Blog – Page 56 of 62 – Adventure Quilter

Fabric Twig

By Ellen Lindner on July 16, 2016 in Uncategorized

Sometimes you just need to wrap a twig in fabric.

Update: Degen asked about my technique, so here’s some more information:

At my local quilt store they save the tiny strips cut from fabric as they create fat quarters. Then, they bag them up and sell them. These are what I used, which means they’re cut on grain. I didn’t use any glue. I started like a bandage: lay the strip down in the area you’re about to cover and start wrapping. When I changed colors, I’d leave a tail of the first color and cover it in the same fashion with the new one. At the ends, I had to tie a few knots.

I’ve also used these fabrics for knitting. See this post.

Ellen Lindner

Liquefy and Crop

By Ellen Lindner on July 12, 2016 in Uncategorized

Are you playing along with me? If so, you’ve printed out the liquefied image from the previous post and you’ve found some small compositions within it.

I found ten, but I’m only showing you four of them.

Again, any one of them would be a great start to an abstract quilt. What did you find?

Later, I wanted to select one or two of my compositions for the next stage of experimenting. The first thing I did was to turn them all upside down. That gave me a new perspective.

I chose two and cropped them SOME MORE! Maybe you can find their points of origin in the images above.

Finally, I began to play with the image above and to turn it into a viable sketch.

Maybe this?

Or, with slightly altered colors:

Hmm, yes. I think that’s a good starting point. As with Brainstorm, I won’t try to perfectly replicate the sketch. I’ll use it as reference to get me started, but then – once again – take plenty of detours. I’m already thinking I’ll add a little yellow. We’ll see.

Ellen Lindner

Taking Detours

By Ellen Lindner on July 8, 2016 in Uncategorized

When I’m in experimental mode, my plan is to take every creative detour that pops into my head. What an Adrenalin surge that is!

After completing Brainstorm I wanted to continue to work in the loose, experimental way I had when creating it. First, I wanted to play with colors. I figured I’d probably use the same ones I’d used in Brainstorm, but perhaps in different proportions. Hmm, how to best audition my options? Since my Brainstorm fabrics were still strewn all over my work table, I could have easily pinned them to my design wall. But, I decided to do some coloring on the computer, instead. (I used Photoshop Elements, but you could do lots of this with colored pencils and paper.)

I opened a picture of Brainstorm and digitally “sampled” the most prominent colors. That is, I copied them. I loaded my digital paint brush with each one in turned and slathered them onto a plain sheet of digital paper. I tried to do it without a lot of thought. I used the same size brush throughout and my only criteria was to spread the colors around.

Well THAT was fun!

As you can see I also drew on a few motifs that I thought I might use at some point.

I was pretty floored at this point, because either of these could be tweaked a little and turned into a wonderful quilt background. Wow, what a concept!

Next, I decided to make blocks of color in a computer file that I could fill in with the colors. I didn’t intend to make a blocky quilt; I just wanted to play with proportions.

Woah, another good result. What’s going on here? I like these proportions a lot.

But, as I said, I didn’t want a blocky quilt, so I did some digital magic. I “liquefied” the above image.

Also very cool. But, I don’t want to make a quilt with that much action in the background. No worries. I’ll go back to that recent exercise where I found small compositions within the larger piece. Now, doesn’t that sound like fun?

All this play would be more fun with some playmates. Would you like to join me? You could do something similar with one of your favorite quilts as a starting reference. Or, I tell you what: I’ve made the image above copyright free. You can print it and play with it to your heart’s content! To find compositions, use two L-shaped pieces of cardboard to create a frame. Move them around, adjust their size, and tilt them some too. You’ll find many intriguing little designs. Draw them on your image and cut them out. I suggest cropping way in and getting 3 or more compositions from this. But, that’s up to YOU. I sure hope someone will join me. My enthusiasm is getting hard to contain!

Preview: Of course, after finding a composition I like I’ll take some more detours. 🙂

Ellen Lindner
P.S. If you want to work with a larger version of this image, go here.

“Brainstorm” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on July 4, 2016 in Uncategorized

This is one of the most enjoyable quilts I’ve ever made. I cut loose and experimented and embraced lots of
new-to-me ideas. And I love the result!

Brainstorm

Brainstorm

Here are some detail shots.

I was kinda proud of the title, too. Doesn’t it look like a brainstorm? Certainly my process involved some brainstorming.

You can read about my process in the blog links below. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Would you like to audition this art in your home?

Copyright Free Image

By Ellen Lindner on July 2, 2016 in Uncategorized

Please use this image with my compliments. See the July 8, 2016 post for some ideas about what to do with it.

Ellen Lindner

Abstract Fun: Adding Elements

By Ellen Lindner on June 30, 2016 in Uncategorized

After altering the background of my quilt, so it didn’t completely copy the sketch, I took a different approach as I added the various elements. I decided to copy them fairly closely, but to give myself PLENTY of latitude when altering them. This is the sketch.

And this is the background.

I added the two large flowers, my favorite of the elements.

Then the brown semi-circle. I wasn’t too sure about using it at all, but I thought I had to at least audition it.

My first brown cut was too skinny, so I added another line beside it. But, I HATED the shape of it! A change was definitely needed!

Back to a single line, with a shorter shape. And another partial circle nestled in. As you can see, I also added some orange shapes on the right. I thought that color needed to be repeated somewhere, so I let the sketch suggest the location.

I really disliked the hash marks, especially since they were done in a muddy olive-green color. But, again, I felt like I had to at least try them.

