Large Quilts for Sale

Color Study: Why Red?

| ellenanneeddy

I’ve just finished Little Blues! I’m delighted with this quilt. It took me a while to get it finished off. In that process, on a whim I added some red silk flowers to the background.

Why red? Why not orange or blue or white? I did try those. But red was it.

I really think it’s worth the while to put up your color decisions on a color wheel. Just how you can see how they relate.

The color wheel gets a bad rap. It’s old fashioned, it’s boring, we all know how colors are made, it’s incomprehensible…. It’s still the best way I know to show the relationships between colors. It shows how colors are created. But most importantly, it shows how they react to each other.

The farther colors are apart from each other, the more tension there is between them. And like every good soap opera, more tension means more excitement.

At which point, you need to ask, where is this quilt going? If it’s in a baby’s bedroom, you might want to keep the tension and excitement to a minimum. But for a gallery? Bring on the excitement!

I was surprised when I put the colors up on the wheel. I didn’t realize how far around the wheel I had gone. But as you can see, the red zings across from the green. I don’t have much in there, but it wakes up a piece that has that sleepy analogous color thing going on without it. Not much. Just a handful of red silk flowers.

I consider using the whole color wheel a visual trick of sorts. It wins awards, and it’s showy, but color needs to be the focus of a piece for that to work well. But this almost full-color wheel is rich, satisfying, and just red enough to get attention.

For more information about color theory check out Color Theory: The Tug Across the Wheel and Thermal Shock: Shocking Color Choices.

Springing into a new web site

| ellenanneeddy

Spring is here. I can tell by the gale like winds and the sea of mud puddles. I’m only hoping the radishes I planted don’t get fooled and come up too soon.

Along with the spring, I have two new series of quilts I’ve been working on all year showcased. The Marsh Heron quilts are herons and water birds in swamp lands. I’ve always loved herons, and I’ve really played with them here. The Bird Feeder Series is about how a garden naturally feeds birds with the flowers within it. I’ve always understood that a garden isn’t all about people. It’s about every one who uses it. Particularly the birds. There are 11 new large quilts that I am so proud of. See if you can find them.

So it seemed time to freshen up my web site. I’m not hopeless with tech, but wordpress has pretty much kicked me around the room in an effort on my part to understand what’s under the hood. I’ve been so frustrated with showing off quilts easily and well. And people have told me they couldn’t find them easily. I think this time we have it licked. I put in a new theme and spent a week making sure all the links clicked through.

So, I ask you if you would please visit the new portfolio section of my page, and let me know if it works for you. It should lead you to a gallery of quilts, where you can click on any of them and get the information page. Hopefully it will be much easier for you to see all the quilts, without having to hunt for them through the blogs.

And there are some great new quilts to see.

In celebration of that, I’m putting the quilts on 20% off sale. If you click through the Etsy button you’ll find the sale price. If you are a quilt owner, and you would like to trade up a quilt you own for a different piece, let me know. You always have trade up rights.

Please let me know if this site works better for you. Thanks!

Ellen

Made by Accident: An Approach to Organic Design

| ellenanneeddy

Some people spend a lot of time designing their art. They sketch. They plan. They build models. I’m so impressed. They can even tell you what it means.

I wish I could do that. I just can’t. It seems all of my art comes from random things, started but not finished, that I found later and made or put more random things on them. It sounds like a dreadfully chaotic way to make art. It is. It’s hellish for commissions. But it’s how I am. And if you want me to tell you what it’s about, you’ll need to wait several years until I get that straightened out. I am not in control of my art. All I can do is attend to it regularly, and do what it demands.

What is central to the process is the time stuff sticks around, on a photo wall before I commit to the next step. Is it right? Does it need to move three inches left? I’ve ruined many pieces by bulling through and finishing them without taking time to really look at them first.

I’m not helpless about this. And I’m not unskilled. It’s just the way it is. I suspect I’m not alone.

Art is a living thing, and a piece of art will tell you what it wants. And in the end, you didn’t so much make it as assist in it’s birth.

I laid out the background for this almost a year ago. Decided it needed white flowers on a pond edge. Didn’t know what else it needed. Lost it. Found it again. Lost it once more and then it resurfaced in the last cleaning. Somewhere in there I’d drawn a swimming frog in a batch of frogs. He didn’t get embroidered with the other batch, and I found him and thought, I really ought to finish him but I didn’t have a place to put him.

Then the piece of fabric surfaced. So I embroidered the frog, put in some water and rocks and a moon. Looked at it a while. HATED the moon. That almost never happens. But it just didn’t work.

When I was embroidering a batch of bugs and did three luna moths. One left over one just fluttered on to my quilt where the unfortunate moon was. White flowers and more water later it was done.

Did it take me two weeks? Or the two years to have the pieces fall together? Even I don’t know. I do know that fallow part of the process where you just stare at it, or lose it, or find it in a pile is an important part of the process, not to be missed or dissed.

I don’t know how to teach this kind of design. I can only show it in process. But I believe in it. I believe art grows like life, randomly, without sense, half by purpose but largely by accident, as it is. I can only stand back and watch.

Holiday Sale! Every Quilt on Sale Now!

| ellenanneeddy

You’ll find quilts in the store. Click through to the Etsy link and your 20 percent discount is on the listings.

These delightful little works go for under $100!

Or go directly to my Etsy Store.

Need it gift wrapped? We can do that!

Worried about getting someone the wrong quilt? I always exchange quilts for owners who want to trade up, or new owners who would like to make a different selection. Just let me know.

