Adventure Quilter

There are two types of texture in art: real, and visual.  Visual texture is achieved with value and pattern changes and is one of the things I teach in class.

Two students brought in mushroom photos to use as their inspirations.  Their photos had a lot of visual texture and these two worked hard at creating it in their pieces.

Here’s Kate’s photo. What wonderful pattern and texture!  Can you see that she’ll REALLY need to rely on value to depict this shape?

Well, she did just that and this was her quilt, ready for stitching.  Nice!

Peggy’s photo included the same challenges.

Again, she used value  and raggedy (“jagged”) edges to complete the task.  Dark stitching has added some definition and she’ll add more.

As an aside, these two were seated at the same table and referred to themselves as “the fun guys.” Get it?  They cracked me up.

One of the students, Barbara, LOVES to use actual texture in her work.  The gnarled and twisted tree of her inspiration photo was perfect for some experimentation.

She started out composing her tree much like the other students.  However, she added contrasting fabrics on both the top of her tree and underneath it.

Later, she cut into the tree, revealing those contrasting fabrics below. She also stitched tucks into place, and did quite a bit of machine stitching.

The effect was very rugged looking: perfect for a tree trunk!

Isn’t that interesting?

It was VERY fun to see these pieces come together!

Ellen Lindner

Gee, this quilt has been fun to make!

After completing the foreground, it was time to address the background – again, with many hand dyed fabrics. First, I auditioned possible fabrics.  I really wanted to use the darkest one, but I was worried that it would created too much contrast.

Still, I kept it in initially. As you can see, I’m tearing fabrics and laying them in horizontally.

This is what it looked like when the background was complete.  I did eventually move the darkest piece.  Also, I made the blue with crosses pieces (on the left) smaller after taking this picture.  Like the dark fabric, it provided just a little too much contrast.

After composing and pinning the design, I glue it fairly thoroughly before taking it to the machine.  That’s in progress below.

Next comes quilting and I’ll get to use my new sewing machine!

Ellen Lindner

I’ve been really anxious to use my recently dyed fabrics. In a very uncharacteristic move I actually started on a quilt using them BEFORE completing the last thing.  Shocking!

I started with some sketches, and picked this one to use.  Because I’ve been doing a few quilts sized 36″ x 24″, I decided to alter the sketch accordingly.

My dyed fabrics would determine the color palette.  I pinned up those that seemed to go together, especially ones with green or organic colors.

I had quite a collection of compatible pieces, with a lovely yellow-green and fuchsia theme.

But wait.  Was this TOO pretty and predictable?  Did it need a shot of “ugly?”  Something unexpected?  What about something yellow-orange or orange?

YES! That little jolt of contrast is just what the palette needed! (But, maybe the blue with yellow crosses wouldn’t make the cut.)

After pinning a piece of muslin on the design wall, I drew in the major lines and began to audition what should go where.  It was great fun to use large pieces of MY OWN fabrics, and things went quickly.

The leaves, before veins, are shown below.

Next came vertical veins. These were easy to add since I had already left space for them.  As a result, the veins could be larger-than-needed strips of fabric that slipped underneath the earlier fabrics.

I use that “slip under technique” a lot.  It’s a good way to avoid working with tiny little strips of fabric.

Then, I trimmed the remaining leaf pieces a little in order to add the diagonal veins in a similar fashion.

Don’t you love that yellow-orange?

On to the background.

Ellen Lindner

My quilt, Splash, is finally complete. It had a long intermission while I purchased a working sewing machine.  But, now it’s finished and I’m very happy!

This piece is made largely from fabrics I hand painted.  That involved a bit of a learning curve, as did the stitching of the stiffer-than-usual fabrics which resulted.

I did quite a bit of experimenting on this quilt, including throwing paint on it at one point!

I’m happy with the results, but after having it on my design wall for SO long, I’m quite happy to move on to the next thing.

Find out dimensions and how to audition this quilt in your home.

Ellen Lindner

Who says Florida doesn’t have seasons?  We have hurricane season, don’t we? One year ago, Hurricane Irma had just skirted Florida on its way northward.  Due to the power of the storm and the projected path, the governor of Florida issued an order for mandatory coastal evacuations, and urged people in many other areas to evacuate voluntarily.

As a result, a mass exodus ensued with around SIX MILLION Floridians hurrying to safer ground.  This resulted in more problems: huge traffic jams, fuel shortages, and packed hotels all the way to North Carolina.  A few days later, the entire migration happened again in reverse.

All this popped into my head when I read about an exhibit called “Forced to Flee.” Plus, I had played around with this little number about a year earlier.

I wasn’t trying to make a hurricane motif, but was simply having fun sewing down raw-edged strips.  But, in the right context I thought it could surely look like a hurricane as seen on a weather forecast.  And so, my ideas for a hurricane quilt began to evolve.

But, how to depict the mass exodus of cars?  Well, it just so happens that my husband and I had been caught in a 6 hour traffic jam in the Florida keys and I had taken a few photos of the traffic at a standstill. (Because it’s not every day that the guy in the camper in front of you gets out with his fishing pole and casts over the side of the road/bridge.)

Maybe I can merge these two images somehow.  Off to do some sketching.

And to those of you in the path of Florence, stay safe!

Ellen Lindner