Ellen Lindner: Art & Creativity

I’ve been helping Jayne Gaskins and Nancy Billings work on the upcoming Studio to Gallery conference.  Boy, have they worked hard!

When Jayne had a major computer issue recently, I joked that she deserved a purple heart.  And then I decided to make her one.

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Of course, Nancy also deserved recognition, so I made her a red one.

I sent them in the mail and they were quite happy with them.

They only took a few hours (or as I count things, 3 TV shows.)  Making them was a fun way to show my appreciation and to add a little lightheartedness to our conference prep.

Ellen Lindner
P.S.  It is not my intention to make light of those who have earned actual Purple Hearts.  I have great appreciation for all our service men and women.

Wow, I knew I was lucky to get those wonderful silk fabrics from Judith Content, but I didn’t know how lucky until I pinned them up on my design wall!

This is the very first pin up.  Totally random, right out of the bag.

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Can you say awesome?  And these pieces are big, too.  About 4′ tall.  These fabrics practically auto arrange themselves into a design.

Well, even though I had another quilt I was working on, I just HAD to play with my new fabrics some.  Who among us could resist?

Here’s the first arrangement, using about half of the pieces.

Oh yeah.  This is going to be fantastic.

Must resist.  Must resist.  Must finish barn quilt.  Must finish barn quilt.

Ellen Lindner

I’m a lucky girl.  I got this in the mail today:  fabric scraps from Judith Content.

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Judith is a very talented fabric artist who dyes all her own fabric.  She sent me scraps as a thank you for recruiting SAQA members.  How nice!

Can you tell they’re all luscious silks?

Some of the pieces are fairly large.  I sure am going to have fun figuring out how to use these treasures!

Thanks, Judith!
Ellen Lindner

I haven’t had much time to work on my farm quilt lately.  The view of my work table (which is double wide) will give you some clues as to what I’ve been up to instead.

Click for a larger view if you can stand the mess

Let’s see how good you are at solving puzzles.
1 – I’ve been shopping.  What have I been buying?
2- Am I warm or cold-natured?
3- Am I organized?
4- Am I neat?

Answers:
1 – Yes.  See the dark green L.L.Bean bag on the right.  (OK. There was some fabric in there, too.  You got me on that one.)
2- I’m warm-natured, which is why I’ve cut the sleeves shorter on the blouse I recently bought.  (That, and the fact that I’m short and I always has to hem things anyway.)
3 – Yes.  That’s a packing list for an upcoming teaching trip in the foreground.
4- Hah!  I think the answer to that one is blatantly obvious!

What does the view from your work space look like right now?

Ellen Lindner

Anyone want a Victorian house?  That is, a cross-stitched Victorian house that’s incomplete?

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I cross-stitched this many years ago, but eventually lost interest in it.

Although I tossed the directions, I saved the house thinking that it could some day be included in a quilt or other collage.  And it definitely could be.  But, I don’t care to do it, so I’m offering it you, my creative readers.

It could be layered with some other incomplete home motifs, don’t you think?  Maybe even some sheer ones?  But, never mind.  You have your own ideas!

If you’re interested in having this piece, tell me in the comments section.  I’ll randomly select a recipient and mail it out.  Congratulations to Debbie M., who won this item.  Hope we get to see her results.

Put your thinking caps on.  What would YOU do with this?

Ellen Lindner

I added the barns to my farm quilt and was quite happy with them.

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In places I had to modify the trees and sky behind the barns in order to create enough contrast.

Of course, it wasn’t long before I noticed something that needed changing – again.  This time it was the road.  I thought the pattern was too busy.  As a matter of fact, the whole thing had gotten rather busy.  I wanted to depict smooth rolling fields, but I wasn’t quite hitting the mark.  I suspected my busy prints were the problem and began to consider changes.

Yes, that’s better, don’t you think?  The version below has a quieter road and foreground.

That was so successful I wondered if other spots needed the same treatment.

