Ellen Anne Eddy's Thread Magic Studio: flowers

Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Practical Thread Magic: Building Beautiful Color

2:23 PM |

Posted by Ellen Anne Eddy |

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Most of the time when we think of mixing colors, we think of two colors becoming one.
Working with thread is so different. The machine work lays one line of thread next to each other. Our eyes mix the colors together, but they stay separate, clean, clear and beautiful.

This tulip has ten colors in it.
Why so many? Because real tulips have multiple streaks of red, orange and yellow. That large range of colors lets me shade from side to side, giving my flower real depth and detail.
Here are some of the process shots.

One layer of zigzag stitching after another builds us to a flower with dimension and full color range.

http://www.ellenanneeddy.com/store-detail.php?cat=1&ID=1

Want learn more about building flower colors in thread?

Thread Magic Garden has a whole chapter on color theory for flowers. Why?
Flowers ARE color. It's what it's all about.

Thread Magic Garden is available for sale now on Ellen's web page at www.ellenanneeddy.com

Labels: art quilters, art quilting, C and T Publishing, fiber art, flowers, Thread Magic Garden, zigzag stitch |

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Friday, December 30, 2011

Thread Magic Garden Is Ready for Pre-order!

11:32 AM |

Posted by Ellen Anne Eddy |

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Thread Magic Garden will be arriving for shipment around January 20th. You can pre-order your copy today!

You never really know what a project will take until you see it done. Perhaps that's good. A good dream well done should take your whole heart's effort and give you your heart back in return.

When I started this book, I had no idea it would take 2 years to finish. Part of that is that I had to learn so much to do this book. Part of that is the meticulous process C&T puts into every book. I got my premier copy a week ago.I'm still scraping myself off the ceiling. It's past my expectations. I'm hoping you'll feel that way too.

When I started this book, I wanted to continue what I'd accomplished with Thread Magic. I wanted to show folk ways of adding wild free motion to quilts that set things hearts and imaginations on fire. I wanted to set up instructions that would take you through your own process with this. You'll have to let me know how I've done when you read the book.

But for those of you who've known me in class or in print, you know I don't give recipes for cakes that don't rise. I tell you everything I know. I also don't do anything really hard. I just do things that are time consuming and compulsive.

So here is what we have.

Fifty eye popping new quilts in the gallery
A patternless approach to design
Intuitive applique that makes creating flowers easy and fun

Tutorials in

Color theory for flowers
Corded buttonhole binding
Angelina Fiber
6 Free motion zigzag stitches
Machine Beading
Globbing
Sandwich stabilizing

I'm hoping I've done a good job of opening doors, traveling a new path, leaving good bread crumbs for anyone who wants to follow, and breaking the best rules I could find to break. See you on the trail.

You can pre-order your copy of Thread Magic Garden at

www.ellenanneeddy.com

Labels: books, C and T Publishing, embroidery, fiber art, flowers, free motion, gardening, life as an artist, Thread Magic Garden, threads, zigzag stitch |

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

No More Color Police:Creating Flower Colors

10:08 AM |

Posted by Ellen Anne Eddy |

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"Roses are red. violets are blue. Angels in heaven know I love you." Down in the valley

What color is a flower, actually?

In spite of everything your kindergarten teacher told you, it's not a simple answer. If she made you color all your roses red, give me her name and I'll go have a little chat with her. Or better still, you might want to tell her that she can't live in your head anymore without paying rent.

That's not a white tulip. Nor is it really red or yellow. It's a wonderful swirl of a number of great colors. Leaving any of that out is a loss. But how do you do it in fiber?

We have two great tools. Well, we probably have hundreds but these help with this.Hand dyed fabric has all those great streaks. It's a great way to start a flower.

Machine embroidery also speeds us on our way.The wonderful thing about stitching flowers is that thread really is minutia. We can slip in that dash of green, that edge of orange or purple that flowers either do have or should.
When Mark Lipinski asked me how important color was on his show this week and why I put so much emphasis on it, I almost fell of my chair. Color IS the media. We see everything through the color and the texture. You can here that conversation on Mark's Creative Mojo show, December 14th.