Double Reverse Applique in Lebanon, PA

My class in Lebanon, PA was small, but the students were enthusiastic. Just look at their great results!

Double Reverse Applique in Lebanon, PA. Ellen Lindner, teacher. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Back row, L-R: Christenna, Cheryl, and Ann. Front row, L-R: Donna and Dian

I have to brag on Cheryl, who was also my hostess. Her sewing machine gave her all sorts of problems in class, so she HAND STITCHED her apple! (And did it about as fast as most of her classmates, who were using machines.)

Double Reverse Applique in Lebanon, PA. Ellen Lindner, teacher. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Later, she sent me a photo of her finished apple. She gets a gold star for effort and perseverance!

Double Reverse Applique in Lebanon, PA. Ellen Lindner, teacher. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I had a great time with these ladies.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. In person Double Reverse Applique class
P.P.S. Double Reverse Applique eBook and online class.

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“Seeking the Horizon” Complete

I finished up my little (18 x 18) scrap quilt and I’m pretty happy with it. I’m calling it Seeking the Horizon.

Seeking the Horizon, art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com

Detail shot.

Seeking the Horizon, art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com

All the fabrics are dyed and printed by me. I think they have a lot of impact together!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. If you read about my quilting problems in the previous post, you can see that I improved upon it.
P.P.S. I made this for an exhibit called “Reflections.” It sorta has that quality, doesn’t it?

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Working with Scraps

I had some interesting scraps left over from Waiting for the Lightnin’ Bugs. 

Working with Scraps. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

As you can see, they included many skinny triangles, so I knew that would drive my design. And, because they were so skinny, I knew I’d use a collage technique, rather than piecing them.

After creating a background, I started with the brightest shapes, placing them off-center.

Working with Scraps. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

More trial and error.

Working with Scraps. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

It was taking shape. But, when I started quilting it I had a terrible time with the concentric circles I wanted to use. I’m just not good with parallel curves!

Working with Scraps. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Deep breaths.

Much of the above was picked out. After drawing the desired lines I redid a lot of it and it looked much better. Thank goodness!

Ellen Lindner

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Abstracting a Bird of Paradise

I made this quilt about 10 years ago. It’s only 12 x 12, but I really like it.

Bidr of Paradise, an art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com

I was looking through my photos the other day and I thought this image might look great somewhat abstracted. And increased in size.

So, I started working on PIECING it, to be about 24 x 24. Here’s my very early start.

Abstracting a Bird of Paradise. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I was keeping everything big and loose. I wanted the pieces big so I could cut them down later to their more accurate sizes and shapes.

Right away I found it difficult to abstract things. My very LEFT brain wanted to reproduce things fairly accurately and I spent WAY too much time thinking about that! I did find that I could add a little abstraction by cutting and off-setting pieces.

Abstracting a Bird of Paradise. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

As you can see above, I left a good bit of excess fabric initially.

I added some more and pieced some more. WHY did I decide to piece this??? Collage would have been so much easier.

Abstracting a Bird of Paradise. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Still, I’m enjoying the challenge – slow as it is.

Ellen Lindner

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“Waiting for the Lightnin’ Bugs” Complete

My latest quilt is complete! As you can see, I decided to square off the edges.
These colors are true. My earlier ones were shot in the studio. This one got proper lighting.

Waiting for the Lightnin' Bugs. An art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com

Waiting for the Lightnin’ Bugs

The dark colors of the quilt, combined with yellow streaks, reminded me of a cool evening, in VA, watching the lightnin’ bugs as they came out. (Yes, I pronounce it like that. I’m from the south!)

Here’s a detail shot

Waiting for the Lightnin' Bugs - detail. An art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com

And another. All fabrics were dyed by me.

Waiting for the Lightnin' Bugs - detail. An art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com

I’m kinda loving this.

Check out the web page for a larger image, another detail shot, and purchase information.

Ellen Lindner

 

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Final FINAL Tweaking

I quilted my latest quilt and was pretty happy with it.

My Version of Muted. Art quilt in progress. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Waiting for the Lightnin' Bugs - detail. An art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com

But, as I studied it, one spot bugged me. I thought this spot was too busy and that a solid piece of fabric would look better. Should I applique a different fabric over the current one? Maybe something brown or purple?

Final FINAL Tweaking. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

As I auditioned that idea another spot began to bother me. That orange triangle just seemed too big.

Final FINAL Tweaking. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I auditioned new fabrics in both spots. Note that one of them was pieced. I liked that design, but it was problematic when stitching, due to the additional bulk. Tricky.

Final FINAL Tweaking. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

But, I persevered and thought the changes improved it a lot.

Final FINAL Tweaking. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I wasn’t sure about the undulating edges, so I used strips of toilet paper to cover the curves and show me what straight edges would look like. I liked it better.

Time for facing and photographing. And naming!

