Tag Archives | Classes

Dying with Pat Pauly

By Ellen Lindner on May 3, 2019 in Uncategorized

My dyeing/print making class with Pat Pauly was amazing. She’s SO comfortable with thickened dyes and what she can do with them that it was almost hard to keep up.

This was the first demo, about using stencils. She doesn’t use them with a screen, but just hangs on to a corner and scrapes dye through. It’s fast!

Next, she scrapes on background color. (See the berry and yellow streaks above.) Adding the background color does alter the previously stenciled areas some, but she’s not worried about it.

Pat picks up the perfect amount of dye for the perfect spread/scrape. I haven’t mastered that yet and it does make a difference. For instance, if it’s too wet and gloppy everything smears when you do the next thing.

Judy (I think) had good luck with stencils. Don’t you love the colors?

I like these “open” stencils, like those used above. They allow lots of color to print, leaving a more delicate background peaking through.

Next, we learned about putting textured items below our fabric and lightly rolling on dye. Check out Jim’s piece: those large circles are toilet flanges! (Several people headed to the hardware store after learning this.)

Pat also talked to us about having contrast within each piece of fabric: light/dark, large/small, busy/quiet. But, she said not to aim for a whole cloth quilt fabric. I think Jim hit all the marks.

We learned monoprinting next. It was very fun to do – almost like finger painting. But, I didn’t like my results. This was a very ugly bright green monoprint. I tried to resurrect it by painting over the majority of it with a dark blue (still wet here.) Better, for sure. I made the screen with soy wax, which was rather challenging with such a detailed design.

On day 2 we washed the day 1 fabrics and at the end of the day we had SUCH fun pulling that stuff out of the dryer! As you can see, Pat was pretty happy with them, too.

I don’t have many photos of my own fabrics. This is my favorite one, in-progress.

Here’s some more work from around the room. This large piece was created by Sandy, who is an experienced dyer. It shows! She worked a lot with newspaper stencils. That’s how she made the large circles.

This one, by Melinda, featured rolling over textures, stenciling and scraping color on. That scraping is really fun!

I can’t wait till I have more time to finish up my class fabrics (~8 yards,) and then to USE these puppies!

Ellen Lindner

Floral Improv in Tallahassee

By Ellen Lindner on April 9, 2019 in Uncategorized

The students in my recent “Floral Improv” class, in Tallahassee, FL, produced wonderful results!

After learning to make simple daisies and poppies, we talked about design and composition and they spent some time working on their arrangements.

Floral Improv in Tallahassee. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Elizabeth at work

Flowers were placed first, then stems, then leaves.

Diana with her stitching in-progress

Next came the stitching. This is especially important with the poppies because details are added with black thread.

Elizabeth stitching away

Cheryl nearly finished hers!

Kerry with her completed piece. (She used dark green thread on her poppies.)

Pam with many flowers stitched. Notice her background quilting. Students bring their quilt sandwiches to class already stitched and this is the pattern I suggest.

Erin with most of her stitching complete. She’s a brand new art quilter and was thrilled with her results!

Leslie’s patterned fabrics gave an interesting pop-art look to her composition.

For leaves and stems, I encourage the students to select fabrics close to the background, so contrast will be minimized and the blossoms will be the stars of the show.

Elizabeth with partial stitching complete

As the class coordinator, Ruth worked hard both in class AND before and after!

And just look at her results. Can you see how much definition the poppy stitching adds?

From Erin with her first (or second?) art quilt, to Kerry and Diana’s black leaves, and Leslie’s print flowers, this group was not afraid to experiment. I loved it!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Learn a little bit about design: Composition here, and Focal point here.

Apples, Apples Everywhere!

By Ellen Lindner on April 2, 2019 in Uncategorized

My class, Double Reverse Applique, is the most popular one I teach. And with good reason: the technique is easy and the results are always exciting. I’ve taught it recently in both Boca Raton and Tallahassee, FL.

Clicking on most images will show a larger view

The goal: dramatic apples (and maybe even some pears.)

My samples are shown above.

The Process

The technique involves two types of reversal. First of all, all the stitching is done from the back.

Which involves heavy use of a light box in order to place the fabrics properly on the front.

Excess fabric is trimmed away from the front, like typical Reverse Applique. Slowly, an apple takes shape.

The Boca class was very full so I didn’t have much time for picture snapping. But, I did get this one of Johanna with her apple.

And looky there: “life imitating art.” This was part of a student’s lunch.

The Results

The Tallahassee class was much smaller so I got to take more pictures. Here’s the entire group of 9. Don’t they look great? I love how they always look different from one another.

This class had a first for me: two women working together on the same apple. Mary and Elizabeth did a great job of working together and I gave each of them a “cooperation prize:” a postcard. That’s them in the back of the room, while Lucy labors away in the foreground.

