Tag Archives | Color

In my last dyeing session I printed these two fabrics. I loved them and couldn’t wait to use them together!

But, what to do with them? In my usual fashion I pulled out every fabric that I thought MIGHT work with them.

I tried adding some peach, as a transition color.

Then, I removed some of the busiest prints and added black and dark purple.

Now what? Should I use both bright and dull yellows?

Or maybe just dull yellow? (Which would mean I couldn’t use the yellow circles at all.)

Either way, I knew I needed a plan. Maybe something wide and short with a horizontal arrangement of purple.

No, it really was too chunky.
I finally proceeded with the selection below, still wondering what to do.

I thought I should lay out the focal point/line first. I cut up the yellow, trying not to dice up too many circles. I was pretty happy with this, but I knew I couldn’t properly audition it on a light design wall. I needed to see the purple/fuchsia around the perimeter for contrast.

I stared in with the fuchsia and liked the added contrast. But what about those yellow pieces? I began to think that they were too big and chunky.

What if I made them smaller and/or inserted fuchsia in some places? To audition the idea I did a little experimenting in the computer.

Hmm. I learned two things: 1 – Yes, the yellow looked better in smaller pieces, 2 – That’s too much fuchsia!

So, I reluctantly knew what had to be done: I needed to partially take it apart, cut some pieces smaller, and then figure out how to get everything back together again. And that’s when it turned into a giant Tetris puzzle!

Sometimes I hate it when I get a good idea! (Or was it really good? Watch for future posts so you can be the judge.)

Ellen Lindner

My latest piece, Heat Wave, is now complete.

Heat Wave

I’m quite happy with it! The design was dictated, in part, by the triangular orange scraps I had on hand. I like the sharp points.

At 35 x 35, this piece is available for $1200. See more photos.

I used ALL of my orange and navy hand dyed fabrics in this piece. I’m looking forward to an upcoming dye session when I can make more.

Ellen Lindner

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

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.)

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.

But, Mom needed to be more curvy.

And slightly pinker.

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.

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