Adventure Quilter

Sometimes I dye specialty fabrics: those that are almost a full design and that will be big players in a future design. After a class with Pat Pauly, I’m now designing such fabrics to have larger patterns. (These are harder for me to use, but do wonderful things in a composition, once I get it figured out.)

This is one of my favorite specialty fabrics, started in class with Pat and completed at home.

I’m not sure whether those shapes are spears, spades, or leaves, but I love them. AND the colors!

And this is my all-time favorite (so far.) I’m in love with it!

The open circles, above, were made with a 2 piece newspaper stencil. Surprisingly, the newspaper left an imprint in the center of the circles. Can you make it out? I liked it and decided to emulate it for the background. I was SO happy with the result. Some black lines finished it off, (although I need to give them more forethought next time.)

I have some other fabrics that are sorta specialty. That is, their designs are smaller in scale, meaning they can be cut up more easily. But, I’ll still need to be very thoughtful about how I use them

Don’t you love this one, above? It was initially monochromatic, but I added the hand-painted fuchsia to give it a pop. Definitely a good decision!

Then, there are those fabrics that fall on the other end of the spectrum: the ones that will be hard to use. Perhaps they have a strong contrast or unusual colors. Like these.

What would you do with that jarring fuchsia and bright yellow piece bottom right? I’m pretty sure I’ll
A) cut it in such a way so as to isolate a color or pattern, and
B) use very small amounts of it as an accent.

At some point I know that these oddball fabrics will be just the thing I’m looking for.

I’m having fun staring at these fabrics, plotting how I might use them, and finishing up some other stuff so I can get to it!

Ellen Lindner

I’ve heard it said that “God is in the details,” and I believe it. In addition to the HUGE scenery we saw on our trip to the American southwest, we also appreciated many smaller details.

Like the trees leafing out in a remote canyon.

The petroglyphs that are over 1000 years old.

Each motif is about a foot high.

BTW, I learned these definitions: petroglyphs are”pecked” or scratched into the rock’s surface, while hieroglyphs are painted on.

In the midst of very limited moisture and greenery, hearty cacti still managed to put on a show.

There were many visual delights.

But, wait a second. Surely, there’s also inspiration in my own neighborhood. And what about yours?

Ellen Lindner

Similar posts: Mountain Flowers, Door County, WI,
Tropical Flowers

Is it possible to take a bad photo of the Grand Canyon? I kinda think not. Especially when the sun is low, the shadows are long, and the weather is perfect.

My husband and I were lucky enough to visit it on just such a day. The temperatures were perfect and the crowds were light, making it absolutely delightful AND awe inspiring!

Gorgeous!

We also visited Red Rock Canyons, west of Las Vegas. The rock formations there were quite varied, and very different from what we’d seen one state over.

This is the first rock formation you see in the park, and the one it’s named for. I believe it’s called Castle Steps and this photo shows about half of it.

Now look at a closer shot of the far left end. Doesn’t it look like God was kneading together some red and yellow rocks? I think the smooth folded effect is very interesting.

Of course, there’s also man-made majesty in the area. Like the Hoover Dam. We took a tour on the inside of the concrete structure and really enjoyed it.

Yes, it’s a LONG way down!

I always feel more like I’ve gotten away from my routine when a trip includes scenery and seasons different from what I’m used to. Nevada and Arizona did not disappoint!

Ellen Lindner

Other travel posts with a view:
Captivating Colorado, 
Virginia’s Country Charm

Remember when I posted about making small fabric collages and then cropping them to get abstract design ideas?  Well, I decided to use one of my examples as the springboard for a new quilt. I used this photo collage of tropical foliage.

Using photo editing, I removed the color to focus on the design lines.

I DID NOT plan to make a foliage quilt. Or a green one. Instead, I wanted to mimic this angled composition and, if I had the right fabric, try to copy the scale and shape of these patterns. Perhaps most importantly, I wanted to use hand dyed fabrics in a fairly large scale.

Step one: plow through my hand dyed fabrics and find ones that had large scale patterns, and patterns that hinted at those shown above. Oh, and I was working larger than usual so the fabrics needed to be in fairly large pieces. These are the ones I pulled.

Kinda disparate, right? But, I was pretty much in love with the combination. And, after my recent class with Pat Pauly, I felt confident enough to try all of these together. Next, I needed to try them on the design wall and see if I had pieces large enough to work.

So, I liked the general tilted composition and the colors. And I thought the large scale print in the top left emulated the palm fronds quite nicely. But, I could see that I would have difficulty finding enough fabrics  large enough to fill the large corner spaces. (This was 48″ square.) Therefore, I decided to downsize to 42″, and to rearrange the fabrics so that the largest pieces could fill the largest spots.

The large scale print (top right corner, above) was one of the largest pieces of fabric I had, so I moved it to the largest spot. I used the same criteria with the bottom left spot. I wanted the top left and lower right corners to me almost solid, (like the sketch,) IF I could find fabrics to carry it off.

Notice the dark twig/berry fabric lower center above. Since it was not very big I knew I’d need to fill the gap above it with other fabrics. I could have moved the dark fabric up to center, but I liked the idea of having something that dark down low. Of course, it could all change easily!

I proceeded with plenty of trial and error: placing, studying, moving, and repeating. Most of the fabrics were folded at this point, rather than cut.

MANY changes came after this, but I was beginning to get happy with the colors and shapes. I found it to be invigorating and challenging!

I’ll show you more progress soon.

Ellen Lindner