Elizabeth and Mary plan to also make the pear together so they’ll each get to keep one piece of fruit.

Several students had time to make a pear, too. Here’s Kerry with hers.

And Lyn.

And Pam.

All of these students did great work and we had a lot of fun together!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Learn more about this class or purchase an immediate download of the eBook about this technique.

Floral Improv in Charlotte

By Ellen Lindner on March 19, 2019 in Uncategorized

Gee, I’ve been teaching so much that I haven’t had time to update my blog with all the great student results.

These are the results from a February “Floral Improv” class in Charlotte, NC. With only 7 students, we had plenty of room to spread out and within the first few minutes colorful flowers were developing.

Click any image for a larger view

They look great on dark backgrounds, don’t they? And here are the resulting quilts at the end of the day, made by Eve and Judy, respectively.

Those colors POP!

Of course, softer colors work equally well. As demonstrated beautifully by Robin and Liz, below.

And why not have use blue flowers? Sara and Marguerite did so very effectively.

Rounding out the selection is this great quilt made by another Judy.

The quilting is very important on these quilts. Especially on the poppies, which need some additional definition. See how much the black stitching helps? I recommend a double pass with a rather sketchy line.

Another successful class, with marvelous results!

Ellen Lindner

Traveling with Quilts

By Ellen Lindner on March 6, 2019 in Uncategorized

One third personal, one third class stuff, and one third quilts: that’s about the ratio of my luggage contents when I travel to teach. Since I want the quilts to arrive with a minimum of wrinkles, so I’ve developed a way to let each one pad the crease of another.

I start with the one medium-large quilt I’m taking. I put it in the cavity of my partially packed suitcase, but leave it fully open.

Next, I add the quilts that are a little smaller. These are too big to lie flat in the suitcase, but narrow enough to fit within the width of my luggage. I lay these in the cavity with one end flat, but the remainder of the quilt opened up and hanging over the edges. See the numbered sequence below.

Next, come the very small quilts that are small enough to fit flat into the suitcase. I put in a few of these, but hold two out.

Now it’s time to start folding up the quilts which have already been laid in place, working in approximately reverse order. In the photo below, the purple quilt has been folded up, with the smallest quilts acting as padding for that crease.

Eventually, all of these quilts are folded up. See the folded red quilt, below. Remember that it was the second one to go in. So, it’s time to address the largest quilt which was placed in first. Of course, it needs to have its folds padded too, and this is where the remaining two small quilts come in. In the photo below, the quilt with the oranges was placed with this in mind.

Now the largest quilt can be folded right to left.

And top to center, with the oranges quilt sandwiched in between the folds.

Finally, the last small quilt is added to cushion the final fold and I’m ready to go.

My students and the audience members at my lectures really love to see quilts up close and personal, so these are always a big hit.

I’d love to come show them off at your guild!

Ellen Lindner

More Designing in Houston

By Ellen Lindner on February 3, 2019 in Uncategorized

Meg’s photo gave her a clear cut design path.

Designing in Houston. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

But, she still had to think about how to best depict the background and about the best proportions. This is what she came up with.

Oops, I see she had moved a couple of blossoms as I took this photo. They were actually all joined to the stem at the end. I think the slimmer proportions really play up the vertical nature of this hanging plant.

And then Meg started another composition!

Sarah had an excellent starting photo of flowering cacti.

She wisely decided to include only the main elements, and to zoom in on them. Just look at her results.

She’ll add some hand stitched needles as a finishing touch.

And then she also started on a second piece. This is her photo, a close up view of the edge of a succulent.

She made good progress in the remaining class time.

If I remember correctly, Elizabeth was one of the students who had never made an art quilt. This was her photo.

She didn’t own a stash of fabric and brought a limited selection. But that didn’t slow her down much, as you can see from her quilt. Later, she completely quilted it during class.

Martha worked diligently on her quilt, “drawing” with her scissors as I had shown her.

And here’s her quilt, almost complete.

Kathy’s photo had lots of strong lines from the leaves and delicate shapes and colors from the flowers.

She wanted to play up the flowers but keep the strong leaves. She was willing to edit and resize to achieve that. And just look at her final quilt.

She improved on the colors and sizes of the flowers and represented the leaves in an interesting way. Kathy definitely achieved what she wanted.

I’m SO proud of all these women! They were willing to experiment and to work in completely new ways. As a result, they learned A LOT and they each made a striking quilt. Way to go, ladies!

The students in this class, “Design Your Own Nature Quilt,” always get great results. I’d love to come teach for your group, as well. (But DO plan on the 2 day version of this class!)

Ellen Lindner

Fierce Students in Houston

By Ellen Lindner on January 23, 2019 in Uncategorized

Not only were the women of the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston friendly and welcoming, but the students in my “Design Your Own Nature Quilt” class were fierce! They courageously tackled work that was outside their comfort zones and they achieved marvelous results.

