Planning a Foreground Design

I’ve been wanting to do a series of quilts about my family. I made the first one, Happy Family, which used circles to represent people.

"Happy Family" complete. An art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Happy Family

With that one the circles were an 11th hour addition. For the next one I wanted to be much more intentional.

After selecting green for the background of my current quilt it immediately got me thinking about my dad, a farmer. I decided to make a quilt about both my mom and my dad. My mom is a very gracious southern woman, who excels at entertaining, gardening, and cooking. I think of her as a Southern Belle, because she’s a beauty, as well. Thus, my working title became “Daddy was a Farmer, Mama was a Southern Belle.” (Note: my mom is still alive and she’s given her blessing to this title.)

Piecing a Green Background. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

So, how to depict these two with circles??? I knew I wanted to use red to contrast with the green. And it had a sort of farm feel to me, since farm equipment is often red.

I drew a sketch on the computer and began to audition my ideas on the design wall. I thought Dad (or Daddy as I often addressed him,) needed a big red sort of tear shaped oval.

Planning a Foreground Design Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

But, Mom needed to be more curvy.

Planning a Foreground Design Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

And slightly pinker.

Planning a Foreground Design Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I managed to find enough red fabrics for my purposes and I’m loving these colors together!

I was REALLY tempted to complete these two shapes, but I began to think about how much easier it would be to quilt the background before adding the circles, especially since I intended to add quilt a few more blue and green ones. So, I quilted the background and started auditioning fabrics for background circles.

Planning a Foreground Design Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

The background circles will be MUCH skinnier than the foreground ones. Maybe pinky width.  And they’ll have much lower contrast, serving as a background of ancestors.

The pace on this piece has finally quickened and I’m really enjoying it!

Ellen Lindner

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