect the way the dye penetrates and they help create the patterns.

Before reaching for the dyes, Dij talked to us about color selection. She has made charts showing how each dye separates into other colors, and she keeps this in mind. (Check out the black swatch, bottom right.)

After manipulating our fabric, we placed it on elevated grids in plastic boxes and dumped a bunch of ice on top. Then, before grabbing the dyes we put on our dust masks. VERY IMPORTANT

Next we sprinkled 3 colors of dry dye powder onto each fabric.

It didn’t look too great at this point.

We toted our containers home and waited for the ice to melt. (This is why the fabric was elevated: so it wouldn’t sit in the resulting puddle of mixed colors.) Then, it was time to thoroughly rinse and dry, and voila!

Can you believe how gorgeous these 2 fabrics are?!? The one on the left was loosely scrunched. The one of the right was folded into soft accordion folds and secured with rubber bands. I love these!

To say that all this dyeing was fun would be a huge under statement. It was joyful and exhilarating!

Ellen Lindner

Dirty Dozen Dyeing Day

By Ellen Lindner on February 26, 2019 in Uncategorized

My local art quilt group, the Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists, had a dyeing day recently, at Ruth Anne’s “barn.”

We started with Gabriele explaining wet cyanotype to us.

It’s similar to sun printing, but with chemically treated fabric that turns dark blue. That is, until you add water to the process. After that the results are much less predictable, but always interesting.

The treated fabric is sprayed with water and greenery or other resist items are placed on it. Glass is secured tightly on top to hold it all in place, and it’s put in the sun.

After a few hours it’s ready to come inside for curing, rinsing and drying. This involves leaving it in a dark environment for a while and a few other techniques. Finally, it’s ready.

And the backs are pretty, too. I think I’ll use them as yardage and actually cut them up as needed.

Sandy taught us about low immersion dyeing. She’s very subdued. NOT!

A common technique with low immersion dyeing is to manipulate the fabric in some fashion and to put it into a small space with the dye, so it stays in that shape. This prevents the dye from spreading evenly and interesting mottled colors can be achieved.

These are some of my resulting fabrics. Very useful, right?

We also did ice dyeing that day and I’ll show you that in my next post.

I’m SO lucky to have this intrepid group of fiber artists to hang out with!

Ellen Lindner

Derek Gores at Foosaner Art Museum

By Ellen Lindner on February 21, 2019 in Uncategorized

There’s a fascinating exhibit at my local art museum right now. It features the work of Derek Gores, who makes collages from magazine pages.

Like this.

Isn’t it wonderful? As you can see, he interprets things in a somewhat abstracted way, which I think is VERY compelling. Check out this detail shot.

Don’t you love it? Here’s another one, about 12 x 12.

And the detail shots. The eye:

And the mouth.

Are you blown away yet? How about this?

In his collage, Gores let the woman’s dress disappear into the background. The museum curator took it one step further, finding matching wallpaper to add to this one wall. Brilliant!

By the way, several of Gore’s pieces have a high fashion sensibility. In them, he often adds a cat, which is a whimsical nod to the cat walk. I love that!

Probably the most memorable piece in the installation is, in itself, an installation. It’s a 3D collage filling an entire room with hanging pieces of paper. You can walk all the way around it, but the image is only discernible when viewed from front and center.

Can you tell what it is?

Here’s the reference photo.

This is just a taste of this amazing exhibit. I’ve seen it three times and I’ll be going again this week, because I keep taking people to see it. If you’re in the Melbourne, FL area, you’ll WANT to see this exhibit! It’s at the Foosaner Art Museum, which is free, through March 23rd. If you can’t make it to the museum, I encourage you to check the collages on his website.

Now, I want to grab some paper and a glue stick!

Ellen Lindner

Award of Merit in Mixed Media Show

By Ellen Lindner on February 20, 2019 in Uncategorized

I was delighted to receive an award of merit at a local mixed media show. My piece,Vine Ripened, won this recognition at 100% Pure Florida, a show for Florida residents.

It’s always nice to win an award, but I’m especially thankful when it’s in a mixed media exhibit. These shows draw viewers who may not be familiar with quilts as art, so it’s great to educate them.

You can see my piece and the rest of the exhibit at Fifth Avenue Art Gallery, in Melbourne, FL. Hurry, though, because the exhibit ends February 23rd.

And, if you go, cross the street and check out the wonderful exhibit at the museum.

Ellen Lindner

World Quilt Show Florida 2019

By Ellen Lindner on February 15, 2019 in Uncategorized

There were many amazing quilts at the World Quilt Show Florida, recently held in Tampa. This show actually features two competitions. The first is the Best of World entries, which travel to all the Mancuso managed shows. Plus, there’s a competition for Florida residents only. Here are some of my favorites from the world quilt show entries.

