Tag Archives | Classes

“Design Your Own Nature Quilt” near Chicago – Part Two

My Chicago area “Design Your Own Nature Quilt” students brought their artistic courage to class, and made some really great work. (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

Sue did a great job with her tree frog. She constructed him with fusible web on some release paper. (See the white outline?) Once she removes that he’ll be a little slimmer.

 

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

If I remember correctly Terre had never made an art quilt before. But, didn’t she do a great job? She fully embraced “jagged cutting” the mountain tops, which worked beautifully.

 

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

Deborah had never made any sort of quilt before! However, she bravely embraced fusible web, jagged cutting, and abstracted rhododendron flowers. (Don’t they look better than some perfect fussy cut version?)

 

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

Deborah’s inspiration photo.

 

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

This photo of Susan’s work doesn’t begin to do it justice. She’s working on a rock face, snow with shadows, a lake, and – the missing items – tall evergreen trees. It’s going to be a lovely composition.

 

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

Beth took a lot of artistic license with her cactus grouping, which worked really well. She had a pleated scrap that made great texture for one of the plants. See her finished piece in the “Design Your Own Nature” gallery. (Link at bottom of post.)

 

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

Cindy also worked on a desert scene. She used mostly solids to capture the austere beauty. She’ll use fusible web to secure the spiky plant. Won’t it be great?

 

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

Although Frances’ image was simple in composition, it wasn’t simple to construct. She did an excellent job capturing the subtleties of variation in the sky and snow.

My students always do an awesome job and these were no different. It sure makes it fun for me!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. See Beth’s finished piece, and others, in the Design Your Own Nature Quilt gallery.

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“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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Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters, Part Two

In the second half of our Floral Improv class the students added stems and leaves to their compositions. First, we discussed how much each student wanted her foliage to show up. A little or a lot? This dictated her fabric choice. You’ll see very different preferences in these photos. (These photos were all taken at the end of our six hour class.)

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Karen’s quilt: low contrast stems, but high contrast leaves

Linda chose low contrast leaves and stems

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

This maker chose low contrast foliage. However, I’m not sure if this made by Debi or Faye, since they were sharing an iPad. Help me out, ladies.

 

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

And here’s the other one made by either Debi or Faye. Here, the foliage is fairly high contrast, but not enough to over power the flowers.

 

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Kara’s choice

 

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Mary Ellen really wanted to show off beautiful curving stems so she made them high contrast. She wisely omitted the leaves, since she already had enough going on.

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Kate selected a VERY low contrast fabric for stems and leaves. However, she’ll add contrasting stitching for definition. You can see a leaf on the left where she’s already started.

Finally, the students learned how to add definition to their poppies with contrasting stitching. It makes a huge difference!

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

See Marsha’s poppies bottom left.

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Deb got all her poppies stitched in class and they really came to life!

With 17 students, this class was almost full. That gave us plenty of energy, but we still covered A LOT of ground! I had a wonderful day with these ladies!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Learn more about this class.

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Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters, Part One

The Tidewater Quilters, of Hampton Roads, VA, did a GREAT job in our Zoom Floral Improv class, back in August. As you’ll see from these photos taken at the end of our six hour class, they made a LOT of progress!

First, they learned how to make daisies without a pattern – both circular and oval versions.

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Debby’s quilt

 

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Karin’s quilt

Next, they learned to make poppies without a pattern.

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Nancy’s quilt.

 

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Deborah’s quilt

Then, I taught them a little about design and composition and they spent some time arranging their flowers. (No stems or leaves yet.)

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Lee with her quilt

 

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Susan with her quilt

 

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Pat with her quilt

 

Floral Improv with the Tidewater Quilters. Teacher Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Charlene’s quilt

Didn’t they do a great job? This is only half the class. In part two I’ll show you more pictures and tell you what we covered in the latter half of the class.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Floral Improv is a good class for traditional quilters who want to try something a little different. Read here to see if it’s a good fit for your guild.

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“Grow with the Flow” in Arroyo Grande

One of the best things about my “Grow with the Flow” class is that the students get their projects completely finished during the 6 hour time frame. And that often includes facing it!

