Blog – Page 60 of 63 – Adventure Quilter

A Few More Daytona Images

By Ellen Lindner on March 13, 2016 in Uncategorized

A little more eye candy for you from the AQS Daytona show.

This is Petals in the Wind by Cassandra Ireland Beaver. (Sorry for the fuzzy phone photo.) There is no black in this quilt. The black you see are holes which show the black curtain behind.

Wouldn’t this be pretty against a pale wall, with some excellent lighting? (To create shadows?)

There was an exhibit of small quilts in which the makers had interpreted artwork of famous makers. (I didn’t catch the name of the exhibit.) I’m sure you can tell this one depicts the work of Claude Monet. It was made by Michelle Schaal, from France.

Although this detail shot is rather fuzzy, I thought you’d like to see the very effective way that couched yarns were used to depict the water. Especially the one with a little white in it. Those white bits look like sparking reflections.

One of the special exhibits featured quilts made by Karen Stone and her students. Windsor Gardens, was made by Karen. Although the leaf colors aren’t overly bright, when combined with the dark background they really pop!

Check out the great variety in her leaf fabrics. Wouldn’t this be fun to recreate?

On an unrelated topic, why couldn’t something like this win “Best Use of Color?” It doesn’t always have to be something with complementary or bright rainbow colors, does it? Although beautiful, those combinations are very predictable. A quilt like this required more creative thinking and I really admire that. What do you think?

Ellen Lindner

Downton Abbey Party

By Ellen Lindner on March 7, 2016 in Uncategorized

Are you a Downton Abbey fan? I AM! Big time. So, when the series ended, I decided to throw a viewing party for the finale. Of course, there would be tea and china, and flowers as well. I had great fun deciding on the menu and prepping the table.

The menu included hot tea with milk, a cold tea and fruit punch, and (starting at the back of the top and going clockwise:) cheesecake tarts with lemon curd garnish, chocolate covered strawberries, two types of open faced sandwiches – cream cheese with salmon, cream cheese with veggies and cheddar – chocolate cake, dates stuffed with pecans and rolled in sugar, and fresh fruit. What a feast! I thought it looked quite decadent, if I do say so myself.

The table linens, place settings, serving pieces, and even the flower vase are all either inherited pieces or wedding gifts. I just added place cards saying, for example, “Lady Ellen.”

My friends came an hour before the final episode started and we enjoyed all the delicacies.

The first thing I heard about the Downton Abbey series was how wonderful the costumes were. And they are, aren’t they? I knew that some of my ancestors shared a similar lifestyle prior to the depression, and I just recently received tangible evidence of that. My mom presented my sister and I with 7 evening bags that were used by her mother and her grandmothers. The box was labeled (by a great grandmother, we think) with the dates 1910-1930, so I put them out as part of my party decorations.

And just take a look. Aren’t they incredible?

These are quite small. The blue one on the left is about palm sized and the largest one is about 5 x 6 inches. I guess they’re just supposed to be big enough for a handkerchief. Three of them are sort of like chain mail and they’re slightly transparent. I’d never seen any like this before.

On first glance, the others appear beaded, but only the blue one really is. The others are made of shiny colored links that make up the pattern.

The gold cylinders above hold fountain pens.

My sister and I have to figure out how to preserve or use these. I think the largest one is viable as an evening bag today. Watch out: you might see me sporting it at some art opening.

Of course, I can’t finish this post without mentioning the actual final episode. Wasn’t it satisfying? I LOVED it.

Ellen Lindner

AQS Prize Winners

By Ellen Lindner on February 29, 2016 in Uncategorized

The prize winners at the Daytona Beach AQS quilt show were quite wonderful. These are some of my favorites.

Claudia Pfeil’s Fern Rising won Best of Show and it was very well deserved.

The shadows added to the fern shapes made it look extremely 3D. Plus, the use of sheer fabrics (for the spirals) and an abundance of crystals made this quilt literally sparkle.

A Passion for Purple, by Andrea Brokenshire had everyone stopping in their tracks.

It won the award for best workmanship on a home machine. Appropriate, don’t you think?

Although I’m a machine quilter (or maybe because I’m a machine quilter,) I’m always impressed by dense hand quilting. And this quilt, by Donna Douglas had it in spades.

It’s called Flourishing on the Vine and it won the award for Best Hand Workmanship. I can’t begin to imagine how much time went into making this quilt. It was stunning.

The next quilt, by Lois Podolny was a little awkward to photograph, but I think you can get the idea.

As you can see, she’s carefully cut and pieced symmetrical fabrics to piece these wonderful radiating kaleidoscope designs.