Although I didn’t get a good shot of it, Christine Roseberry’s quilt was well deserving of Best of Show.

Amazing, right?

The second place quilt was made by Margaret Speed.

It was made entirely with silk and it had a wonderful luster.

I loved this piece by Kathryn Hamer Fox, from South Africa.

She adds detail with lots of messy stitching, which I think it’s very effective!

I didn’t recognize the imagery in this next quilt right away.

Then I read the title: “Percussionist.” Ah, I saw it.

This quilt was made by Grace Meijer, from the UK. Check out the detail shot.

And here are some quilts from the Florida competition. My friend, Laura Ruiz, won second place with her quilt called “My Colorado Garden.” The entire quilt background is made from log cabin blocks, including the green lower portion.

The flowers are painted on stretched silk, cut out, and appliqued on. And Laura’s quilting is beautiful.

Another friend, Kestrel Michaud, won Judges Choice AND Viewers’ Choice with her steam punk quilt, “Rose.”

I think this quilt has over 1000 pieces in it. Kestrel designs her quilts on her ipad and then creates a cutting diagram which she sends to her Cricket cutter. It spits out the desired tiny shapes and she assembles everything together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

And, I had a quilt in the show, too: “Jubilation.”

Not sure why it was hanging wonky. Any ideas?

Here, in Florida, quilt show season is in full swing. I hope you get to see some great shows in your area.

Ellen Lindner

Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists “Paris to Provence” Exhibit

By Ellen Lindner on February 13, 2019 in Uncategorized

My small art quilt group was thrilled to have our work exhibited collectively at the World Quilt Show Florida, recently held in Tampa, FL.

There was LOTS of prep work before the exhibit was ready to hang: photos, proposals, layout planning, technical figuring, signs to make, attaching quilts onto felt panels, and finally, installing everything. Some of us went over a day early to accomplish that, including Jared, the husband of one of our members. He designed the signs for us and helped hoist the high stuff.

Nine of our members (and former members) had work in the show. They were Jill Brown, Gabriele DiTota, Terri Drake, Elizabeth King, Ellen Lindner, RuthAnne Parker, Dij Pacarro, Kathryn Robinson, Laura Ruiz, and Becky Stack.

The exhibit featured the results of three group challenges and was called “Paris to Provence.” It filled six panels, plus a title panel. This is where the sign was and it featured one quilt from each of the three challenges.

Shown below are Kathryn’s “Parisian Flower Market” piece, Ruth Anne’s “Welcome to Provence,” and Laura’s self-portrait.

The first panel featured our self-portraits. These are important because they’re a requirement to join the group. They’ve worked very well as a “litmus test” of sorts. Those who are comfortable making a self-portrait are generally good candidates for the group, and vice versa.

Top row: Jill, Gabriele, Elizabeth, and Dij. Bottom row: me, Kathryn, Ruth Anne, and Becky. The harsh lighting made these look a little odd.

The next two panels showed off our “Parisian Flower Market” pieces. With these, we were all inspired by this photo.

Here’s panel one. Cool, right?

Above, top row: Jill & Gabriele, Bottom row: Elizabeth, me, & Gabriele

Panel Two shown below. Top row: Dij, & Ruth Anne. Bottom row: Laura and Becky

Isn’t it amazing how different they all are? That’s what we love about these challenges.

For our “Welcome to Provence” challenge, we used this photo as our inspiration source. We always choose an image with a lot going on, knowing that this will produce more diverse results.

Panel One below. Work made by Jill, Terri, and Gabriele.

Panel Two below. These pieces were created by Elizabeth, me, and Dij.

And the final panel, with pieces made by Kathryn, Laura, and Becky.

We weren’t all able to be at the show at the same time, but we did manage to get a photo with four of us. L-R: Gabriele, Ruth Anne, Kathrn, and me.

It was great to have our work shown to a new audience! These same pieces will be in three AQS shows later this fall: Grand Rapids, Paducah, and Charleston. I hope you get to see them!

Ellen Lindner

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Navigation

Adventure Quilter

AQS Daytona: Photo Quilts

Correcting and Dyeing and Correcting Some More

Floral Improv in Charlotte

Traveling with Quilts

Ice Dyeing

Dirty Dozen Dyeing Day

Derek Gores at Foosaner Art Museum

Award of Merit in Mixed Media Show

World Quilt Show Florida 2019

Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists “Paris to Provence” Exhibit

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