Tag Archives | Design

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

Creating a Background

By Ellen Lindner on January 11, 2019 in Uncategorized

My idea for this quilt was to more or less mimic the background of Palm Fronds.

Click any image for a larger view

Palm Fronds, an art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com — Palm Fronds

I cut strips of white-with-black fabrics and began laying them in a horizontal arrangement.

Creating a background. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

As you can see, I also began to play with the idea of adding contrasting strips between some of the leaves. White strips added the definition needed, but they weren’t too exciting.

Back to the background.

I was happy with the background, but thought that it, too, might need some more definition between sections. Should I define the background sections with more skinny strips? To be determined.

Meanwhile, I tried black strips for contrast. I liked this much better.

At one point, I used the computer to loosely audition a black strip between every leaf. And also grey stripes in the background sections.

Hmm, I think the black strips are taking over. But, the grey has potential. More experimenting required.

Ellen Lindner

Starting a New “Grassy” Quilt

By Ellen Lindner on January 9, 2019 in Uncategorized

When I drew the sketch for Palm Fronds, I drew several others in a similar format and size. This is the sketch for Tall Grasses, (working title.)

Click any image for a larger view

Starting a new "Grassy" Quilt. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I envisioned green for the grasses and fuchsia for the tips. I had several fabrics from my first dyeing session and I dyed several more long, skinny green pieces to round out the selection. First, I drew my design onto muslin, and then I began to audition fabrics.

I liked these fabrics but I could see that I would have to be careful with them. The colors and values are very similar, so I knew I’d have to arrange them in such a way as to play up contrasts.

Here are the first few pieces in place.

And most of the green pieces. Hmm, as suspected they sort of merge together. I’ll have to work on that.

But first, I went ahead with something I was confident about: fuchsia tips. First, audition time.

And here they all are in place.

I’m happy with the colors and the composition, but I think I’ll need to either switch out some green fabrics or add fabric strips for contrast. But, I’ll probably do the background first.

Ellen Lindner

“Miscommunication” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on December 31, 2018 in Uncategorized

My latest quilt, Miscommunication, is now complete.

Miscommunication, an art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com — Miscommunication

I especially love the dynamic line in this piece! And it think the design matches the concept and title very well. Hooray!

See full details and learn how to audition this piece in your home.

Ellen Lindner

“Scribbling” on My Quilt

By Ellen Lindner on December 20, 2018 in Uncategorized

After becoming familiar with the work of Jane Davies, I’ve been enamored with what she calls scribbling. Exactly as it sounds, she LITERALLY scribbles directly onto her painting. Although it seems random, it almost always enhances her work. I had tried it with some paper exercises and have been looking for an opportunity to use it with fabric. This quilt gave me that chance.

Here it is before scribbling. It definitely needs something, right? And since I wanted to play up the idea of conflict or misunderstanding, a wild squiggly line seemed to fit.

Designing with a Message in Mind. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

First, I loosely auditioned the concept with photo editing software.

It clearly needed some refining, but I liked the general effect.

"Scribbling" on My Quilt. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Next, I put tracing paper on my quilted quilt and sketched a design in pencil.

After some modifications I was happy with it and went over my pencil lines with a black Sharpie. As you can see, I intended to make the line thicker in the largest open area.

But, I wasn’t careful enough and I got Sharpie on my orange fabric! Well, I immediately knew one spot where the squiggle would travel. 🙂

After adding fusible web to a solid black fabric I slowly began to cut and place the scribble.

I hoped to use my scraps to create unexpected twists and turns in the line. However, I found that, more often than not, I ended up cutting things specifically to shape.

And here’s the quilt with the scribble completely pinned in place.

Doesn’t it add a lot of energy? I love it!

I should have it finished soon.

Ellen Lindner

Designing with a Message in Mind

By Ellen Lindner on December 17, 2018 in Uncategorized

Most of my designs start with something visual. I’m inspired by a combination of colors, a particular photo, or the pattern of some fabric. I’m not particularly good at (or comfortable with) designing for a particular theme or idea. Yet that is exactly where I found myself a short time ago.

