“Design Your Own Nature Quilt” near Chicago

Last month I got to spend two and half days with members of the North Suburban Needle Arts Guild when I conducted my class, Design Your Own Nature Quilt. Because this group includes many non-quilters there was quite a mix of skill levels in the class. About half had never made an art quilt and several had never made a quilt of any sort! But, they all bravely dove in and they achieved EXCELLENT results.

In this class, each student brings their own inspiration photo, which means we’ve got 15 DIFFERENT projects going all the time. It keeps me on my toes, but I love it. They learn so much in this class!

"Design Your Own Nature Quilt" near Chicago. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

I wish I had thought to photograph their inspiration photos, rather than just their resulting quilts. (These photos were showing on my computer when photographed. The quality is sometimes low, but you’ll get the idea.)

"Design Your Own Nature Quilt" near Chicago. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Gretchen was inspired by a photo of water lilies. She changed the nearly black water to a dark plum, which worked beautifully. She’ll use fusible web to add the skinny little grasses, and she’ll stiffen some of the leaves to make them 3D. It will be great!

 

"Design Your Own Nature Quilt" near Chicago. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Ronna also worked with water lilies, and also switched to purple water. This complementary color really adds drama and contrast. And check out how effective those black shadows are. Nice!

 

"Design Your Own Nature Quilt" near Chicago. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Val’s lily pads are coming along nicely. She’ll add some shadows to add dimension. Check out her water grasses and their reflection near the top. She spent a lot of time on them and I think they’re very effective.

 

"Design Your Own Nature Quilt" near Chicago. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

This photo doesn’t do Barbara’s work justice. Her photo had three delicate flowers against a complex shadow. She had to work at providing contrast with value. Her later progress showed that she was moving in the right direction.

 

"Design Your Own Nature Quilt" near Chicago. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Nancy cut loose in a really wonderful way. She started working with solids, but needed some dappled light. As we searched her print fabrics she realized that she had quite a big selection of them, so she switched gears. This brought a lot of energy to her scene. She’ll add some thread-painted grasses in the foreground.

See Nancy’s completed quilt in the student gallery.

"Design Your Own Nature Quilt" near Chicago. A class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Nancy’s inspiration photo

These ladies really embraced our class motto: Be inspired by your photo, not controlled by it. Way to go ladies!

Look for more examples in my next post.

Ellen Lindner

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