Tag Archives | Landscapes

Arches National Park

By Ellen Lindner on September 20, 2021 in Uncategorized

My husband and I recently visited several national parks in southern Utah. Arches National Park was our hands-down favorite. The rock formations and colors were amazing!

My favorite was Double Arch, shown below.

I think my husband’s favorite was Delicate Arch, the iconic arch for which the park is known.

We worked hard for this view! It was a good hour of uphill climbing, but it was well worth it. The trail was labeled difficult and I’d have to say it lived up to it. I think I’d add another D word: dangerous. I’m not a worrier or scared of heights, but it sure would be easy to get hurt on this trail!

Check out this video showing a little bit of the hike back down. Yes, it was exactly as treacherous as it looks AND there was two-way traffic here! That’s hubby leading the way and I was the idiot who was filming!
DON’T WATCH IF YOU’RE SCARED OF HEIGHTS

Here are some of the other noteworthy sights we saw. This is Balanced Rock.

Tunnel Arch

I forget the name of this one.

Here’s another little video about a different trail, named Park Avenue. Aren’t the colors amazing?

We also visited some other parks in the area. At Capitol Reef National Park we saw petroglyphs. Can you make them out?

Arches was, to me, even more amazing than the Grand Canyon. I loved the colors!

Ellen Lindner

Farm Quilts

By Ellen Lindner on December 24, 2018 in Uncategorized

It turns out I’ve made quite a few quilts featuring farms and rural scenes. I guess that’s not surprising since I grew up on a dairy farm. And, because my parents still live on that farm, I get to visit it frequently. I always love seeing the rolling fields, the way the sun hits the barn roofs, and the dappled shade of deciduous trees.

Click any title to see more about that quilt.
Click any image for a much larger view.

Here’s a stylized view of the farm.
Oak Green Farm

Oak Green Farm, an art quilt by Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com — /*Oak Green Farm*

The same barns can be seen in the background of this piece, which shows my two brothers target shooting on a Thanksgiving afternoon.

Shootin’ the Breeze

Since many family gatherings have been held on this farm it’s no surprise that some great family moments have also been captured in fabric. This one shows my son and two of his cousins skipping down the farm road shown in the first piece. Don’t they look happy?

Carefree

What’s funny is when I showed this quilt to my farming dad and brother they didn’t comment on the people, but instead began to discuss which crops were planted in which fields.

This little silk quilt shows the farm view once again, but this time with the buildings and nearby trees removed. Can you pick out the tasseling corn?

Summer Fields

A companion quilt shows corn stalk stubs sticking up through snow. I’m always a little mesmerized by the way these parallel rows converge as you drive by.

Winter Hills

Narrow little country roads have no center lines and no shoulders. Which means the trees grow right up next to the road. All of which inspired a haiku quilt.

Quiet Dappled Light

When my uncle commissioned me to make a quilt for my mom, his sister, of course it had to be of a rural scene. She always commented on a favorite barn in the area, so it became the subject for her quilt.

Barn #8536

Who knew I had all these farm quilts floating around in my head?

Have you had any “accidental” series like this?

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Here’s another one: a simple maple branch, but the tree was on my parents’ farm.
P.P.S. Related links about the creation of the first quilt, above. (From my old blog.)
Designing a Farm Quilt
Starting the Farm Quilt
Farm: Creating Fields
Adding Barns and Making MORE Changes
Farm Quilt: Home Stretch

Design Your Own Nature Quilt in Western North Carolina

By Ellen Lindner on October 4, 2018 in Uncategorized

I had a fabulous time teaching “Design Your Own Nature Quilt” in western North Carolina recently. The students were talented, excited to learn, and willing to experiment. As a result, they produced some amazing quilts in our two days together.

After learning some design concepts in the morning, the fabric was flying in the afternoon of day one.

Design Your Own Nature Quilt with Ellen Lindner. AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Gretchen and Tynne auditioning fabric choices.

Our class motto was “Be inspired by your photo, not controlled by it.” But, Gloria’s photo was so great that it needed very little editing.

She wisely brought the perfect background fabric. Note that it doesn’t need to have tiny branches, just something that shows the general sky color with some variation/”imperfections.”

When placing the branches, Gloria deviated from the photo, which I applauded. However, a little trial and error was called for (as is generally the case.) In the first rendition, her branches were too parallel to one another and they lacked the proper taper and lovely curving of actual branches.

She did a little tweaking and soon arrived at this, glued and ready to be stitched. Isn’t it lovely?