My hosts were FABULOUS! This is Susan, who chauffeured me around, took me out to dinner and made sure I got the rest I needed.

Fierce Students in Houston. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

She made a wonderful poppy quilt, working almost independently. Don’t you love the way those colors POP?

Also going above and beyond in taking care of me was Marcia. She also ran me around, took me out to eat, and provided me with lunch and water. These two women spent A LOT of time catering to me! I really appreciated it and I enjoyed their company, too.

Here’s her background, almost complete. She’s used a lot of different fabrics, just like I enjoy. The center area will be covered by flowers, but it’s still best to fill it in to avoid edges shadowing through her light fabrics.

Marcia started out making a quilt with three yellow flowers.

But, she fell in love with one large flower and eventually narrowed it down to just that.

In the photo above she was just beginning to play with scaling up the central portion of the flower. This is often tricky for students and is worth spending a little time on.

Gina and Sharon sat next to each other and both worked on mountain scenes with trees in the foreground. Sharon’s photo was not too colorful when printed, but she had a better version on her phone for reference.

She used a variety of fabrics and made her piece MUCH more interesting than the photo. (Here shown in-progress.)

I didn’t get a picture of Gina’s inspiration photo. Like Sharon’s, it was also pretty colorless. But, she wasn’t afraid to kick up the colors and got great results.

Look at that orange against the blue!

Maryellen had a beautiful photo of hydrangeas in front of a picket fence and window. She jagged cut her fabrics and was able to interpret it very effectively. A little stitching will make these flowers take shape.

Rather than sewing, however, she switched gears and started work on a second piece. Can you see these becoming snap dragons? (Actually, I think her flower was something else, but I don’t know what.)

I can’t wait to show you some of the other awesome work done in this class!

Ellen Lindner

Floral Improv in Bradenton

By Ellen Lindner on December 15, 2018 in Uncategorized

I recently taught “Floral Improv” in Bradenton, FL. With only five students in the class, everyone got lots of attention and made good progress.

Mary was able to complete all of her quilting in class.

Floral Improv in Bradenton. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Check out her fabulous results, in-progress below.

See how much the quilting adds to it, below?

Carol used her own hand dyed fabrics for the flowers and they were so lovely together.

Darlene was all smiles after fusing her piece. She’ll finish up with some more stitching later.

KK was inspired by some baby zinnias and even brought them to class as her models. Because they have more petals than the daisies we were making she had a LOT more cutting to do! But, she worked hard and had all her flowers in place by the end of class. They look great, don’t they?

Ellen was even more adventurous. She brought photos of Japanese Ti Plants as her inspiration.

Here, the building cat came to “help”her, while Mary took photos in the background. It didn’t take us long to decide that we didn’t actually need feline assistance.

And here’s Ellen’s work part-way through class. Very dramatic, right? The colors really pop against the black.

As always, it was a fun class. Everyone enjoyed it, including me!

I’d love to come teach it for your group.

Ellen Lindner

Design Your Own Nature Quilt in Western North Carolina

By Ellen Lindner on October 4, 2018 in Uncategorized

I had a fabulous time teaching “Design Your Own Nature Quilt” in western North Carolina recently. The students were talented, excited to learn, and willing to experiment. As a result, they produced some amazing quilts in our two days together.

After learning some design concepts in the morning, the fabric was flying in the afternoon of day one.

Design Your Own Nature Quilt with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Gretchen and Tynne auditioning fabric choices.

Our class motto was “Be inspired by your photo, not controlled by it.” But, Gloria’s photo was so great that it needed very little editing.

She wisely brought the perfect background fabric. Note that it doesn’t need to have tiny branches, just something that shows the general sky color with some variation/”imperfections.”

When placing the branches, Gloria deviated from the photo, which I applauded. However, a little trial and error was called for (as is generally the case.) In the first rendition, her branches were too parallel to one another and they lacked the proper taper and lovely curving of actual branches.

She did a little tweaking and soon arrived at this, glued and ready to be stitched. Isn’t it lovely?

Becky was also inspired by branches, in particular these covered with an early snow.

Here first few branches were not bad, but also needed a little better tapering and such.

After a bit more experimenting she added in a bunch more branches with snow and the piece really came to life. Don’t you love the strong white diagonal lines of the snow? She created it by tucking white fabric under dark brown.

After initially cutting perfect leaves, Becky realized they didn’t actually look perfect in her photo and something more irregular would do the trick. Aren’t these great? This is progressing very nicely and, after a few more leaves are added, she’ll be ready to stitch.

Can you feel the Adrenalin that was building in class?!

I have many more photos to show you so watch for them in future blogs.

Ellen Lindner