It’s called Magical Moments in Time.

A beautiful and interesting selection of prize winning quilts!

Ellen Lindner

“People and Portraits” Exhibit

By Ellen Lindner on February 26, 2016 in Uncategorized

For me, one of the highlights of the AQS Daytona Beach quilt show was SAQA’s exhibit “People and Portraits.” Even though I had seen these pieces before, I thoroughly enjoying studying them again.

Mary Pal’s cheesecloth portraits were some of my favorites. This one is called Homeless Love.

As you can see, she shapes tiny bits of cheesecloth against a black background to create stunning portraits. Most of them are of the elderly or homeless.

This one is called Stogie.

Aren’t they wonderful?

Joan Sowada is well known for her portraits and images of every day life. This one is called Flow.

And this one is Flight Zone.

Maria Elkins does a fabulous job with a variety of media on fabric. This is called Windblown and is featured on the cover of the exhibit catalog.

Check out the quilting in this detail shot! Although the quilt was beautiful before, this added texture really elevates it to another level.

Maria has another very touching piece in this exhibit, called Surrender.

If I remember correctly, this quilt was made as comfort for a family that lost their newborn child. Can you see the transparent hands coming in from the right?

On a happier note, Pam RuBert has one of her zany quilts included. It’s called Towers of Babble. In it even the dog has a cell phone!

Another quilt with social commentary is Hmm, by Pat Kumicich. It’s about the 2008 presidential election. (I’m thinking she might need to make another one this year.)

Like Joan Sowada, Lore Lupe Pelish’s quilts always show people in every day situations. This is called We Were All There.

This detail shot gives a hint about all the print fabrics she used.

Finally, this quilt by Jenny Bowker drew my attention. It’s called Hassan and the Glass.

The portrait is very well done, but I also think the composition and colors of the rest of the quilt support it very nicely.

This exhibit was just part of the much larger quilt show that’s still going on through April 27, 2016. If you’re in the area, I think you’ll enjoy it.

Ellen Lindner

Getting Started on Two Green Quilts

By Ellen Lindner on February 22, 2016 in Uncategorized

After studying my quirky fabrics, I decided to work with the yellow-green silk that had been screen printed. I knew I wanted to play up the red design with more red accents. Then, I threw in blue and yellow for good measure.

After just a little arranging I remembered, “Oh yeah, I’m not really good at abstract designs.” (It’s good to know your strengths and weaknesses.)

Knowing that I wanted to make two companion pieces, I did a couple of quick sketches. And since my fabrics were green, why not leaves?

Pretty simple, but I thought I could bring it to life with the right fabrics.

Speaking of fabrics, I started to second guess my original choices, and instead tried something new.

Oh, yes! I definitely preferred this. See those red squiggles? I want to feature them.

So, I got started. I fused a lightweight interfacing on all the silk fabrics and I drew my sketch onto a muslin base. Next, I began cutting and placing fabrics. Placement was determined by a desire to mix values, but also by the size of each fabric piece in my collection.

Those squiggles are looking pretty good, huh?

Ellen Lindner

Using Quirky Fabrics

By Ellen Lindner on February 20, 2016 in Uncategorized

I’m very comfortable using commercial and hand-dyed fabrics in my creations, but I have a few quirky fabrics that I have to treat differently. Things that ravel, ones that melt, and thin silks.

I recently pulled out a few of these to think about how I might use them. The yellow-green fabrics are the result of a deconstructed screen printing play day. A recent scarf dyeing class produced the blue and blue-green fabrics on the right and top. The remaining fabrics were scraps given to me by Judith Content. All of these are silk, most of them very lightweight.

I was hoping I could use them all together, but I quickly abandoned that idea.

But, what about using just the blue-greens, with a healthy dash of burnt orange?

Yes. That has potential.

What can I do with the yellow-green fabric? Can I play up the red squiggly parts?

Yes, that shows promise.

Now, where to go from here?

Ellen Lindner

Perfectly Flat Quilts

By Ellen Lindner on February 17, 2016 in Uncategorized

If you’ve done much machine quilting you’ve probably had some “friendly” quilts. You know, the wavy ones? This is pretty standard for me so I correct the problem by blocking my quilts.

Take this quilt for instance. Pretty bad, right?

But, a combination of stretching, pinning, and steaming turned it into this perfectly flat quilt.

I recently gave the same treatment to my latest quilt, Coastal Overlook. Here it is with the top and left edges pinned straight and square. I stretched them quite a bit in that process, so the other two sides are still relaxed (and smaller.)

