In my last post, I showed you my latest abstract quilt in-progress.
Here it is finished: Slightly Unexpected.
I added hand stitched and padded black circles to keep the white one company. The rest of the background is pretty densely stitched.
I’m happy with this quilt and anxious to try out some more abstract design.
Ellen Lindner
In an earlier post, I showed you a quick exercise for generating abstract designs. After making several “postcard collages” I decided to use one of them to create a quilt.
This was the original collage.
I cropped it and got this. I think it’s much more dramatic skinny like this.
I played with it just a little bit on the computer and got this as my sketch.
But, oops, I had lost the skinny drama, so I had to change that back.
Next, I pulled out hand dyed fabrics, and others, to see if I had what I needed. Yes, I thought I could make it work.
I placed a piece of muslin on my design wall and drew out my planned size. Then, I started working on the large black shapes. I figured they were the keys to the whole design, so I needed to get them in place first. Since I work in raw edge collage it’s a simple matter to cut the fabrics to shape and place them.
Later fabrics were tucked under the adjacent black.
Since all the designing had been done beforehand, and because I was working with fairly large shapes, it came together pretty quickly.
How do you like my visual cropping tool, above? That’s right, it’s toilet paper.
At this point, it was ready for a light gluing and then on to stitching. I’ll show you how I tackled that in the next post.
Ellen Lindner
P.S. What construction tricks do you have?
I’m one lucky girl. I got to spend a week at ProChem taking a week long dyeing/printing class with Pat Pauly. What an EXCELLENT class room set up!
I was anxious to get started, wearing ratty shirt #1. (These dyeing shirts definitely “spark joy!”)
See the paper on the wall behind me? That’s because the top parts of the walls are pinable. Very useful. We each had a full table and a comfy chair. We had 5 laundry sized sinks at our disposal, plus one power sprayer/washout tub. PLUS a washer and a dryer!
But, this is where it really got exciting: our drying clothesline.
Look at the size of this thing! It goes way back to the left wall, with lines about every 6 inches.
I called it the fabric forest. And I got more than a little color on me because of going into it. (You KNOW I didn’t mind that!)
For fabrics that were too goopy to hang we had a large rolling structure with flat drying trays which slid out. This thing got a lot of use.
I’m already trying to figure out how hubby can make me a smaller one that disassembles. He’s an engineer and an expert wood worker, so I know he’ll figure it out.
I was really spoiled by the set up at ProChem and I really recommend it. If you get a chance to take one of their classes, do it!
Ellen Lindner
P.S. Of course, I’ll show you some of my fabric soon and other class photos.
Have you done any abstract work? I have and I often find it difficult to come up with the original design. One exercise that’s been floating around via Pat Pauly and others it to randomly cover an index card with fabric scraps and let that become your design. So I tried a few.
Some of these (like that last one) were real dogs, so I tried a more deliberate one.
It was only slightly better.
But wait, there’s more! If a composition isn’t appealing try visually cropping it to see if you can find a more pleasing design. Like this.
I do this with paper or cardboard L shapes. With them you can easily crop the image much smaller. It’s important to rotate it, too, as this often helps the design quite a bit.
Here are a few more crops.
I think these are much more dramatic than the originals (although they may still require some editing!)
You can also do the same exercise with printed photos. I had several vegetation photos which I stacked and cut into mostly squarish pieces. This was my first arrangement.
It already had good contrast and interest, but there was a lot going on. I rearranged a bit more, now confident in the results I knew I could eventually get. This was that second arrangement slightly cropped.
But, I took it even further.
That would make a pretty great quilt, don’t you think?
I’ve found this technique to be useful and have just finished an abstract quilt designed in this way. I’ll get it photographed and show it to you soon.
What tips do you have for designing abstractly?
Ellen Lindner
P.S. This is one of the tools Pat teaches in her “A Dozen Ways: Design for Art Quilts,” a class which I recommend.
The students in my recent “Floral Improv” class, in Tallahassee, FL, produced wonderful results!
After learning to make simple daisies and poppies, we talked about design and composition and they spent some time working on their arrangements.
Elizabeth at work
Flowers were placed first, then stems, then leaves.
Diana with her stitching in-progress
Next came the stitching. This is especially important with the poppies because details are added with black thread.
