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Color in Carlisle

I had forgotten how much fun it is to cut colored paper and glue it down. But, the ladies in my Adventures in Color class, in Carlisle, PA helped me remember! Gee, did we have fun!

In this class I encourage table mates to share their materials. This adds to the fun, since everyone is immediately sorting through things and helping one another look for the perfect item.

Color in Carlisle. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Doesn’t this look enjoyable? Each student made a workbook using the materials you see here. First, they learned about the color wheel. Then, cool and warm colors.

We had a mid-afternoon “field trip” around the room, with each person showing her favorite page. Several people loved the cool colors.

Color in Carlisle. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

They include every version of yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, and violet/purple.

They can be pastel and muted.

Color in Carlisle. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Or bright. Or dark.

Color in Carlisle. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Students were encouraged to show a variety of values and brightness on their pages.

Color in Carlisle. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Cool colors can be calming. They tend to recede, so they’re especially good for backgrounds.

And then there are the warm colors.

Color in Carlisle. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

They include every version of yellow, yellow-orange, orange, red-orange, red, and red-violet.

Color in Carlisle. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Warm colors are dramatic and they tend to come forward. They’re especially good for foregrounds.

Color in Carlisle. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

And then, of course, it gets even more exciting when you start mixing warm and cool colors. I’ll show you examples in my next post.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I’m so sorry that I didn’t record who made each of these pages! Ladies, if you identify your page, please let me know and I’ll give you credit.

 

 

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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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