Ellen Lindner: Art & Creativity

Using the appeal of art quilts, Virginia Spiegel has done a fantastic job raising funds for the American Cancer Society.  In past years she’s asked artists to donate small quilts, which were later distributed online, in return for ACS pledges.

This year, the project is “Tote Tuesdays” which will feature themed tote bags, each filled with a variety of small art quilts and other fiber art items.  Peggy Schroder is organizing a tote bag to be featured near Valentine’s day.  Her theme is “Have a Heart”, aka “Big Names – Big Heart”, and it will include items with lots of pink and red.  Peggy has asked me to make a small piece for the tote bag.   Since my family has been touched by cancer, I’m especially happy to oblige.

And, so I started on a very small collage.  My idea was to use lots of black and white, with only a little pink and red.  Peggy confirmed this was acceptable, so I started sketching.

First, I tore an 8 x 10 piece of black fabric to use as the base.  Then, I grabbed scraps from my black bin and started adding them for a busy background.  In many cases, I was able to use the scraps “as is.”

Next, I started cutting small circles.  (Actually, I had quite a few left over from a previous project.)  Oops:  one slip of the scissors resulted in a “circle” that looked more like a guitar pick.  After studying it, I decided I preferred this shape and altered all of the circles to have a little pointed end.

Next, I tore strips to use as stems.

After a little ironing, the stems were ready to be put in place.

This came together quite quickly, and I was pretty happy with it.  However, I was concerned the chunky stems might be too heavy for the petal shapes I’d already cut.  I’ll address that in the next post.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. You’ve got some scraps, right?  Why not join me in making a little something for this worthy cause?  (Or plan a donation in order to win one of these terrific totes.)