Elizabeth stitching away
Cheryl nearly finished hers!
Kerry with her completed piece. (She used dark green thread on her poppies.)
Pam with many flowers stitched. Notice her background quilting. Students bring their quilt sandwiches to class already stitched and this is the pattern I suggest.
Erin with most of her stitching complete. She’s a brand new art quilter and was thrilled with her results!
Leslie’s patterned fabrics gave an interesting pop-art look to her composition.
For leaves and stems, I encourage the students to select fabrics close to the background, so contrast will be minimized and the blossoms will be the stars of the show.
Elizabeth with partial stitching complete
As the class coordinator, Ruth worked hard both in class AND before and after!
And just look at her results. Can you see how much definition the poppy stitching adds?
From Erin with her first (or second?) art quilt, to Kerry and Diana’s black leaves, and Leslie’s print flowers, this group was not afraid to experiment. I loved it!
Ellen Lindner
P.S. Learn a little bit about design: Composition here, and Focal point here.
My class, Double Reverse Applique, is the most popular one I teach. And with good reason: the technique is easy and the results are always exciting. I’ve taught it recently in both Boca Raton and Tallahassee, FL.
Clicking on most images will show a larger view
The goal: dramatic apples (and maybe even some pears.)
My samples are shown above.
The Process
The technique involves two types of reversal. First of all, all the stitching is done from the back.
Which involves heavy use of a light box in order to place the fabrics properly on the front.
Excess fabric is trimmed away from the front, like typical Reverse Applique. Slowly, an apple takes shape.
The Boca class was very full so I didn’t have much time for picture snapping. But, I did get this one of Johanna with her apple.
And looky there: “life imitating art.” This was part of a student’s lunch.
The Results
The Tallahassee class was much smaller so I got to take more pictures. Here’s the entire group of 9. Don’t they look great? I love how they always look different from one another.
This class had a first for me: two women working together on the same apple. Mary and Elizabeth did a great job of working together and I gave each of them a “cooperation prize:” a postcard. That’s them in the back of the room, while Lucy labors away in the foreground.
Elizabeth and Mary plan to also make the pear together so they’ll each get to keep one piece of fruit.
Several students had time to make a pear, too. Here’s Kerry with hers.
And Lyn.
And Pam.
All of these students did great work and we had a lot of fun together!
Ellen Lindner
P.S. Learn more about this class or purchase an immediate download of the eBook about this technique.
At any good quilt show you’ll find amazing workmanship and creativity. The Daytona Beach show was no exception. This amazing trapunto quilt was made by Jan Hutchison.
Click any image for a larger view
(It looks slightly green under the lights, but was really a taupe color.)
Check out these fabulous details!
Isn’t it amazing?
This next “quilt” was sort of mesmerizing. The very light layers moved around as people walked by or the air conditioning came on, making it hard to look away.
I’ll bet you can’t guess what it inspired it: a glass of a pale yellow wine. I think it must be a very light and subtle wine.
This piece was part of a small exhibit about foods, created by a South American husband and wife. (I hate that I didn’t record their names!)
Each piece was very creative and very different from one another. What surprised me was that they depicted things like texture, smell, and taste, but nothing about appearance. Talk about subtle!
My friend, Laura Ruiz, has quite a few unique tricks up her own sleeves. For several years she’s been painting onto silk before stitching it. But, recently, she learned to paint on paper, as well. She painted this cardinal and then loved it so much she had printed, much larger, through an online company.
Next, she pieced the “9 patches” around the edges and joined them to the central motif. To help visually merge the two together she lightly painted triangles into the background of the bird. Brilliant! And then look at that quilting. She’s a master! This quilt has won quite a few prestigious awards.
Finally, here’s a look at Andrea Brokenshire’s work. She also paints onto whole cloth and then adds lots of thread painting.
A beautiful piece, and a very nice show.
Ellen Lindner
Lately, we’ve been seeing lots of quilts that are photos printed onto fabric and then stitched. Although often stunning from across the room, I’m not always enamored with these quilts. That’s because I want to see something more than the photo. I want to see some added texture, drawing with the quilting line, or thread painting that really ADDS something to the image. I want to see “the hand of the artist.” That is, some way in which the artist has expanded or reinterpreted the photo. Otherwise, why not just print it on paper and frame it? This is a quilt. I want to see something that elevates the image.