Becky was also inspired by branches, in particular these covered with an early snow.

Here first few branches were not bad, but also needed a little better tapering and such.

After a bit more experimenting she added in a bunch more branches with snow and the piece really came to life. Don’t you love the strong white diagonal lines of the snow? She created it by tucking white fabric under dark brown.

After initially cutting perfect leaves, Becky realized they didn’t actually look perfect in her photo and something more irregular would do the trick. Aren’t these great? This is progressing very nicely and, after a few more leaves are added, she’ll be ready to stitch.

Can you feel the Adrenalin that was building in class?!

I have many more photos to show you so watch for them in future blogs.

Ellen Lindner

“Shootin’ the Breeze” Finished!

By Ellen Lindner on November 18, 2017 in Uncategorized

Whoo-boy, the quilt of my brothers ended up taking quite a bit longer than I anticipated, but I’m very happy with the finished result.

I got to show it to my family in the almost-complete stage, and they LOVED it. That was very gratifying.

Here are few detail shots.

My brother Ricky.

My brother Todd.

Quilting faces was new to me, and rather intimidating. I studied the work of Hollis Chatelain and am very happy with the end result. (However, if I ever do faces again, I’ll use clear thread, rather than changing the thread colors throughout.)

As you can see, the quilting added a lot to the 3D aspects of the clothing, too.

I feel like I haven’t had much to show on my blog for a while, except for this quilt. So, to all my faithful readers, thanks for your patience! Now, I can have fun with other things (like mobiles) and share new adventures with you.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I’ve entered this piece in an exhibit called “Guns: Loaded Conversations.” If accepted, it will tour for three years.

Corn Fields and Such

By Ellen Lindner on October 12, 2017 in Uncategorized

After separately creating the two men for my “brothers quilt,” it was time to work on the background.

I finished up the rough draft of the sky and added the far tree line, (with a piece of blue fabric marking a future silo.).

Next it was on to the corn field in the foreground. Since the reference photo was taken in November, the corn had already been harvested and the short golden stalks were all that was left.

I wanted to create the texture of the messy corn stalks, but not too exactly. So, I used lots of print fabrics to convey the vegetation. My plan was to use large scale prints in the foreground, like those shown below, and smaller scaled ones in the background. I hoped this would add a sense of depth.

It worked, but required a good bit of tweaking. (And a lot of pins!) Here is what I think will be the final corn field, below.

Distant fields had much more subtle texture, so I auditioned near-solid fabrics for them.

Here they are, complete. I’m happy with the sense of depth. That will be enhanced when I add the small buildings in the distance.

Next it was time to start adding the green fields and grasses. Here it is, in-progress.

I’m getting close to completing the design of this background. I still need to add the foreground grass and the buildings. Then, I’ll have to glue it all in place.

FYI, here’s another quilt where I used the scale of fabrics to add to the sense of depth.

Ellen Lindner

“Spring Forth” Complete

By Ellen Lindner on September 1, 2017 in Uncategorized

After many distractions, I finally got back to working on my Red Bud quilt. I decided to name it “Spring Forth,” because I was captivated by the way the Red Bud blossoms pop right up out of the trunks.

Spring Forth

I got lucky with the background fabrics. Many of them had colorful dots which worked well for implying more blossoms. I love it when the fabric does the work!

As you can see, I abstracted the flowers quite a bit. That was fun!

Find more details, dimensions, and purchase information on the Spring Forth web page.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I’m the queen of cropping. It VERY frequently improves the composition. Which I sorta noticed in the second image. I really like that composition, too.

Maitland Art Center

By Ellen Lindner on April 3, 2016 in Uncategorized

Surrounding Orlando are several quaint neighborhoods and Maitland is one of them. With sprawling oaks, brick streets, and old buildings, this tiny neighborhood is full of charm. Perfectly in step with the area, the Maitland Art Center sets the standard. It’s a cluster of small buildings and it was built in the 1930’s as an artists’ retreat.

The buildings and outdoor spaces are designed in the rare Mayan Revival style and are as interesting as the art held within.

The grounds are beautiful, especially on a perfect spring day.

In the next post I’ll show you the art that was on exhibit.

Ellen Lindner

“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

Navigation

Tag Archives | Landscapes

Arches National Park

Farm Quilts

Design Your Own Nature Quilt in Western North Carolina

“Shootin’ the Breeze” Finished!

Corn Fields and Such

“Spring Forth” Complete

Maitland Art Center

“Coastal Overlook” Complete

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