Ellen Lindner: Art & Creativity

I wrote this post about a year ago, but for some reason I never posted it!  So, here you go.

I’m just back from a fantastic teaching trip to Colorado. This time my husband tagged along and we had an additional two days to explore.

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I HAD to keep remarking on the beauty of the mountains.  They were just so gorgeous!

What Floridians call “snow boots.”

A close encounter – sorta.  There was a barbed wire fence between us, but we were VERY close to this magnificent elk.

The images of blue skies, snow-capped mountains, and jagged terrain are still dancing around in my head.  I think I might do a quick torn paper collage.  I’m ANXIOUS to capture my impressions!

Ellen Lindner

More quilts that caught my attention:

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I love the abstraction in Thelma Bearden’s Very Berries.   As well as the glowing stained glass quality.  

In contrast to the hard edges in the quilt above, Marianne Willimason’s pieces are always very impressionistic, with soft edges.  She calls this one Evening Garden and it sold at the show.

She uses very heavy stitching, tiny bits of fabric, and paint to get her desired effect. 

I guess it’s pretty obvious that I’m attracted to these nature quilts.  I’m just now noticing how many of my photos include them.

Pat Durbin is shown below with her quilt, Sunlight in the Forest.  Perhaps you can tell that it’s actually three seperate pieces.  Although she considers them to be one complete artwork, she also commented that the individual pieces give her hanging options.  Very clever!  And a beautiful depiction of light through the trees.

I’ve got a bunch more photos on my phone, so I’ll show you some of those, as well.

It’s interesting:  I’ve seen several people post about Houston quilts and they’ve shown completely different quilts than I have.  Clearly, we all have our personal preferences!

Hope you’re having fun pursuing your own personal preferences.

Ellen Lindner

Wow!  I’m just back from a trip to Houston, TX, where I attended the International Quilt Festival.  It was AMAZING!  Extraordinary quilts, old friends, vendors with tons of appealing wares, new friends, and fun experiences.  (And fatigue, before I learned to pace myself.)

But, I know what you want to see first:  the quilts, right?  Here are a few of my favorites. 

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Melissa Sobotka won Best of show for her quilt, Chihuly’s Gondola.  Here she is shown with it.  Isn’t it amazing?  She described it as raw edge collage.

Andrea Brokenshire’s quilt Xcaret:  Orchid Blosoms II is primarily painted.  Based on her own photography, I think it is very striking.

 
Melinda Bula’s quilt Monet in Pasadena is fused applique. 

 
The reflections in the water are especially effective  (See below.)

I loved the composition and stylized shapes in Enid Gjelten Weichselbaum’s Spider Lilies. 

Aren’t the simple shapes perfect?

I’ve got many more photos to show you in the upcoming posts.  In the meantime, go check out photos of all the winners!  You can click on each photo and see quite a bit of detail.

Enjoy,
Ellen Lindner

This is “Thorns and Berries,” which I finished about a month ago.

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Actually, I finished it about two months ago.  Complete with a hanging sleeve and everything.  But then, I decided the thorns didn’t show up well enough.  I lived with it a while and eventually lightened them with watercolor pencils.  Now, I’m FINALLY happy with it.

I seem to be the queen of 11th hour revisions!

Ellen Lindner
P.S.  This quilt is 24″ x 18″ and is available for purchase. $325.

Once I decided to leave the mouth alone, this little quilt went very quickly.  I outline stitched the figures, added the words, and stitched them in place.

And here it is, only 9 x 12, “Rather Odd Hair.”  As you can see, I’ve added three little loops so I’ll be able to bind it into a book format.

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The label tells the full story:

When I was in 8^th grade, I bought a book called “101 Ways to Wear Your Hair.”  One of the styles involved wearing ponytails very far forward, in front of the ears.  I tried it out and was very happy with the look.  And my friends liked it too! 

Decades later I got to thinking about that wacky hairdo and wondered if my mother remembered it.  I began to describe it to her and she almost immediately said, “Oh, I definitely remember that one.”  Apparently, it made quite an impression on her.  She thought it was ridiculous, but kept her opinion to herself.  Thus, the text:  “Her hair was rather odd that day, but her mother never said a word.”  What a great, self-controlled mom!

I sure am having fun interpreting these old memories!  (You can see the first such quilt here.)

Ellen Lindner
P.S.  From this one I learned that I need to let everything be more loose!
P.P.S.  What odd hair days have you had?

Time to work on the pony tails of my odd hair quilt.  I planned to use little bits of a variety of fabrics represnting dark blonde hair.

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Soon, my table looked like this.  See the ponytails under contstruction on a fused base fabric on the left.

Hey, they turned out pretty well!  Later, I added more hair fabrics to the top part of the head.

Wow, I had no idea mouths were so difficult to draw, size, and place properly.  I spent A LOT of time drawing a bunch of them!  Some with braces and some without.

Finally, I decided on the perfect mouth and put it in place.

Ahh!  Scary mouth!  Look away! 

Geesh, that was bad.  I tried again.

