Maybe I Need More Fabric

Maybe I need more fabric.

My husband would LAUGH at the idea!  With about 1000 pieces of fabric SURELY I must have anything I could imagine, right?  Well, maybe not.  I’m used to working with lots of small pieces (think palm-sized to hand-sized,) but my next quilt would probably need much larger pieces.  I needed to check and see if my stash was up to the task.

My design is shown sketched, below left.  The solid and dashed lines indicate fabric changes. Sure enough, at 36 x 24, some of those pieces will need to be fairly large.

Planning a new art quilt with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

First, I drew a rough idea of my design on a base muslin fabric.  This is full scale and will serve as the base of the quilt.

Planning a new art quilt with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Then, I pinned up my fabrics to check it out.

Planning a new art quilt with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Hmm.  I have enough fabric to cover the surface, but some of the pieces are either too busy or too small.  (All the ones on the left are too small.)  But don’t you LOVE those colors together?  I do!

So, I did some shopping: first, locally, and then a little online.  As I waited for my fabrics to arrive, I was glad to have enough to get started.

Planning a new art quilt with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Only two pieces are cut to shape in the photo above: top center and bottom right.  The bottom right piece is hand dyed and is all one piece of fabric.  However, the top center one is a commercial fabric cut up and rearranged.  I’m quite happy with the way I was able to get it to gradate without harsh edges.

Now I wait for the mail.

Ellen Lindner

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4 Responses to Maybe I Need More Fabric

  1. Sunnie Malesky November 17, 2016 at 8:46 am #

    Thank you for sharing your works in process!
    I always figure on buying at least one new fabric for each project, even those that are intended to be “using up” what I have! It will never be all gone, and I am not concerned about that.
    My husband is a wood turning artist, and does other wood working…he will never use up all the wood and other supplies he has. Having a lot of stuff…I mean, art materials on hand!… is not a problem between us.

    • Ellen Lindner November 17, 2016 at 9:30 pm #

      Hey Sunnie,

      It’s kinda great to have an “excuse” to buy more fabric. (Although I don’t really need one!)

  2. marthaginn November 17, 2016 at 10:12 am #

    I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next post to watch your progress. What a winner with those complementary fabrics.

    • Ellen Lindner November 17, 2016 at 9:32 pm #

      Glad you like the colors, Martha. Me, too!

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