Portland, Maine Advanced Students Share Their Favorite Fabric Collage Tips

It’s a nice change of pace to teach my advanced-student class. Once a year I invite students who have taken multiple classes with me to bring existing or new projects to work on while I give them feedback and coaching. I skip the morning presentations since they have all heard the information before. Instead I mostly just go from one to the next, answering questions on their specific quilts or just telling them what I see and suggesting what I might do. You could call it independent study.

This past week I had nine students in my advanced class at the Portland-Old Port Hyatt Hotel. There was much laughter and catching up among those who had taken previous classes together. Pictured above: (back row) Brigitte Schoen, Cynthia Chaddick, Eileen Doherty, Joanne Schwartz; (front row) Chris Stern, Joanne Hannon Shaw, Darlene Determan, Kaye Burns, me, and Laurie Levesque.

Since my advanced students have so much collective experience under their belts, I thought I’d hand over the blog post to them. Rather than making them write the blog, I (and Tom) pointed a camera at them and let them tell us what they like about fabric collage and what hints, tips, or tricks they have picked up in class. From a favorite tool to a way of gluing that makes all the difference, they all seem to have one or more tidbits to share.

I have another Portland retreat coming up immediately next week (for all-level students), so in a couple weeks I’ll cover both retreats together in one post with pictures of in-progress work, classroom shots, and Portland, Maine scenic photos. In the meantime, enjoy the wisdom of those who practice fabric collage.

Kaye Burns

Kaye makes the most of my time with her by jotting notes on Post-Its, which she uses to remind herself of what she needs to do next. She also writes her own thoughts down to make sure she remembers to address them with me later. Kaye likes to use tweezers to handle teeny-tiny pieces of fabric. In the video she demonstrates how she uses them. (I have included tweezers like she uses on my Fabric Collage Toolkit Page, with links to it and other items.)

You may have seen Kaye’s amazing work in previous On the Road and Finish Line blog posts.

Cynthia Chaddick

Cynthia notes how this technique of fabric collage has allowed her to work quickly and to easily make changes by removing pieces of fabric. She also reflects on how, despite having taken numerous classes, she continues to learn from each experience.

You can see more of Cynthia’s work in previous blog posts here.

Darlene Determan

Glue is integral to the process of fabric collage. I and most of my student use Aleene’s Tacky Glue (the Original Formula). I’ve always used the simple white-tipped plastic bottle. You cut the tip off and go to town. As Darlene tells you below, she prefers the new-fangled version of the bottle—same old Tacky Glue in a new package. (You can buy Aleene’s Tacky Glue through my Fabric Collage Toolkit page.)

Eileen Doherty

In this video Eileen shares a way to glue that gets all those pesky pins out of the way, but doesn’t cover up the drawing underneath that you will likely need to refer to later.

Eileen began work on her gorilla family in my April 2018 Portland class.

Joanne Hannon Shaw

Long-time student Joanne introduced me to the “Purple Thang,” a plastic crafts tool that she discovered works great for fabric collage.  In her video, she demonstrates the various uses she has discovered for this tool, such as lifting, pressing, and gluing. This is a real upgrade from a wooden coffee-stirrer. (Available through my Fabric Collage Toolkit page.)

See some of Joanne’s other in-progress work in previous blog posts.

Brigitte Schoen

Sometimes you need to take step back and literally get a new perspective on your piece. Viewing a smaller version of your in-progress quilt can help you to see where your problem resides. Brigitte shows how you can use an electronic device to gain the perspective you need.

Brigitte attended two classes in 2017.

Joanne Schwartz

Backgrounds, backgrounds, backgrounds—they can stump the best of us. Joanne talks about the fabric-collaged background on her cat portrait.

Joanne took a class in April 2018.

Chris Stern

Chris reminds us to respect the copyright of other people’s images by telling us the story of how she got permission to use the bear and salmon image she’s basing her quilt on.

Chris’s work been featured in both an On the Road blog post and a Finish Line post. Read more information about the use of copyrighted images in these past blog posts of mine: Copyright and Copywrong and a Copyright Follow-Up.