Yes, they did, (Just below the barns.)

At this point, I was ready to add the large tree that would go on the left.  But wait.  I decided to quilt the background first and to add the tree later. It was time to glue it all in place.

Ellen Lindner
P.S.  But…hmm.  Does that sky need some tweaking on the right side?

After creating the sky and tree line of my farm quilt, I was ready to tackle the fields.

I drew the main lines and the road directly onto the muslin base with a permanent marker.  After LOTS of fabric auditions, I got started cutting and placing.

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I used some great green fabrics, plus a little bit of yellow for interest.  As originally planned, I used much darker values on the sides.

Lots more auditioning.  Knowing that every decision affects every other, I often tried out a bunch of fabrics at once.  I couldn’t decide seeing just one in place.

I made a few changes.  (Compare the photo below to the one with the red pin cushion above.)

Finally, I was happy with the fields and road and ready to consider the barns.  To do so, I placed tracing paper on the quilt and drew the barns onto it.  This made it easy to get the scale and placement correct.

I used a LOT of trial and error during this process and I made a lot of changes.  All of which slowed me down.  But, it kept me fully engaged and I enjoyed it.

Ellen Lindner

Here’s my latest quilt, finally photographed.

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I call it “As I Watch in Wonder,” because it reminds me of watching a beautiful sunset, with bare tree branches in the foreground.

To go along with that idea I stitched a large tree branch as part of the quilting.  To mimic little tiny twigs, I added a good bit of hand stitching.  (Click to see better.)

This quilt is available for purchase.  See details here.

Ellen Lindner

Are you familiar with the paintings of Ton Schulten?  He creates vivid color-blocked landscapes, often with darker panels on the sides.

Summer Impressions, by Ton Schulten

Awesome, right?  I thought I’d also like to use darker colors on the sides of my farm quilt, but I didn’t want to copy his format.  Could I make it darker without a vertical line?  I wanted to try it.

I pinned my blue fabrics onto the design wall with the lighter ones in the center and set to work.

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Since I was making a sky and didn’t want blunt edges, it was tricky merging the values together.  Lots of points seemed to work.

I’m pretty happy with the result, although I think some tweaking will be in order.  I want the blue silo to be the focal point, so I’ve placed it as a temporary reference.  The sky behind it will need to be very pale in order to create enough contrast.

Next came the distant trees.  Since things in the distance tend to have a bluish cast, I thought perhaps I could use blue-green fabrics for the trees.

I liked the tree fabrics, but before I could decide on them, I really needed to know how they’d work with the entire color palette.  So, I did some more auditioning, this time paying attention to not only fabric colors, but values.

I was starting to like this idea.

Ellen Lindner
P.S.  See my design sketch in my previous post.
P.S.S.  DO follow the link and check out Ton Schulten’s magnificent work!

I grew up on a dairy farm which I’ve photographed quite a bit over the years.  My favorite view is as you’re driving in and you come over a hill.  The farm spreads out before you, with the barns in the distance, and rows of crops on both sides of the road.  And the entire view is framed by a large maple tree.

Click an image for a larger view

I studied several photographs and came up with a rough sketch.

As you can see, I’ve changed the scale in order to enhance what I consider to be the important parts.  I also took some artistic license with the sweep of the road and the placement of some of the barns and silos.  My plan was to make it very stylized with just a few pieces of fabric.

I wanted to make this quilt in very bright colors of blue, green, and yellow.  I thought a yellow sky might be interesting, so I pulled out some fabrics to audition the idea.

 Hmm.  I added hints of blue buildings and a blue tree to get a better idea.

 Well, the blue silo showed up well, which I wanted.  But, the blue “tree” seemed like it would show up even more, which I didn’t want.  The thing about a wacky idea, such as a yellow sky, is that you never know it’s value until you try it.  You have to audition it visually, and this experimentation is worth your time!

I decided a blue sky would probably be better.  What do you think?

Ellen Lindner