Ellen Lindner: Art & Creativity

In my “Design Your Own Nature Quilt” class, students start with their own inspiration photos.  Sometimes, the students interpret the photo’s composition almost exactly.  But frequently, the design is better when the image is closely cropped.  This allows the maker to focus on the most important elements.

I already showed you one example of this, from my Destin, FL class.  Here are two more.

This was Barabara’s inspiration photo.  The things that she wanted to include were the poppies and the picket fence.

 But, since we were working roughly poster size, she knew that lots of tiny details would be tricky.  Instead, she used the photo as a starting point and came up with her own very tight composition.  Like this:

Great, right?  She has exciting plans for the purple flower at left.  Each of the petals has been fused to a second fabric, giving more body.  When stitching, she’ll curl a couple of the petals and secure them that way.

UPDATE:  Barbara sent me a photo of her finished quilt.  Can you see the little changes she’s made?  Including fucshia binding.  I love that!  And the details added to the flower centers really bring it to life.  Wonderful!

I don’t have an Debbie’s inspiration photo, but it was a tangle of flowers and vegetation, with no real focal point.  Once again, she cropped it severely and focused on one small group of flowers.

Isn’t that more effective?  Late in the process, I realized that her largest flower needed more definition between the petals.  She added darker shadows and that worked beautifully!

Do you ever work from photos?  If so, you may want to consider cropping your image, as well.  Much more drama!

Ellen Lindner
P.S.  I’ll be teaching “Design Your Own Nature Quilt” online, later this year.  If you’d like to be notified about the next class, use the subscription box on my newsletter page to sign up, and select advance notification.