Ellen Lindner

 

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Whole Lotta Tweaking

As I continued working on my muted piece, it was time to do a whole lot of tweaking! First, I made more units so I’d have enough to make it more square, rather than horizontal, as it stood when initially auditioned.

My Version of Muted. Art quilt in progress. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Squares from earlier units gave me a good starting point.

My Version of Muted. Art quilt in progress. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Getting close.

My Version of Muted. Art quilt in progress. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

As I made more units I also paid attention to where things were landing and how I might tweak the composition. For instance, do you see the two bright orange pieces below? They definitely attract attention, and – with their current locations – I like that. Compare this to the first photo above where the small orange piece is in the top left corner. That’s not a good location for something so eye catching, so I moved it. (Of course, it was already pieced into a larger unit, so the whole unit had to move.)

Almost finished with piecing.

My Version of Muted. Art quilt in progress. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Piecing complete, with undulating edges. I’ll have to decide whether or not to keep those.

My Version of Muted. Art quilt in progress. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

I was pretty happy with it at this point. I began to get a nostalgic feeling from it, because it reminded me of lightnin’ bugs coming out at dusk. (Yes, that’s how this southerner says it: lightnin’) Growing up on a farm I can remember playing outside at this time of day, right before it was too dark to see. I was thinking about all of this as I was considering titles.

Finishing tweaks coming soon.

Ellen Lindner

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My Version of Muted

Possible duplicate post

When putting away hand dyed fabrics, I noticed that my least favorites, the dark muted pieces, actually looked pretty good together. I decided to make a quilt with them, and to include a few accents of lighter colors. I was headed for a quilting retreat, so I packed up my potential fabrics to see what I could come up with.

First, I wanted to get the color palette right.  I threw all possibilities up on my portable design wall and easel combo.

My Version of Muted. An art quilt in-progess. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Not bad, but I could see that some of these colors would need to be used in smaller amounts. See the next photo for modifications. Note that I scaled back a few of the brightest colors. (Ignore the blue tape.)

My Version of Muted. An art quilt in-progess. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I spent quite a bit of time getting happy with the palette. Then, I started joining fabrics in pairs. Next, I altered each pair in some way. Maybe I added a skinny line, a skewed alignment, or a curved seam. I call this process”slicing and dicing.”

My Version of Muted. Art quilt in progress. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

I continued adding alterations, trying to make each unit interesting. Other than making sure I mixed up the colors well, I didn’t think about composition, shapes, or joining. Once I was home, I assembled units into larger sections.

Finally, it was time to think about composition, size, and shape. I spread out units to see what I had. I was happy with the level of energy and interest, but I didn’t want a horizontal quilt. I knew I’d need to make additional units for the top and bottom, and to fill in some other places. No more random “slicing and dicing.” I was now designing “with intent.”

My Version of Muted. Art quilt in progress. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Watch for my progress in the next post.

Ellen Lindner

 

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“Petal Drop” Complete

Here it is, Petal Drop. If you’ve been following along, you know it started as part of a quilted (but not faced) quilt.

Cutting Up Again. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

After lots of slicing rearranging and stitching, this is what I ended up with.

"Petal Play" Complete. Ellen Lindner's art quilt. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I stitched the sections back together with a loose zigzag.

"Petal Drop" Complete. Ellen Lindner's art quilt. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

And used the same stitching on the edge.

"Petal Play" Complete. Ellen Lindner's art quilt. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

The statement:
My neighbor’s tulip magnolia blooms profusely every spring. But, after a few weeks the petals begin to fall. Very soon, the ground is just as pink as the tree. It’s a lovely transition.

This piece is for sale. See more info.

Ellen Lindner

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Cutting Up Again

Once again, I decided to cut something up. This is where I started, with an already quilted quilt.

I liked it, but realized I liked the left side better than the right.

Cutting Up Again. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

So, after some folding and auditioning, I cut this quilt into two pieces. I set the left portion aside.

Cutting Up Again. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

And started work on the right portion.

Cutting Up Again. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

My plan was to slice into it diagonally and then join the two portions back together, using a loose satin stitch. I was surprised by how easily this technique worked. Even on curved shapes! I added some skinny stripes and continued slicing and reassembling until I got something along these lines.

Cutting Up Again. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

It definitely had more energy! I sliced into it some more.

It was obvious that the overall shape would not be rectangular. I began to think about what those edges should look like. Should I make them even more irregular? To audition this idea I used pieces of muslin to obscure and reshape the edges in places.

Yes! I was liking the spiky nature of these edges. I decided to pick out some stitching and cut new nooks and crannies.

I had to use my sharpest tools to slice away the loose zigzag without cutting the fabric.

Cutting Up Again. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I wasn’t sure how to finish the edges, but I decided to try the same loose zigzag I’d been using for joining, and I liked it.

Cutting Up Again. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

In the next post I’ll show you the finished quilt. I like it.

Ellen Lindner

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