Adventure Quilter

In my last post, I showed you how I abstracted a photo to create a new design.  This was my computer-colored sketch, although I knew I’d kick up the colors a good bit.

Soon, I was on to fabric selection.  I spent a good bit of time on this, since I knew the value contrasts would be important.

Next, it was time for background construction.

I changed a few fabrics along the way.

When I first finished the background, above, the white curve leaf tip on the left was too attention getting.  However, I knew I’d be adding white with the berries and hoped that they’d all balance out.

On to berries.

Yes, the white spots balanced out and I was crazy about those colors!

Time to glue everything together and take it to the machine.  On to quilting!

Ellen Lindner

I’ve been having SO MUCH FUN working on my current quilt!  It’s an abstracted design, which always pushes me outside of my comfort zone.  But, I love the way it’s coming together.

First, I needed a design.  I took my cues from a Quilting Arts TV segment featuring Pat Pauly.  She suggested cutting up a photo and rearranging it in order to create shapes and lines for an abstract design.

Okay, then.  This is the photo I chose.

I cropped it to 7.5″ x 10″ and then cut it into 12 – 2.5″ squares.  I selected my six favorite squares and created a composition with them.  (Thanks to the square shape, the pieces can be easily rotated and still fit together nicely.)

Gee, I was really loving this!  Next, I outlined the major shapes and traced them.

Voila: an abstract design which can be worked in any values or colors.  I decided to create it in colors similar to the original photo and I did a little coloring on the computer.
(As you can see, I changed my mind about the orientation.)

However, I had leftover “hot” fabric from my last quilt and decided to kick it up with vibrant colors.  Like these.

On to the fabric selection!  I can’t wait to show you my progress.  Check back soon.

Ellen Lindner
P.S.  Since I did this design step a while ago, I have an earlier post with a little more info.