Archive | Uncategorized

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

Collaging with Magazine Pages

By Ellen Lindner on December 18, 2023 in Uncategorized

Do you ever hit a creative stumbling block? Or just don’t have the mental stamina to take on something major? How about a quick little collage with magazine pages.

I especially like doing this with calendar images. Since the images already relate to one another, it makes for easier going.

Here’s one I did with winter birds.

And with Western/Native American motifs.

These are NOT meant to be works of art. Or even inspiration for something else. They’re purely a playful exercise in arranging colors, shapes, and values. Just a moment of creativity. I love making them.

Of course, magazine pages are also great if you’re trying to make an abstracted version of something realistic. In that case, I tear the pages, knowing that everything will be somewhat imperfect: just what I need for abstracting.

I’ve written several blog posts about this technique. See the links below.

Ellen Lindner
Links: Loosen Up with Torn Paper Collage
Torn Paper
Overcoming my Left Brained Tendencies
Three Cherries Complete

Dyeing with Forethought

By Ellen Lindner on December 9, 2023 in Uncategorized

I’ve been dyeing again. These are the fabrics I created in a week-long session.

I tried to repeat motifs and colors so that I might be able to use some of these fabrics together. Like these.

Or, a different combination.

I don’t use much white, but thought it would be useful for creating contrast and interest. So, I did these.

These are all mono prints, done on slick vinyl. The vinyl makes the dye bead up, giving lacy results.

I think the blue and green one, above, could become a whole cloth quilt. Maybe with the addition of some black stitching?

Dyeing fabrics is always fun!

Ellen Lindner

“Exuberance” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on December 4, 2023 in Uncategorized

I’m very happy with my latest piece, Exhuberance.

Exhuberance

See more photos and information.

And here’s a photo of what it might look like installed in an interior.

Exhuberance, an art quilt by Ellen Lindner, shown in an intererior. AdventureQuilter.com

I love that I can show it to scale like this!

Ellen Lindner

“Space Bar” at Elegant Threads

By Ellen Lindner on November 28, 2023 in Uncategorized

The Elegant Threads exhibit, currently on display at the Lighthouse Gallery, in Tequesta, FL is VERY diverse. It’s a juries collection of 2D fiber art, 3D wearable garments, jewelry and accessories, as well as several invited pieces on loan.

The most interesting of these is Space Bar, by Nigerian artist Moffat Takadiwa.

As you can see, it fills most of one wall. It doesn’t lay flat, but has very interesting undulations.

What was it made of? Glad you asked: junk from a landfill.

Many of the components are computer keyboard keys. Thus the title of Space Bar.

The other primary material is the heads of old toothbrushes! VERY creative!

This exhibit runs through December 2nd, and it’s well worth a visit.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. See two other posts about this exhibit.

I Met a Portrait Artist

By Ellen Lindner on November 27, 2023 in Uncategorized

I’m very excited to have a solo show coming up next spring, in Orange, VA. This is the town where I grew up, so that’s extra special. (I say I grew up there, but I actually grew up on a farm 15 miles away. But Orange was town to us.) Anyway, on a recent visit I stopped in to the Arts Center of Orange, where my exhibit will be, to take some photos and measurements.

The space I’ll be using is offered to various artists and groups for their displays. But this month (November 2023) a portrait artist, Davi Leventhal, is occupying the space and painting portraits of whomever shows up.

Portrait artist, Davi Leventhal. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

When people show up and agree to sit for him, he makes a small under painting, like these.

Portrait artist, Davi Leventhal. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Later, he applies Renaissance techniques and turns them into something like this.

Portrait artist, Davi Leventhal. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I find this pretty fascinating.

Davi also had several of his sketchbooks and other paraphernalia for visitors to peruse. Aren’t these interesting? They represent about 1/4 of the people he had sketched onto one page in his sketchbook.

Portrait artist, Davi Leventhal. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

If you miss Davi’s stint in Orange, you may want to check out his website. Of particular interest to quilters, he was involved with a community project making what we would call yo yos.

Now, back to my exhibit: what do you think of that turquoise wall color? It’s just on one wall, which I think will be perfect for my purposes. Lots of planning to do!

Ellen Lindner

← Previous 1 … 4 5 6 … 63 Next →