Adventure Quilter
Ellen Lindner uses fabric the way a painter uses paint, with extraordinary results
Here’s my latest little art quilt, And the Band Plays On.
I made it as donation for a SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates,) fundraiser which required a size of
12″ x 12″.
Fortunately, I had some leftover units from this quilt, which I used as a starting point.
Is it Hot in Here, or is It Just Me?
After that, it came together easily.
I sure have been lucky with leftover pieces lately!
Do you ever use leftover units in new pieces?
Ellen Lindner
I’ve been having fun working on my “sour dough” quilt.
First, I decided on the placement of the leftover blocks. I cut a few of them into smaller units.
I’m a believer in this quote from Sally Sellers, “It only takes a little ugly; just enough to make the other colors sing.” So, should I add a little ugly? I decided a small amount of yellow would do the trick.
A nice start. Then, I added even more.
I like it. What do you think?
Finally, I added the skinny dark teal strips. Because they’re so high contrast, they add a lot of drama, and really make the composition.
In the photo above, I started quilting it. I had lots of good suggestions about a title. But, to me, it seemed to represent some sort of social interaction. A lively, happy one. So, the name “Party Chatter” seemed to fit. Here’s the finished piece.
Check out my website for a detail shot and other information.
What do you think about adding a little bit of ugly?
Ellen Lindner
I’ve never made sour dough bread, but I know that it requires a starter. And also that some of the ingredients are reserved for a future loaf. With this in mind, I think my current project is a “sour dough” quilt.
It all started with these blocks that were leftover from an earlier project. These were the starter. (Each mini composition is held together with glue.)
I didn’t really have a plan, but I put a piece of muslin up on my design wall and started slowly adding the blocks.
I immediately liked the colors and the energy of the oddball shapes. However, it was clear to me that I wouldn’t want to butt the pieces right up next to each other. Doing so would make all the shapes merge together. Instead, I’d need a dark or light fabric separating the colorful shapes.
That made me think of Susan Lapham’s quilts. She often uses white between here blocks and connects them with skinny black strips. I decided to emulate her style for this one.
Initially, I added white blocks as I was creating the composition. But, I realized it would be easier to add the white at the end. The white fabrics are also starters, since they were torn for an earlier project, but never used.
I switched to dark teal strips pretty earlier on. (And I fused the back of that fabric: very unusual for me.)
At this stage, I can see that I need some smaller pieces. Maybe I’ll cut some of my blocks or maybe I’ll add some fresh cut little squares. And what about adding an accent of a new color? It’s all up for consideration.
I’ve really been enjoying this little project. What fun things have you been working on lately?
Ellen Lindner
Lately, I’ve been really concentrating on using a “variety of scale” in the patterns and compositions I’ve been using. First, in a collage course I took with Jane Davies. After making and cropping small collages she directed us to add details with markers. (I never asked for her feedback on these, so they’re MY interpretation of what might work.)
With each one I asked, “Where is there a big spot that needs some interest?” I thought this first one looked pretty good without any additions, but I thought a tiny line would add interest. And it did!
Next question, “Should the additions emphasize what’s already there, or should I add an entirely new shape or color?” You can see that I’ve used both.
I often let my new elements extend over two different pieces. This worked visually, since the small scale of the new items didn’t obliterate the larger pieces.
Sometimes I followed Jane’s example of changing marker colors as the background color changed.
Some compositions needed very little added. But, it does make a difference, don’t you think?
I’ve also been thinking about variety of scale as I’ve been trying to use several favorite fabrics together in the same piece. Most of them were large in scale, so I found myself matching them up with near solids and quieter neutrals. Early progress is shown below.
I was liking these together. They were a challenging, but fun, mix.
Ellen Lindner
After making small collages our online instructor, Jane Davies, asked us to visually crop them and to pay attention to negative space. Well, I’m sort of “known” for cropping things, so I was right in my comfort zone!
Before:
After:
As expected, everything looked better when cropped. There were several reasons for this:
– Due to the sizes of the backgrounds and the added shapes, there was just too much blank background in some of these.
– When an element runs off the edge of a composition, it engages the viewer more. The viewer subconsciously realizes that the shape continues and this holds their interest.
– *The background (negative) space becomes more interesting. Look at the example above. Initially the background was one large sort of doughnut-shaped piece of white. After cropping, it became 4 different, and more interesting shapes.