I wanted to create a piece for a regional exhibit called “Perspectives.” My idea was to do something that played up the idea of conflicting points of view. This came to me as I was creating my latest quilt and working with this fabric.

Favorite dyed fabrics. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Don’t you think it could represent crossed lines of communication? That was my idea, so I started sketching.

Hmm. It turns out that crossed lines aren’t that great a composition.

What about lines that cross wildly?

Yes, that’s much more interesting. And those squiggly lines reminded me of some of the exercises I had done while reading Jane Davies’ book. Some included large bulky shapes overlaid with interesting scribbled lines.

I sketched several ideas.

And decided on this one.

Yes, that had promise. And since it was basically just 3 large elements, I had it composed in no time (without the scribble.)

Next, I quilted it. I knew that would make adding the black squiggle much easier.

I was off and running and enjoying the Adrenalin ride!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. The orange fabric I used is the one I “ruined” with too much bright orange. I toned it down with an overdye and I love it here. Most other fabrics are also my hand dyes.

“Rhythm of the City” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on December 4, 2018 in Uncategorized

My latest quilt, Rhythm of the City, is now complete. It’s made almost entirely with fabrics I dyed myself. I’m very happy with both the fabrics and the composition.

I added additional pattern and interest with couched heavy black thread. I think it adds a lot.

More information about this quilt

Audition this quilt in your home

I’m looking forward to working with these fabrics again, and I have something totally different in mind.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. My Facebook followers were a big help with naming this quilt. Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

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

Traffic Jam

By Ellen Lindner on September 14, 2018 in Uncategorized

I needed to depict a traffic jam for my hurricane (evacuation) quilt. Thankfully, I had a reference photo.

So, I made a colorful replica.

I thought it needed to be thick/padded to go with the texture of the raw-edged spirals.

However, the bright colors of the vehicles disappeared a little against the bright floral background. I corrected that by over painting the background with thickened dye, shown in-progress below.

Although it looked very dark here, it was really a thin blue-black. You can see the result below. Surprisingly, it’s exactly what I wanted.

In the photo above I was beginning to audition the addition of text. Of course, it will also need to be textured, so I’ll have to think about how to best achieve that.

And for those of you enduring hurricane Florence, I hope she’ll end up being a relatively minor inconvenience. Stay safe!

Ellen Lindner

A Splash of Orange

By Ellen Lindner on August 12, 2018 in Uncategorized

You readers are really great! When I posted my quilt at this stage several of you had good suggestions about how I might improve it.

The most common suggestion was to add some orange back in. Something I had considered but rejected. Another tip was to break up the white and to extend the “splashing” out toward the edges more. Since I had mentally given this quilt a “7,” I knew it needed something and I decided to give these ideas a try.

First, I added some white “splashes” closer to the edges and put some of the orange stripes back. I also tapered the ends of many of the motifs.

Clearly, the orange needed to be more dramatic. So, I tried a few little splashes, (which look red in this photo.) Yes! I could see that this would add the drama the quilt needed.

I added more.

Yeah, that was working pretty well. My brain said, “Let’s add more!” And I obliged.

But, wait a second. This was beginning to look like I had added the kitchen sink! Some editing was needed. I removed the white splashes and auditioned changes to the orange stripes. (Below, those fabrics are folded, rather than cut, for audition purposes.)

And this is where I ended up. As you can see I completely removed the orange stripes.

Have you heard the saying that goes, “If your composition is not working, remove your favorite thing?” I think that sort of applied here. At this point, I thought it was a solid 8.5 and I was quite happy with it. On to quilting.

(Did you remember that this piece is composed of painted fabric, some of which is stiff? That may be an issue for the quilting.)

Ellen Lindner

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Tag Archives | Design

Fierce Students in Houston

Creating a Background

Starting a New “Grassy” Quilt

“Miscommunication” Complete

“Scribbling” on My Quilt

Designing with a Message in Mind

“Rhythm of the City” Complete

Design Your Own Nature Quilt in Western North Carolina

Traffic Jam

A Splash of Orange

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