Oh my, that was worse!  I was beginning to think that the mouth should have no color and that it should be more cartoon-like.  Anything to relieve the pressure of getting it exactly right!

While I let that idea evolve, I went back to work on the figures and was happy with my progress.  (MUCH easier than mouths!)

Another idea:  could I leave the nose off too?  I almost giggled when I thought of that!

Since I wanted to call attention to the pony tails, I began to experiment with blue hair bands.  They seemed to add the emphasis I wanted.

Ellen Lindner

Continuing with my idea of depicting some childhood memories in small cartoon-like quilts, I’ve started on one about a very weird hairdo.  Pony tails in FRONT of my ears!  Can you imagine?

One of the funny aspects of this story is that my mother never commented on my style, even though she wanted to!  I made sure I included her in the image.  Here’s my first sketch.  (Click any image for a larger view.)

A better face:

And a better overall sketch:

Since we had wood paneling in our home at the time, I put that in the background.  Next came the figures.

I used a Frixion pen a lot in this quilt.  It allowed me to draw in features and then iron them away when needed.  Very convenient!

Ellen Lindner

In my last post, I showed you the start of my first quilt about a happy childhood.  When you last saw her, the girl in the quilt looked very much like a paper doll:  flat and with no features.  Since then, I’ve added black stitching, which has added wonderful definition.

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I really enjoyed adding details with hand stitching, too.  Like the smocking in the dress bodice.

And here’s the finished quilt, only 9″ x 12″.

The label tells the full story:

The Cows Enjoyed Her Singing

When I was in second grade, I walked home alone from the bus stop.  That was about a quarter of a mile up our farm road, past fields and pastures.  As I slowly walked along, I would swing my lunch box, twirl (so my dress would fly out,) and sing. 

One day, as I passed a pasture full of cows, I looked up to see them all lined up at the fence, just looking at me.  Well, it was obvious to me that these cows were simply enthralled with my singing.  So, I put down my lunch box and put on a concert for them.  I sang “Jesus Loves Me,” “You are my Sunshine,” and “I’m a Little Teapot.”  Repeatedly.  They loved it!  They didn’t budge and they couldn’t take their eyes off me!

Apparently, I stayed there a little too long, because eventually my mother drove down the road to see what had happened to me.  When she heard my story, she put a limit on how many songs I should sing on future days.

My ego was in full swing even back then!  I intend to make several more of these childhood story quilts.  Like this one, I will add little loops at the top.  I’m thinking I will bind them together in some sort of book style.

It’s a lot of fun to revisit these memories.  As part of the process, I’ve had several conversations with my mom and my sister as we’ve tried to answer the big questions, like “What kind of shoes did I wear in the second grade?”

What stories have you told with your quilts?

Ellen Lindner

I have really great memories from my childhood.  Growing up on a dairy farm, my experience was a little different than most.  (Example:  my first word was moo!)  My three siblings, the three neighbor kids, and I built forts in the hay loft, played in the creek, and learned to run barefoot on hot gravel.

Recently, I decided to depict some of these memories as small quilts.  I started with a silly one about me singing to the cows when I was seven.  (I “knew” they liked it!)

I decided on a rather cartoon look.  In part because I thought it was appropriate, but mostly so it would be easier.  Not being very proficient at drawing people, I spent A LOT of time sketching!  And I drew a bunch of variations on sheets of tracing paper.  Like this.

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I planned my little quilt to be only 9 x 12 (inches,) and set about creating a composition.  This is what I decided upon.  (Click for  better view.)

Did you notice that the cows don’t have bodies?  I decided they weren’t necessary to tell the story and that the composition was better without them.

I put quite a bit of thought into the way the fabrics would work together.  For instance, the skin fabric had to show up against a tan road and a green pasture.  And the blonde hair had to show up against a pale blue sky. 

Once my selections were made, I stitched the background.

And then I began to work on the “doll.”  Actually, she’s me, but the stylized shape reminded me of a paper doll.  I flipped her to the mirror image so her outstretched arm wouldn’t be pointing off the edge of the quilt.

She sure didn’t look like much at this stage.  However, I knew the stitching would add a lot of definition.  And I was happy with the narrative quality the piece was developing.

Ellen Lindner
P.S.  The idea for making people cartoons was inspired by an article in the November 2013 issue of American Quilter magazine.  It’s called Creative Girl Art Quilts, by Carrie Payne.

Here’s my croton quilt, in-progress:

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And here it is, completely finished:

I’m quite happy with it.  I love the colors and the interesting fabrics.  And I think the blue gap as the main veins works perfectly.   Plus, I think this piece represents my style well.

Also, I know my little quilt will be presented very professionally.  Each one will be mounted on a larger piece of black board and then put into a cellophane envelope.  All the information about the quilt and quilter will be on the back, easily visible.  Plus, since each quilt will be on a rigid suppoert, they can be passed around, or propped up for display.  A great idea!

As I mentioned in my previous post, the SAQA trunk show can come to your guild or group AT NO CHARGE.  Find details here.

Ellen Lindner