See the results of a recent small class in Arroyo Grande, CA.

"Grow with the Flow" in Arroyo Grande. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Priscilla chose bright reds and pinks.

 

"Grow with the Flow" in Arroyo Grande. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

That’s Barb peeking about from behind her turquoise and yellow piece. (I think her piece was faced at this point.)

 

"Grow with the Flow" in Arroyo Grande. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

And Gayle showing off hers.

 

"Grow with the Flow" in Arroyo Grande. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Tommie had to leave early so this photo was taken at hour #5. All she has left to do is to face it. Great colors!

 

"Grow with the Flow" in Arroyo Grande. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

And here’s Susan’s piece, all nicely faced. All it needs is a sleeve!

Aren’t these great? They each did wonderful work and accomplished a lot.

I’d love to teach this class, or a different one, for your guild.

Ellen Lindner

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Double Reverse Appliqué at Road at Home

Last month I taught three classes for Road at  Home, a large quilt show type online event. The first was the ever popular Double Reverse Appliqué. We had fun and the students did excellent work!

Students in Double Reverse Applique class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

First I’ll show you Cindy’s apple, because she was my college roommate! How cool is that? She lives in Minnesota and I’m in Florida, so this was rare interaction. She’s very new to art quilting, but she had no trouble at all.

Student results from Double Reverse Applique class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Trudy’s bright colors pop nicely! Student results from Double Reverse Applique class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Susan used more muted colors, which gave a completely different effect. (These photos are via Zoom, so the stripey computer effect isn’t really there on her fabrics.)

Student results from Double Reverse Applique class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Kami made very bright and colorful choices!

Student results from Double Reverse Applique class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Of course, not everyone chose a red apple. Doesn’t Chris’ green one look great? And the purple background color is perfect!

Student results from Double Reverse Applique class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Irene’s green apple was almost complete. (Yes, we do the background last with this technique.)

Student results from Double Reverse Applique class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Keitha’s near-solid fabrics really let the value changes do the work. This is what makes it look 3D.

Student results from Double Reverse Applique class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

C.J. won a free seat in class and put it to good use. I love the way her apple stands out against her blue-green background fabrics.

Student results from Double Reverse Applique class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Bonnie worked all day with power from a generator. That was a new one for me. As you can see, it didn’t slow her down at all. Nice, right?

Grace missed a large part of the day but still managed to make a good start on her apple.

Student results from Double Reverse Applique class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

The class also includes a pattern for a pear. After finishing their apples a couple of students made a good start on their pears. Check out Kami’s BRIGHT colors.

Student results from Double Reverse Applique class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

And Cindy made good progress on a gold pear. We worked from light to dark, so we started with the highlight spots: not too exciting. It doesn’t look much like fruit until after about 8 pieces are added.

Student results from Double Reverse Applique class with Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Another fun and productive class!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Would your guild like this class? Find out more here.

 

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Designing in Venice, FL

The supply list for my class, Design Your Own Nature Quilt, includes artistic couraage, and the ladies in Venice, FL brought it in spades! During our two day class they didn’t even whimper. 😉 But, they DID make some extraordinary quilts.

Let’s start with Helen, who was taking her first ever quilt class. (These images were taken at the end of class, as seen on my computer screen.)

Student work from Ellen Lindner's Design Your Own Nature Quilt class. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Didn’t she do a great job? Everything is constructed onto a muslin base. Helen has decided to preserve the raggedy uneven edge of her composition, so she’ll tuck her border fabric(s) under the edge of the composition fabrics, where they’ll also be supported by the muslin.

Joan C. rearranged her flowers and cropped the composition to get a really pleasing arrangement. And, after a brief consultation, she had the skills she needed to make a second piece in the next few days. I love that!

Student work from Ellen Lindner's Design Your Own Nature Quilt class. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Elaine’s poppies live up to their name, since they seem to pop off the background! Her inspiration photo had MANY more flowers in it, but she wisely edited it down to just a few. This gave her the ability to enlarge them and show them off. And what about that black stitching? Doesn’t it add wonderful detail?