I made mine skinnier and more irregular. Perhaps they weren’t so bad, after all.

Looking back at the sketch perhaps you can see a faint whitish circle in the lower left corner. It was made with a white paint stick, which served as a resist to the wet paint added later. I wanted to add something similar to my quilt, but decided to alter the location.

I like the faint sketchy character of it.

Finally, I shrunk the size of the right orange shape and added white lines to the flowers.

I’m really loving this! Next will come some hand stitching and quilting.

Ellen Lindner

Abstract Fun: Background

By Ellen Lindner on June 28, 2016 in Uncategorized

Oh boy, have I been having fun! Remember my “Paint Mojo” exercise and the three sketches it produced? I loved one of them so much I had to immediately ~~try to recreate it in fabric~~ use it as the inspiration for a quilt. (Did you the notice the shift in my thought process there? I want to produce work LOOSELY. If I just copy a loose sketch it’s still copying. Not what I want.)

Here’s the sketch I was working from. (The yellow-orange is more orange in real life.)

Since I wanted to work loosely I set some limitations for myself, so as not to accidentally copy. First, I studied the sketch closely and selected fabrics that exactly matched my colors. I also studied the composition, knowing that I wanted to emulate it, not actually copy it. And then I put the sketch away.

Working on a muslin base, I began to arrange and layer fabrics.

I knew I was deviating from the sketch and I figured that was a good thing. I switched the center shape to orange. I love orange with blue-green. (Although the orange is much softer than it appears in these photos.)

Once I had the muslin covered it was time to do A LOT of tweaking. I spent a good bit of time on the shape of the central orange element. I thought it was important for it to undulate and for the width to change in an interesting way. I also added a thin yellow line to the edge of it, in places.

I completed the background without ever looking at the sketch again. And I was very happy with it. In my next post I’ll show you the addition of the graphic elements.

Ellen Lindner

It Was Bound to Happen

By Ellen Lindner on June 23, 2016 in Uncategorized

Below, left, is my blue Frixion pen. I write on fabric with it and then erase it by applying heat.

Oops, that was the wrong pen. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Above, right is my blue ink pen, with permanent ink.

Until today they lived in the same container. And then it happened: I picked up the ink pen instead of the Frixion one and drew on my quilt with blue ink! GASP!

Thankfully, I was marking an area to be stitched with black thread. I was able to cover the marks pretty well with SEVERAL passes of black stitching.

Whew. Heart beating again.

And I moved ALL the ink pens to another drawer.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. This is NOT the worst mistake I’ve ever made!

“Tomato Encore”

By Ellen Lindner on June 20, 2016 in Uncategorized

Well, I did it! I managed to push my brain into abstraction territory and I created this tomato.

It’s called Tomato Encore.

I kinda love it. Partly because of the imagery, and partly because I’m proud of myself for FINALLY working loosely!

Here’s a detail shot.

I’m continuing to work on some loose experiments, in hopes of shifting into a somewhat more abstract process of creating my quilts. At the very least, the journey is fun!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. You might enjoy some of the related posts about this whole tomato/abstraction journey.

Cardio for My Right Brain

By Ellen Lindner on June 15, 2016 in Uncategorized

As I mentioned in a recent post, I’m left-brained, meaning that I tend to be rather literal with my art. Since I want to change that I’m actively “exercising” my right brain – the creative side. I’ve been doing a variety of activities to strengthen my creative muscles. Most recently, they’ve been the ones found in Paint Mojo, by Tracy Verdugo.

This book focuses on random, playful creating, rather than getting caught up in over thinking. As I’m doing the exercises I’m focusing on PROCESS, rather than product.

I especially liked the first exercise. It involved making what I’m calling “ugly paper.” There were a series of prompts to follow. Things like mixing and using a dark color, dripping paint onto the paper, adding stamping, etc. At the end it looked like quite a hodge podge of unrelated elements. See what I mean?

But, no worries. Because the next instructions were to identify and cut out several sections with potential. I turned it upside down for a fresh perspective and used L-shaped pieces of cardboard to visually crop and select sections. I found 3.

Next came suggestions for how to improve the pieces. This is the left piece after the addition of some black and white skinny lines. Low and behold I really like it!

This is the center section which I over painted with yellow, among other things. Not too successful, but a very intriguing PROCESS.

The 3rd section is my favorite, although I think I’d rotate it to the left. I added the center color to this one (which looks MUCH better in real life.) It’s really yellow-orange without any green.

Now that was fun! On to the next exercise, which involved a little more introspection. The instructions said to first write about yourself, then partially paint over it. Next draw a circle, choose your paint colors and add your thumbprints to it.

Spraying it with water made the colors run and blend. But some glued on (leftover) white-on-white fabrics resisted the color. I liked that effect!

Final instructions were to draw a large motif and paint out the background. I chose an angel and ended up with this. Can you see those thumbprints still visible?

Some detail shots:

Not bad, I think. Oops, there I go again thinking about the end result! Ignore that. The PROCESS was fun and engaging.

It’s very fun to work freely and quickly with paint like this. I’m not sure how/if it will translate to fabric later but I feel like it WILL enhance my right brain skills. I plan to work about a week or so on this type of thing.

Got some paint? Want to join me?

Ellen Lindner

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Navigation

Adventure Quilter

Fabric Twig

Liquefy and Crop

Taking Detours

“Brainstorm” Complete

Copyright Free Image

Abstract Fun: Adding Elements

Abstract Fun: Background

It Was Bound to Happen

“Tomato Encore”

Cardio for My Right Brain

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