I really enjoy teaching my class “Design Your Own Nature Quilt!” In it, students learn about design and composition, then use their own photos to create a quilt. The results are always great and the process is exhilarating. (Actually, the process can also be a little intimidating but the students are told to pack their…
Being blessed with a bunch of indigo fabrics, I was ready to make an art piece with them. I knew I’d like to add an accent color, but which one? After some auditioning, I decided on the pink/orange family. But, how to best use these wonderful designs? I didn’t really want to cut into them,…
Working on this quilt inspired by fall foliage, I added many more little orange bits. Hmm, maybe I got carried away there. I removed a few and it looked better. And here it is finished, called Mid-October. I liked it. But something was bothering me. Ellen Lindner P.S. Have you ever had that nagging feeling that…
Remember the great fabric I used in my quilt Initial Response? I still had half of it, ready to use on the next project. This portion made me think of fall leaves, with the twigs and branches of trees peeking through. Can you see it? That was enough to get me started. From there I cut it into…
I was lucky enough to take a two day class with Pat Pauly. Fabric was flying and Adrenalin was flowing as she challenged us to work without a lot of planning. The purpose of the class was to teach us various ways to jump start an abstract design. One way Pat does that is by…
Well, I just wasn’t happy with the in-progress quilt I showed you last time. It seemed a little static. I tried to analyze what needed to change and I referenced my original black and white sketch. Wait a second. It was different from the working sketch I’d been using: At some point I had switched…
After completing the background of my abstract quilt, I was ready to tackle the primary motif. I used my sketch as the idea. Next, I had to choose colors. I thought some red might be dynamic. I used photo editing software to audition several different color options. I wanted to play up the red (above)…
Back in July I bought this beautiful painted piece of fabric from Pat Pauly. Isn’t it gorgeous? I knew it could be the start of something wonderful. The only problem is that the scale of this fabric is much larger than I normally use. Which meant that I didn’t have other similarly scaled fabrics to…
I’m happy with the way the quilt featuring my two brothers is developing. Here’s my brother Ricky almost complete. After making the face of my other brother, Todd, it was time to work on his jacket. First, auditioning fabric. Here it is, in-progress. All these little pieces were eventually glued to the muslin base and…
Continuing with my abstract exercises, I focused next on line. (Although I’d been using it since the very first exercise.) What kind of line(s) did I like? What came naturally? I’m still trying to figure that out. On the grid above, my favorite line is the one top right. The next assignment was to use…