Dog Prep: The Instantly Changeable Dog Bed

| ellenanneeddy


We’re excitedly waiting to adopt Chloe!  For those of you who bought quilts, we did it!. We think we’ve reached our goal. Not only do we have adoption fees coming, all three cats and Lotus need their shots updated. We’re hoping for our application to clear soon. If you bought a quilt, Thank you! It’s making this possible.

Cara

For fun,  and as a thank you, I thought I’d share my favorite dog bed recipe. I developed these after living with Cara, who was a magnificent greyhound with a small problem. As she got older, she started waking up wet.  We needed to be able to change her bed at a moment’s notice. This was the answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instantly Changeable Dog Bed

I use 

  • 1/2  of a four inch deep slab of foam from Joann’s
  • 2  plastic leaf size garbage bags
  • duct tape

 

Put the slab of foam into the black plastic bag. If it’s not big enough, put the slab in from the other side. Seal it with duct tape.

Baby crib sheet

You can purchase a baby sheet. But they’re easy to make.

To make a baby crib sheet you’ll need a

  • Serger
  • 1 7/8ths yard of soft cotton fabric 45: wide
  • 1 pk of 3/8″ elastic

Cut a 9″ square out of each corner of the fabric. Sew the diagonal corners together. Apply gathered elastic around the edge.  

Basic RGB

For extra comfort add

  • a baby pad for moisture protection
  • An old quilt

Lotus loves her beds. But she’s not the only one. Lewis truly believes they’re just for him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ll be leaving up the sale quilts for a week or so and will add a few more pieces as I clean the studio out more.  Check on the Quilts for Sale and Small Quilts for sale page for some amazing quilt bargains or check the Etsy shop.

If you’ve already purchased a quilt, thank you so much! It’s making our dream for a new dog come true!

Off the Grid: Experimenting Because You Can

| ellenanneeddy

9026-28 Artifacts, Dragonfly 2

It’s felt very odd not to be teaching on the road. My health has not permitted it, my husband has not encouraged it, and the demand is mostly gone. For a long while, I think my body decided it was a good time to sleep.

So the drive to create went on vacation until I was able to get out of bed. And the physical strength to work on large tapestries will have to be built up again. It’s a physical activity. It takes muscle.

So I’ve taken to playing with little things. I’m working on a project with Irish crochet in yarn. I’ll show you that later.

I’ve also been playing with oil stick rubbing.

 

866 Arabesque Rose

I know. I know. It’s not in vogue anymore. And it’s stinky. I know. I still think the look is amazing. I’ve been trying to incorporate it into quilts and have loved the look of it. It’s something structured in my very non-structured head.

I did a curtain of nothing but scraps of oil rubbed fabric. Then I started to think about what a small work would look like if that were the start.

 

 

 

 

920 Artifacts: Dragonfly 4

I stitched them with metallic thread to give them sparkle. They were beautiful but subtle. I don’t ordinarily do subtle.

So I added some neat brass findings, silk roses and novelty yarn. They were still subtle.

I worried about that for about three minutes and decided subtle might not be a bad thing.

919-18 Butterfly 2

So here they are. I’ve called the Artifacts, because I see them as found work rather than original embroidery. They’re sort of a collage in oil rubbing and stitching.

So let me know. What do you think? Every time you start an experiment, you have no idea where it might go.

These quilts are on sale in my etsy shop.

Quilts, Housecleaning, and Puppies

| ellenanneeddy

2017 was not a productive year for art. I finished and published my book, Sight Unseen. I published Don’s book With Patience Wait. But most of the year I spent on my back with two knees so bad I couldn’t walk without damaging my feet.

I’m personally aware and in a relationship with every crack in the ceiling. That’s ok. This last November, I got my first new knee. I’m up and rolling with my walker and sometimes just on a cane. It’s a brave new world, but what I’m most thankful for is to be able to do the small necessities. Dinner. Laundry. To be able to pick up something on the floor. To be in more than one room in a day.

DSC00037During that time we lost our greyhound Zeke. Zeke was a lovely silly boy, who had epilepsy. His illness finally became medically unmanageable.

lotusWe miss him. Horribly. But Lotus, our remaining greyhound,  is a mess. Greys are used to being in a pack. She has her kitties, but we know she’s still grieving Zeke and wishes one of us would put on a greyhound suit and run with her.

So, after all that medical stuff and all those medical bills, we’re looking for a greyhound girl to add to our pack.

DSC02675We think we’ve found one. We found a beautiful fawn named Champaign. She’s three years old, and clearly taken to Don, although she liked me too.

DSC02653.JPG

Of course, we need to get everyone at home up to code. So we’re looking at the vet bill from hell.

719 Lady Mantis
719 Lady Mantis

In the middle of this, I’ve been looking at the quilts I’ve horded for the last 30 years. I’ve always sold my work, but I kept certain quilts back. I have two huge suitcases full of quilts that should really be enjoyed on someone’s walls.

They tell me the essence of cleaning is to get rid of things you aren’t using. You can’t say you’re using quilts in a suitcase unless you’re taking the suitcase somewhere regularly. Which I am currently not doing.

So for the next little while, I’m putting a number of works on sale. Most of them work out to half the asking price on them. I’m doing it because I do need the money and the quilts deserve better than life in a box.

If you’ve ever wanted a quilt of mine this is a very good time to buy one. You’ll find Lady Mantis at my etsy shop and on my web page you’ll find a listing of quilts for sale under the embroidered tapestry tab at the top of my site. Click on the quilts for sale tab and you’ll find the quilts. Or you can check my Etsy store to purchase quilts directly. Any problems or questions, email me.