Not surprisingly, there were several of these photo quilts at the AQS show in Daytona this year. I’m showing you several I think were especially well done.
This magnificent quilt by Sue de Vanny, is a prime example.
Click any image for a larger view
I don’t believe this one was printed on the fabric. Instead, she used a variety of fabrics to create the basic design, and she then used additional stitching to really bring it to life. My photo is a little out of focus, but I think you can make out the abundant zigzag stitching she has done to soften the edges of the fabrics and to add detail. Beautiful!
Constanze Botel started with a wonderful high contrast photo printed onto fabric.
She added lots of personality and details with the quilting. The word “photographer” is stitched into the background. You can just make out the g to the left of his ear.
This bird quilt was made by Nancy Sterett Martin. The feathers begged for stitching to help make them stand out.
Nancy took it one step further, however, by adding lots of textured fabric, as well. I think it’s very successful.
I think I read that this next quilt did not have a printed photo as a starting point. Instead, each subtle bit of shading and detail was achieved with fabric and thread. It was made by Barbara Binotto.
Now, check out some of her fabulous textured details: 3D Branches!
And water with textured bits used to great effect.
I hope we’ll see more quilts like these in future shows. To me, they’re MUCH more interesting than just thread painting.
Ellen Lindner
P.S. I fully understand that heavy thread painting is an art and I greatly respect the workmanship.
Ellen Anne Eddy says, “If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.” In other words, don’t expect yourself to master something right away. If it’s worth doing it’s worth your practice time and whatever mediocre results you get along the way. Well, I think maybe I was the poster child for this philosophy in my last dyeing session. It seemed like nearly everything I did was correcting something I’d done earlier.
Like this ugly green fabric.
Click any image for a larger view
I over painted it with fabric paint, using a commercial stencil and I got this. Much better!
Now, the paint shows more than the original ugly fabric and that became the norm as I worked through some other fabrics.
You may remember this GARISH one from an earlier dye session. That UGLY chartreuse needed to be covered! I made a stencil which would print most of the screen, leaving only a few dots of the underneath fabric showing. I tried mixing a deep berry/burgundy color, (which looked black when still wet,) and screened it on.
And it worked! After washing it out this is what I got. Just what I wanted. Woohoo! I love the imperfections.
Now I was on a roll. I began to look for ugly fabrics, like this clean up rag (CUR), and to figure out how I could mostly cover them. For this “stencil” I tried something new. I cut circles from freezer paper and lightly ironed them onto the back of my screen. I wasn’t sure if they’d stay, but they did (until I later washed the screen.) In the example below I screened on what I hoped would be a dark teal. (Since dyes are transparent, there’s often a good bit of guess work involved in such scenarios.)
And this is what I got when I washed it out. Yes!
I tried repeating my good results with the same technique, this time mixing what I hoped was navy blue and adding it to this bright, and very ugly CUR.
As you can see, the yellow below affected the color and it ended up being a greenish brown. No worries. This will be very usable and is actually one of my favorite fabrics.
These are the results of my 2 week dyeing session: 42 pieces ranging in size from “hand towel” to 30 x 42. I’m, very happy with them.
I’m learning that this dyeing business requires some luck, a good bit of color theory, and an attitude of exploration. My kind of thing, for sure!
Ellen Lindner
Gee, I’ve been teaching so much that I haven’t had time to update my blog with all the great student results.
These are the results from a February “Floral Improv” class in Charlotte, NC. With only 7 students, we had plenty of room to spread out and within the first few minutes colorful flowers were developing.
Click any image for a larger view
They look great on dark backgrounds, don’t they? And here are the resulting quilts at the end of the day, made by Eve and Judy, respectively.
Those colors POP!
Of course, softer colors work equally well. As demonstrated beautifully by Robin and Liz, below.
And why not have use blue flowers? Sara and Marguerite did so very effectively.
Rounding out the selection is this great quilt made by another Judy.
The quilting is very important on these quilts. Especially on the poppies, which need some additional definition. See how much the black stitching helps? I recommend a double pass with a rather sketchy line.
Another successful class, with marvelous results!
Ellen Lindner
