Winged Messengers Part 2: Recognizing Styles

In my post about Quilt National, I mentioned how some quilter's work is especially recognizable. Do you recognize who did these pieces?

Elin Waterston of course! You can always pick out her fun, simplified style. Elin also tends to use blocks of different fabrics in her pieces.

Look at Elin's website, and you'll see what I mean.

www.elinwaterston.com

You probably have seen her works in any number of magazines such as Quilting Arts and Cloth, Paper, Scissors. Other sources include publications with Jane D'Avila The Art Quilt Workbook, Art Quilts at Play, and the DVD Elin Waterston and Jane D'Avila teach you Art Quilting Basics, among others.

Here, the little blue birds at Aullwood on the neutral ground is called "Strange Birds, Winter."

This piece, which I apologize for the unevenness (being short is sometimes a challenge) as the piece is actually square, is called Reflecting 2.

Elin uses printing processes and mixed media (often using paper) to achieve her work. Notice how in this piece, and in Strange Birds using a variety of neutrals in the background with different textures gives the piece movement and interest.

I love this one Elin did called Return 2. I wondered if this was one of the pieces which came out of the "Raven" challenge. Elin painted this bird rather than printed it. Elin noted in the label that she gravitates toward deeply saturated, or bright colors and is influenced by folk art.

Elin taught herself how to sew as a child and went on to study costume design in college and graduate school. Perhaps her experience in making costumes and masks is what brings her to incorporate non-traditional materials such as paper, and utilizing whatever media works to make a stronger composition, whether raw-edge piecing, printing, photographic transfers, or whatever happens to strike her fancy.