Student work from Ellen Lindner's Design Your Own Nature Quilt class. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Joan D. depicted the best parts of several photos of sea grape leaves. She created tiny lines by adding slits to her leaf fabrics, so the underneath vein fabric could show. Here she’s auditioning the position of the sea grapes. I think she’s about got it.

Student work from Ellen Lindner's Design Your Own Nature Quilt class. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Did you notice Joan’s background fabric above? No? Good. That means it did it’s job of showing off the leaves. Brava!

Teaching via computer means I can’t easily see the student’s quilts as they’re working. There are ways for them to show me, but if they’re confidently working away, I don’t ask to see their progress. Such was the case with Nancy. Therefore, I was floored when she showed us this at the end of day one. She did a great job of playing up the contrast and adding depth.

Student work from Ellen Lindner's Design Your Own Nature Quilt class. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Then, on day two, she did this. Whoa, Nancy, you’re making me look good!

Student work from Ellen Lindner's Design Your Own Nature Quilt class. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of Pat’s project. She had a lively yellow flower well underway.

I always say that this is my favorite class to teach because the students learn so much. That definitely held true with this group and I’m itching to teach it again! (Hint, hint: here’s the info if you think your guild might be interested.)

Ellen Lindner, proud teacher

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Win a FREE Online Class!

You can win a free class, taught by me, at the upcoming Road@Home virtual quilt show!

Ellen Lindner teaching at Road@Home. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

But, you have to act quickly. The deadline to enter is January 3rd.

All you have to do is
1 – Like Road@Home Facebook page,
2 – Send me an email indicating which of my 3 classes you’d like to take. Just put the name of the desired class in the subject line, along with “Road@Home.”

See the class links below.

Floral Improv

Class sample for Ellen Lindner's "Floral Improv." AdventureQuilter.com

Double Reverse Applique

Double Reverse Applique class sample. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Love It and Leaf It

Love It and Leaf It, class sample. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Yes, you can enter for all 3 classes, but you’ll need to send me 3 different emails, each one indicating a different class. You can enter each class contest once, only.

Good luck!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Click the links below to see student work from these classes.

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January Online Classes for YOU

Can you imagine life one month from now? After the fun (and stress) of Christmas. After the celebration of a New Year. In the midst of winter weather and a return to normalcy?

Doesn’t an online class sound about right? If so, you’re in luck. Road@Home (aka Road to California, virtual version,) will be January 20-23. I’ll be teaching three classes and there are many others to choose from, as well. See my offerings below.

Want to make a great quilt like this class sample? (Floral Improv)

Class sample for Ellen Lindner's "Floral Improv." AdventureQuilter.com

Or this one? (Double Reverse Applique)

Double Reverse Applique class sample. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

Or this one? (Love It and Leaf It)

Love It and Leaf It, class sample. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com

I’ve been teaching these classes virtually since August and they work out really well. My students have enjoyed them and we’ve had NO technical glitches.

I think late January will be the perfect time for a change of pace! Click on each class title above to find full information.

Ellen Lindner

 

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I’ll be Teaching at Road@Home

Road@Home 2021. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Have you heard about Road@Home? It this year’s virtual version of the Road to California quilt show, and it will be held January 21-24, 2021.

I’ll be teaching three classes. On Wednesday, I’ll kick things off with “Love It and Leaf It.”Love It and Leaf It, class sample. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.comFind all the Love It and Leaf It details here

Thursday’s students will cut loose (literally) with “Floral Improv.”

Class sample for Ellen Lindner's "Floral Improv." AdventureQuilter.com

Night Garden, by
Ellen Lindner. Sample for live class

Find all the details for Floral Improv here

I’ll wrap up the week with “Double Reverse Applique” on Friday.

Learn from Ellen Lindner with an e-book. AdventureQuilter.com

Find all the details for Double Reverse Appliqué here

Road@Home will be offering Zoom classes to help students who are unfamiliar with virtual learning. And I’ll be offering some additional help to my own students.

Of course this stay-at-home quilt show will also include vendors and exhibits!

I’m looking forward to it!

Ellen Lindner

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