Here are some more examples:
They’re all better after cropping, right?
As a painter, Jane advised us NOT to physically crop our work, but to get comfortable with filling the size of the canvas, instead. As a fabric artist, I think I can safely ignore that advice. (Let’s hope so, because I’ve been cropping for years!)
Have you ever considered cropping your work? I find it to be a very useful design tool.
Ellen Lindner
P.S. See my most dramatic crop.
P.P.S. If you liked that article, you may be interested in others.
You can’t work with a bunch of pieces of colored paper without seeing some design possibilities!
As part of my online class with Jane Davies, I was arranging, and rearranging, and rearranging again a wide array of colors and shapes.
Our first assignment was to make a largish collage with multiple pieces. Mine missed the mark (although I had fun doing it.)
Along the way, I was seduced by all the colors and I just HAD to play with them outside the scope of the class exercises. I played with monochromatic greys. Look how nicely they set off soft colors. Could I use enough restraint to create with these colors in fabric? I’m not sure.
Then, I saw a photo of a red beet and a gold beet. So, I had to play with those colors a little. A little sharp, perhaps, but still something I may want to explore in the future.
Eventually, we got to make collages with just three pieces and I was swimming back in more comfortable waters. Quite a few of these were successful, but I know Jane will have us alter them in the next step. I’m very interested to see what we’ll do with them.
When was the last time you took a class that didn’t involve fabric? I think it’s a really good way to explore new ideas and I feel confident some of these will find their way into my fabric collages.
Ellen Lindner
I’m currently enrolled in a mini-collage class with Jane Davies. For week one, she had us paint A LOT of swatches. Surprisingly, I didn’t need to buy any paint. I guess I’ve done more of this over the years than I realized.
I’m pretty good at mixing colors, but I still gets streaks sometimes.
Jane asked us to paint only what she calls sophisticated colors. These are colors with both some black and white in them. In other words, they’re somewhat subdued. More like the colors you might paint your home than the bright colors children like. Of course, I like the bright colors, so their omission has already piqued my interest. After quite a few swatches, I checked my collection for light, medium, and dark. I thought I was on track.
After about 80 swatches over all this is what I had. Not bad, I thought.
But, Jane, asked for more lights and neutrals, so I painted up another 20 or so.
She also encouraged us to paint Chromatic Grays. I’d never heard this term a couple of months ago, but now it seems that I can’t get away from it. As the name implies, these are grays that have a significant undertone of a particular color. These are the colors I initially identified as being chromatic grays.
Now I can see that at least two of these are too colorful. I guess I’m learning.
Again, the idea of using these duller colors is piquing my interest. Since I plan to eventually do some of the class exercises in fabric, I pulled out a few drawers to see if I even owned any chromatic grays.
Hmm. I think probably not. Maybe this will be a future fabric dyeing project for me.
How about you? Do you ever dabble in other media? I think it’s a good creative exercise and I’m excited about it.
Ellen Lindner
Finished!
Christmas Cactus
I’m very happy with it.
Have you ever abstracted something like this? I like the effect. What do you think?
Ellen Lindner
After studying my photo of a Christmas cactus, I decided to try abstracting it with one repeated shape. Maybe something like these “spike” shapes. 
Yes, I thought they worked well.
My original idea was to fill the entire space with this shape, just changing the color for background grass, brick, etc. But, when I tried that for grass I didn’t like it at all. Especially since just a few shapes were so effective.
So, I decided to depict the actual plant only.
Here it’s shown as a square. I thought it would probably be better if I cropped off some of the left area.
From there things fell together easily. Here it is, well under way.
I was loving how it was coming together and I didn’t want to over work it. Audition. Edit. Repeat.
I think I’ll have this one finished quickly. Stay tuned.
Ellen Lindner
P.S. I’m not sure how to quilt the background. I’ll have to give that a good bit of thought.
I finally got around to properly photographing my latest quilt, She Has a Great Personality. It’s meant to be a self-portrait in the style of a favorite artist. In this case, that artist is abstract painter Jane Davies.
I thought working abstractly would be difficult, but it wasn’t too bad. I had more trouble deciding on some of the details.
I added hand stitching in several areas to help tie it all together.
I’m very happy with it, and I think it represents me pretty well.
Ellen Lindner