Tag Archives | Photos as Inspiration

My Brothers

I’ve been thinking about making a quilt inspired by this photo (composite) of my two brothers.My Brothers - making faces. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I took quite a few photos that day and loosely merged 3 to get this composite.  In the quilt I’ll leave out the extra arm and the clay pigeon thrower.

This will be a special quilt for several reasons.
– My brother Ricky, on the left, is no longer alive.
– It depicts a family tradition: target shooting on the farm after Thanksgiving dinner.
– In shows both brothers relaxed, and in their element.  They are/were both excellent marksmen.
– It will complement an earlier family quilt I made.  I’ve sized it accordingly.
– It relates well to a current call for art titled “Guns:  Loaded Conversations.”

For this project I knew I’d need something I seldom use: a pattern.  At least for the two men. I created it with a combination of computer editing and good old tracing.

My Brothers - making faces. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Next came fabric selection for the faces.  Maybe something like this.  (Or do I need a darker one?)

My Brothers - making faces. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I used the “cutout” filter in Photoshop Elements to help me finalize the pattern for Ricky’s face.

My Brothers - making faces. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

My process was to fuse fabrics for the features, cut out pattern shapes, and fuse/assemble them on parchment paper.  That latter part was new for me and more than once I fused fabric to my pattern instead!

Here’s his finished face and I’m extremely happy with it.

My Brothers - making faces. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

This looks just like him.  So much so that both my sister and mother were startled when they stumbled upon it on Facebook.  Yay!  I think I’m on track.  What do you think?

Ellen Lindner

 

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Designing a Red Bud Quilt

After viewing blooming Red Buds in Virginia in April, I was inspired to make a quilt.  I thought I’d have a difficult time depicting them from a distance, so I decided to feature their blossoms close up.  To that end, I took a bunch of photos.

Designing a Red Bud Quilt. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Gorgeous, right?

Designing a Red Bud Quilt. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Designing a Red Bud Quilt. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Designing a Red Bud Quilt. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Designing a Red Bud Quilt. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I think it’s so interesting the way the blossoms pop directly out of the bark.

I spent quite a bit of time merging and resizing photos on the computer and finally came up with this as a sketch.

Designing a Red Bud Quilt. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

The sky and branches should be pretty straight forward, but what about those blossoms?  I think some experimenting will be in order.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Check out some of the other flowers I’ve created in this gallery.

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