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Quilt Design: Playing with Those Fabrics

By Ellen Lindner on June 27, 2021 in Uncategorized

Earlier I showed you the fabrics I dyed in anticipation of making a beet colored quilt. Next, it was time to start the quilt design. I knew I wanted the berry-colored fabrics to be the stars, with the yellows as accents. My first thought was to piece little sharp bits of yellow, but I wasn’t sure that played well with the idea of curvy beets. So, I decided to play with wonky, improvisational circles.

Maybe something like this.

I liked it!

I’ve been traveling and I took my fabrics with me. I made a few more units while away and tried them all laid on my hotel bed.

Definite potential for a quilt design!

And then, I played some more on the flight home. It’s amazing how sharp those little kiddie scissors are.

My plan is to make a lot more units and then to start arranging them on my design wall. Stay tuned!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I’m just gluing these circles together. Fast and easy!

“Party Chatter” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on May 30, 2021 in Uncategorized

I’ve been having fun working on my “sour dough” quilt.

First, I decided on the placement of the leftover blocks. I cut a few of them into smaller units.

I’m a believer in this quote from Sally Sellers, “It only takes a little ugly; just enough to make the other colors sing.” So, should I add a little ugly? I decided a small amount of yellow would do the trick.

A nice start. Then, I added even more.

I like it. What do you think?

Finally, I added the skinny dark teal strips. Because they’re so high contrast, they add a lot of drama, and really make the composition.

In the photo above, I started quilting it. I had lots of good suggestions about a title. But, to me, it seemed to represent some sort of social interaction. A lively, happy one. So, the name “Party Chatter” seemed to fit. Here’s the finished piece.

Check out my website for a detail shot and other information.

What do you think about adding a little bit of ugly?

Ellen Lindner

A “Sour Dough” Quilt

By Ellen Lindner on May 29, 2021 in Uncategorized

I’ve never made sour dough bread, but I know that it requires a starter. And also that some of the ingredients are reserved for a future loaf. With this in mind, I think my current project is a “sour dough” quilt.

It all started with these blocks that were leftover from an earlier project. These were the starter. (Each mini composition is held together with glue.)

I didn’t really have a plan, but I put a piece of muslin up on my design wall and started slowly adding the blocks.

I immediately liked the colors and the energy of the oddball shapes. However, it was clear to me that I wouldn’t want to butt the pieces right up next to each other. Doing so would make all the shapes merge together. Instead, I’d need a dark or light fabric separating the colorful shapes.

That made me think of Susan Lapham’s quilts. She often uses white between here blocks and connects them with skinny black strips. I decided to emulate her style for this one.

Initially, I added white blocks as I was creating the composition. But, I realized it would be easier to add the white at the end. The white fabrics are also starters, since they were torn for an earlier project, but never used.

I switched to dark teal strips pretty earlier on. (And I fused the back of that fabric: very unusual for me.)

At this stage, I can see that I need some smaller pieces. Maybe I’ll cut some of my blocks or maybe I’ll add some fresh cut little squares. And what about adding an accent of a new color? It’s all up for consideration.

I’ve really been enjoying this little project. What fun things have you been working on lately?

Ellen Lindner

“Indian River Fruit” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on May 9, 2021 in Uncategorized

I’m really happy with my latest quilt, Indian River Fruit.

With the exception of one piece, I hand dyed all of these fabrics. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve found it somewhat challenging to use these high-contrast fabrics together. This time, though, I think I hit the sweet spot. I love the contrast between the large circles, the near solid sections, and the grids.

I quilted it to show off the various fabric designs:

I’m looking forward to working with my hand-dyed fabrics some more!

Find more details about this piece.

Ellen Lindner

Fabric-Led Design

By Ellen Lindner on April 18, 2021 in Uncategorized

My latest quilt has been coming together nicely, even though the fabrics are a little bit diverse. The colors, patterns, and values of the fabrics have dictated what looks good where and the fabric sizes have determined what will actually fit where.

Things evolved on the design wall as I folded and auditioned fabrics in different locations. I didn’t cut them until I was pretty sure about what I was doing!

As you can see, I was trying to move the colors and patterns throughout. I was getting close, but I thought the two yellow fabrics on the right, below, needed a darker spot between them. This is one of the fabrics I auditioned as a solution.

You can see that I decided to use it, but in a much more narrow piece.

And the big surprise: I decided I liked the quieter parts of the quilt the best, so I removed the busy patterned piece that was on the far left.

This is the final version, before quilting.

BTW, the construction time on this quilt was very short, due to the large pieces of fabric. But, it’s taking me quite a while to quilt it!

Ellen Lindner

Variety of Scale

By Ellen Lindner on April 12, 2021 in Uncategorized

Lately, I’ve been really concentrating on using a “variety of scale” in the patterns and compositions I’ve been using. First, in a collage course I took with Jane Davies. After making and cropping small collages she directed us to add details with markers. (I never asked for her feedback on these, so they’re MY interpretation of what might work.)

With each one I asked, “Where is there a big spot that needs some interest?” I thought this first one looked pretty good without any additions, but I thought a tiny line would add interest. And it did!

Next question, “Should the additions emphasize what’s already there, or should I add an entirely new shape or color?” You can see that I’ve used both.