Next, I stretched the bottom right corner to its square position and then pulled the remaining two edges into alignment. This took A LOT of pins and about an hour of my time. Finally, I sprayed the whole thing with water, steam ironed it, and left it overnight to dry.

Here are the final results, nice and square.

Coastal Overlook

I highly recommend blocking and I’ve written a tutorial about it. Read and learn!

Ellen Lindner

Related Post, old blog:
I Don’t Like Friendly Quilts

Dyeing Scarves

By Ellen Lindner on February 10, 2016 in Uncategorized

My sister and I had a great time attending a recent scarf dying class. Taught by my good friend, Jo-Ann Jensen, she provided me with plain silk, knowing that I’d want to use it in quilts. Of course!

She first taught us how to do a tie-dye sort of thing. She calls her geodes. Well, I just didn’t have enough patience for all those rubber bands! Plus, I didn’t choose my colors very wisely. This is what I got, about 12 x 12.

It’s not pretty enough to use as is, but certain parts can be cut and used very effectively.

Next, I tried to paint something that might work as a sky.

I think it will work. Again, I’ll use localized slivers.

Finally, I did a long folded piece using just two colors. The designs I got are really pretty, but I think it will need some over dying to add color to all that white.

This was a ton of fun! If you ever get a chance to take a class with Jo-Ann, I strongly recommend it!

Now thinking about how I might use these fabrics together. Hmm.

Ellen Lindner

P.S. You might also enjoy this post on ice dying.

“Coastal Overlook” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on February 8, 2016 in Uncategorized

My latest piece, Coastal Overlook, is now complete. It’s about 30″ x 40″ and I’m pretty happy with it.

If you’ve been following my blog you know that this quilt was inspired by a drive along the Pacific Coast Highway in California. I wanted to abstract it and, for me, that’s the tricky part. I want to hit the sweet spot where the level of abstraction has added interest, but not completely obliterated the image. I’m never sure if I’ve hit it or not. Of course, a good title always helps give clues.

To add energy I added lots of off-kilter seams and skinny inserts. I think it works.

When I took my inspiration photos I was standing near the edge of a cliff, with lots of golden grasses at my feet. I hinted at these with a little piecing and thread painting.

Learn how you can audition this piece in your home.

Now, I’m kinda enjoying slowly folding fabrics, putting away things, and taking time to think about what I want to do next. As usual, I have several ideas.

Ellen Lindner

“Floral Improv” Students Rocked It

By Ellen Lindner on January 28, 2016 in Uncategorized

To say that my Floral Improv students rocked it is an understatement. After a little instruction, they jumped right into drawing and cutting free-form flowers. Then, they learned a little about composition and design considerations and gave that a try. Along the way they were not afraid to try new things and they received suggestions beautifully. What a fun group to work with!

And just look at their results!

Barbara’s palette was delightful. She’ll add definition to the stems and leaves with dark stitching and then it will really pop!

Sharon’s quilt provides very high contrast, creating a lot of drama. Most students will define their poppy petals with dark thread, but Sharon will use a light gray. (But still something dark for the daisies and leaves.) This is going to be great.

Margaret selected complementary orange and blue with a happy dose of pink and purple added in. It’s very bright and cheerful!

Look at Kathi’s soft colors. Didn’t she do a good job with them? And what about the “body language” of her flowers? She used her curving stems to great advantage.

Jo-Ann was still experimenting at this stage, but she had some really great things happening. Like those s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d daisies. They have lots of personality. I know this is going to be full of life.

Cindy is fairly new to quilting, but she fully embraced the project. She did a great job.

Barbara’s dark background really set off her pastel flowers beautifully. She only has a little stitching left to do. I can’t wait to see her finished quilt!

Bobbi was speedy and she managed to create a lot flowers in a short period of time. She also fussy cut some shapes from a pink fabric to serve as buds. A very nice touch. It’s bright and wonderful!

Another 3 students packed up before I could photograph their work, but I can assure you it was on a par with these. I’m SO delighted by these results in the very first offering of this class!

I’m now taking this class on the road. Let me know if your guild would like to have me add you to my schedule. (Email link below.)

Ellen Lindner

← Previous 1 … 59 60 61 … 63 Next →

Navigation

Adventure Quilter

A Few More Daytona Images

Downton Abbey Party

AQS Prize Winners

“People and Portraits” Exhibit

Getting Started on Two Green Quilts

Using Quirky Fabrics

Perfectly Flat Quilts

Dyeing Scarves

“Coastal Overlook” Complete

“Floral Improv” Students Rocked It

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Search the blog: