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Cover Story: An Upcoming Exhibit

By Ellen Lindner on February 16, 2024 in Uncategorized

I’m very excited to be in a 3-person exhibit opening next week!

The show is called Cover Story: 3 Perspectives on Contemporary Quilting. The other two artists are Gabriele DiTota and Sue Robinson.

This exhibit will be on display at the Museum of Florida Art and Culture, on the campus of South Florida State College, in Avon Park, FL. It will run February 21st through March 29th, 2024.

And the opening reception will be Wednesday, the 12st from 12:30 to 2:30. We’ll all be there and we’d love to see you!

The image above is the cover shot for a 13 minute video interview with the three of us. Link to video
It’s nice to have a detail shot of my quilt, Happy Family, used here, but that piece is not actually in the show. Kinda funny.

This piece WILL be in the show. Detail shots and more.

Adrenaline Rush

In the coming days I’ll be showing you other pieces that I have in the exhibit, as well as some by the other two artists.

Did I mention I’m excited?

Ellen Lindner

When it Comes to Hanging Artwork Size Matters

By Ellen Lindner on February 6, 2024 in Uncategorized

I have a new favorite app: ArtStage (available for iphone only.) The app allows me to digitally hang my artwork in various spaces. What fun!

Don’t you love this little setting, above? What makes it perfect for my purposes is that it’s a good size for the size of Happy Family, the quilt. Can you see how it comes close to filling the space, but without being crowded? That’s exactly what you want.

Or, this one works, too. (And all our houses look this great, right?)

And here’s a third scenario.

I love the opportunity to preview my artwork in these various spaces. (With the app you can even upload images of your own space, but that version is not free.)

Need some new art for your space?

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Happy Family is available for purchase, at $1100. Use the link at the bottom of the page to email me if you’re interested.

“Happy Family” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on January 30, 2024 in Uncategorized

Here’s my latest quilt, Happy Family

I’m REALLY happy with it and I hope you like it, too.

As you can see, I added three loose circles, to add interest. Since there are three members of my immediate family, and because the colors are so upbeat, I decided to name it Happy Family.

I got carried away when taking detail shots. Again, because I just love what happens when these busy prints interact with one another.

As usual, I printed 99% of these fabrics myself (with dye.)

This quilt is 32″h x 35″ w.

It’s available for purchase, at a price of $1100. If you’re interested in buying it contact me via email with the link at the bottom of the page.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I really like the loose circles. I think I’ll use them in a future quilt.
P.P.S. I can’t wait to get started on the next quilt!

Abstract Design

By Ellen Lindner on January 26, 2024 in Uncategorized

I continued working on my latest quilt, using lots of trial and error. This is where I left off in the last blog post. I decided against the strong stripes in the lower left.

This closer shot shows how I first, fold the fabrics to audition placement and size. I cut into them when I get confidant with my plan, but I don’t do the piecing until near the end.

Compare this next photo to the one at the top of the page. I decided I needed some more blue. And I also wanted to enlarge the yellow area near the center. (And to do so with an irregular shape.)

Here, the background is completely pieced, although I’m auditioning a few little spots of color which I intend to fuse on.

Time to assess what I’ve got. Is it interesting enough? Does it have enough energy? Does it need something else?

What about some skinny and loose black circles? I auditioned the idea on my computer.

Well, I liked the circles, but not the black. What about yellow?

Yes, I think that will do!

I should have this finished soon and I’m looking forward to showing you the finished project.

Ellen Lindner

The Measuring Spoon Epilogue

By Ellen Lindner on January 24, 2024 in Uncategorized

After my husband gave me TEN sets of measuring spoons for Christmas we all had a good laugh. And I figured I’d be giving them away as party favors.

But, he had other plans.

Is this brilliant or what? I LOVE having these spoons already sorted and easy to spot. And no more tangled spoons in the crowded drawer. It pays to have an engineer for a husband!

Ellen Lindner

Hanging from One Nail

By Ellen Lindner on January 21, 2024 in Uncategorized

I’ve been entering my textile pieces in more mixed media shows lately. I love that fiber arts are now often included in the category of fine art!

The hanging mechanism is a little tricky, though. My pieces have wide hanging sleeves on the back, to accommodate the requirements of traditional quilt shows. However, these mixed media venues are used to hanging pieces on a single nail or some other hanging apparatus. To deal with this, I’ve been inserting the hanging slat into the sleeve and stapling a hanging wire across the back of the sleeve/slat. This worked pretty well, but the quilts never seemed to hang quite flat.

Like this. The slat tilts in the roomy sleeve. As a result, the lower part of the slat rests on the wall, but the top portion protrudes forward.

Thankfully, a friend’s engineer husband noticed the issue and came up with a solution. He realized that a sleeve that fit the slat snugly, got rid of the problem. See the difference, below?