I often let my new elements extend over two different pieces. This worked visually, since the small scale of the new items didn’t obliterate the larger pieces.

Sometimes I followed Jane’s example of changing marker colors as the background color changed.

Some compositions needed very little added. But, it does make a difference, don’t you think?

I’ve also been thinking about variety of scale as I’ve been trying to use several favorite fabrics together in the same piece. Most of them were large in scale, so I found myself matching them up with near solids and quieter neutrals. Early progress is shown below.

I was liking these together. They were a challenging, but fun, mix.

Ellen Lindner

Using Large Scale Fabrics

By Ellen Lindner on April 3, 2021 in Uncategorized

I’ve finally done it: I’ve cut into some of my favorite fabrics.

This is where it all started. I wondered if I could successfully use some/all of these hand-dyed fabrics together.

The one with the large orange circles is my favorites. Because of it’s scale I knew it would have to be used very purposefully. I looked for other fabrics with the same colors and threw them up on the design wall. I could see that the top fabrics provided nice “clean” lines and could probably add the needed contrast. I was less sure about the busy ones a the bottom.

(These fabrics are mostly 44″ long, larger than I’m used to working with. As you can see, they pretty well took over my 5′ x 4′ design wall.)

At any rate, I was confident enough to make the first few cuts, and to begin arranging things on the design wall.

Ooh, I was immediately loving it! The central fabric with the navy (by Pat Pauly) added needed value contrast. I knew I’d need more of that, but I didn’t have any other dyed navy. No worries: I own A LOT of commercial fabric!

Gee, I’ve been having fun with this. Stumped on what the name might be, though. Any ideas?

Ellen Lindner

Cropping and Negative Space

By Ellen Lindner on March 30, 2021 in Uncategorized

After making small collages our online instructor, Jane Davies, asked us to visually crop them and to pay attention to negative space. Well, I’m sort of “known” for cropping things, so I was right in my comfort zone!

Before:

After:

As expected, everything looked better when cropped. There were several reasons for this:
– Due to the sizes of the backgrounds and the added shapes, there was just too much blank background in some of these.
– When an element runs off the edge of a composition, it engages the viewer more. The viewer subconsciously realizes that the shape continues and this holds their interest.
– *The background (negative) space becomes more interesting. Look at the example above. Initially the background was one large sort of doughnut-shaped piece of white. After cropping, it became 4 different, and more interesting shapes.

Here are some more examples:

They’re all better after cropping, right?

As a painter, Jane advised us NOT to physically crop our work, but to get comfortable with filling the size of the canvas, instead. As a fabric artist, I think I can safely ignore that advice. (Let’s hope so, because I’ve been cropping for years!)

Have you ever considered cropping your work? I find it to be a very useful design tool.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. See my most dramatic crop.
P.P.S. If you liked that article, you may be interested in others.

Playing with Colored Pieces of Paper

By Ellen Lindner on March 21, 2021 in Uncategorized

You can’t work with a bunch of pieces of colored paper without seeing some design possibilities!

As part of my online class with Jane Davies, I was arranging, and rearranging, and rearranging again a wide array of colors and shapes.

Our first assignment was to make a largish collage with multiple pieces. Mine missed the mark (although I had fun doing it.)

Along the way, I was seduced by all the colors and I just HAD to play with them outside the scope of the class exercises. I played with monochromatic greys. Look how nicely they set off soft colors. Could I use enough restraint to create with these colors in fabric? I’m not sure.

Then, I saw a photo of a red beet and a gold beet. So, I had to play with those colors a little. A little sharp, perhaps, but still something I may want to explore in the future.

Eventually, we got to make collages with just three pieces and I was swimming back in more comfortable waters. Quite a few of these were successful, but I know Jane will have us alter them in the next step. I’m very interested to see what we’ll do with them.

When was the last time you took a class that didn’t involve fabric? I think it’s a really good way to explore new ideas and I feel confident some of these will find their way into my fabric collages.

Ellen Lindner

Christmas Cactus Abstracted

By Ellen Lindner on February 28, 2021 in Uncategorized

After studying my photo of a Christmas cactus, I decided to try abstracting it with one repeated shape. Maybe something like these “spike” shapes.
Yes, I thought they worked well.

My original idea was to fill the entire space with this shape, just changing the color for background grass, brick, etc. But, when I tried that for grass I didn’t like it at all. Especially since just a few shapes were so effective.

So, I decided to depict the actual plant only.

Here it’s shown as a square. I thought it would probably be better if I cropped off some of the left area.

From there things fell together easily. Here it is, well under way.

I was loving how it was coming together and I didn’t want to over work it. Audition. Edit. Repeat.

I think I’ll have this one finished quickly. Stay tuned.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I’m not sure how to quilt the background. I’ll have to give that a good bit of thought.

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Tag Archives | Design

Quilt Design: Playing with Those Fabrics

“Party Chatter” Complete

A “Sour Dough” Quilt

“Indian River Fruit” Complete

Fabric-Led Design

Variety of Scale

Using Large Scale Fabrics

Cropping and Negative Space

Playing with Colored Pieces of Paper

Christmas Cactus Abstracted

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