Of course, the issue is that I still want a wide sleeve for traditional shows. So, I decided to hand sew a temporary bottom for the sleeve, sizing it to fit the slat. I stitched through the backing and batting, but not into the front. This worked beautifully and when I need the full sleeve width, I can easily remove those stitches.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I need this trick because I have quilts heading to several gallery/museum shows coming up. Yippee!

Maybe a Grid This Time?

By Ellen Lindner on January 8, 2024 in Uncategorized

If you’re familiar with my design process you know that I often end up with a challenging “Tetris”-type assembly at the construction stage. To get around this, I decided I’d work in a grid this time. My plan was to cut my selected fabrics into squares of the same size and then to move them into an easy-to-assemble composition.

This was my very early start. You’ll notice the black and white polka-dots in the center. They all came from the same starting fabric, but have been cut – into squares – and rearranged. I thought that was rather promising. I liked the way they interacted in a new pattern.

But, I quickly deviated from plan. See that gap, above? I shifted that piece down because it was JUST TOO ENTICING to line up the dark/light diagonal section with the similar one to the left. Do you see that I mean?

I tried to piece things together into squares of my selected size, but then I encountered some great blue fabrics. I DID slice into the stripe one near the right, but why would I mess up the pattern of the blue grid one just to adhere to the square sizing rule? That’s when I pretty much abandoned the grid idea. I left the blue fabric intact.

I was happy with the center and was slowly auditioning new fabrics around it.

Above and below, I was sort of enamored with the way the big stripey black/orange piece interacted with the piece above it. Mostly because of the diagonal line between the dark stripy-ness and the white edge next to it. I could see that additional sections of dark stripes would add a lot of energy and interest.

But, I could see that the dark stripes were drawing attention away from those little black dots. Could I put up with that? I decided no, and tried different fabrics. This one certainly had potential.

Not bad. Lots more consideration needed!

Can you say “trial and error?” I must be the poster queen, but I do so enjoy it!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Those dark stripes have a lot of energy and you’ll definitely see them again!

Need More Measuring Spoons? (Possible Duplicate Post)

By Ellen Lindner on January 1, 2024 in Uncategorized

I’ve been cooking a lot more lately, and have been frustrated by my limited quantity of measuring spoons. Although we have several sets, it seemed that the one I needed was always dirty. So, I suggested to my husband that he give me a set as a stocking stuffer.

As I unwrapped gifts on Christmas morning, I opened one that was rather heavy for its small size. Inside I found this.

That’s right: he had given me FOUR sets of measuring spoons! That cracked everyone up.

There was another gift that I kept reaching for but my husband kept telling me to save it for last. Finally, I got to open it and what did I find?

You guessed it, another FOUR sets! We all had another good laugh.

Eventually, we starting unwrapping gifts from our stockings and I opened this.

And a little deeper down, this.

That’s right, I had TEN new sets of measuring spoons! Hubby definitely gets the award for most creative this year!

Later, I got to thinking about all the blessings those measuring spoons represent. Home, food, family, time, and health. I’m so thankful for all of these.

I hope you will also have many blessings in the coming year. A full measure.
And that you will recognize the blessings as just that. An over flowing measure.

Maybe you’ll find that you even need more measuring spoons.

Wishing you a wonderful new year over flowing with health and happiness.

Ellen Lindner

A New Technique for “Effervescent”

By Ellen Lindner on December 31, 2023 in Uncategorized

Maybe you’ll remember a couple of months ago, when I was experimenting with mono printing. When I tried it (with thickened dye) on slick vinyl, the dye beaded up badly. At first, I thought it was worthless, but then I realized that the resulting lacy effect was both beautiful and useful. So much so, that I stitched a small sample into a whole cloth quilt. I’m calling it Effervescent.

Effervescent, an art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com

As you can see, I’ve used black stitching to outline the shapes. I love the effect.

Effervescent - detail, an art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com

The piece is available for purchase. Find the dimensions and price on my website.

Ellen Lindner

I Think I Learned Something

By Ellen Lindner on December 22, 2023 in Uncategorized

After making each art piece I like to study it to see if I can figure out what works and/or what does not.

I was particularly happy with this recent quilt, Exuberance, so I studied it a bit. My question: “what makes it successful?”

Exhuberance, an art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com

Exuberance

I think it has a strong composition, good use of colors, and effective use of value variations. What about the white circles in two corners? How critical are they? They certainly add interest, but is there something more?

To help me figure it out I also looked at this quilt, Raking Season. It has rust and black circles made with same stencil as the blue and white above. While I think this quilt is very successful, it doesn’t have the sparkle of the first one. I think maybe it has to do with the color of the circles. The light ones add sparkle.

Raking Season

Hmm, something to think about. Maybe all my quilts need some light spots to add that sparkle.

To test my theory, I made sure to select some light fabrics for the quilt I’m currently work on. These were my “definite” fabrics when I first started moving them around. As you can see I’ve got some white and black areas in several places. I know they’ll attract attention, so I’ve got my eye on them as I add more fabrics and move things around.

Slowly creating and enjoying it.

Ellen Lindner

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