As I work on this post, the Summer Solstice—Midsummer’s Day—the Longest Day of the Year (in the Northern Hemisphere), is passing outside. And here in my part of Maine, it’s kinda hard to believe that this cloudy, cool, and showery day is also the First Day of Summer. So inside my studio, I dream of all the summer projects I wish to attempt. If I start or finish them is another question to be determined later.
Summer is also about having fun and maybe even trying something new. And in this Finish Line post, I’ve collected quite a few finished quilt projects that sure look like people had fun with. These are quilts that began with one of the designs available on my website, begun by students either in a class or on their own.
Designs such as these, allow a quick start to the project, rather than rumination over a design. It eliminates any stress over what to make and gets straight to the fun of playing with fabric. The basics of fabric collage can be found by perusing the How To section of my blog, or within my Master Class Manual.
Just jump in, it’s summertime, a time to get your toes wet, or should I say fingers wet, with a bit of glue. At the very least enjoy the turtles, fish, butterflies, and geckos below, decked out in their summer colors. Thanks to all who shared their collage creatures in this post.
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Barbara Grant
I first met Barb Grant at an Empty Spools Seminar so many years ago that neither of us can remember exactly when. The closest we can get is 2011 with the golden turtle below (and detail above)—at least we believe it was begun in that class. 2011 was well before this blog was started, and I didn’t keep quite as good records. Barb and her husband Irv, have since become good friends of mine and Tom’s, so it was an auspicious meeting in any case.
Barb told me she picked “all the wrong fabrics” for this piece, but I don’t agree. Picking fabric can be daunting and you get better at it the longer you work with the process. You gotta start somewhere. Now, eight years later, she looks back and sees where she’d do things differently—she’s made progress in fabric collage. But that doesn’t mean that where you start is “wrong.”
Personally, I love this guy—the colors, the interesting fabrics and patterns to look at—and he’s got fantastic eyebrows.
Ruth Pollow
Ruth began her version of my sea turtle in May of 2017 on Mackinac Island in northern Michigan. “Serendipity Turtle” was one of two classes I taught there and everyone worked from my turtle pattern. This design gives students a good expanse of turtle shell to play with, using the colors and printed designs in their fabrics for low-stress practice in learning about shading and value.
Highlights on the shell can come from different directions, and determining where the light was coming from can help decide the selection of value. Ruth used a nice color gradation from bright yellow values to show strong highlights where the sun would hit, to green and then blue, progressing to the darker, shaded values of the shell.
Ruth wrote to me:
Attached is my finally finished turtle from your Mackinac Island Class. Totally enjoyed the class. It took a while for me to find the right background and then it needed something more so I added the seaweed. Thanks for your inspiration and tips.
She found out that often the backgrounds take longer than you think they should, but the struggles are worth it when you find the one that feels right to you. I thought that this one looks like he’s dancing on hot feet in warming oceans – or, less ominously, dancing a cha-cha in warmer latitudes. Looks like he has a story to tell though.
Irelle Beatie
Last year around this time, in June of 2018, I was teaching along the foggy mid-coast of California at Morro Bay for the Seven Sisters Quilt Show ladies. I was there for two classes, a 3-day turtle class and a 2-day fish/bug/butterfly class. Irelle Beatie was there for both classes as well.
Irelle moved right along with her colorful and pattern-full creations—she did a nice job working with the bold color and pattern, with the center of the turtle’s shell seemingly heaped with sea flora sea snails. She even got to the background selection phase.
At Empty Spools Seminars this year, just up the coast from Morro Bay, Irelle was one of the attendees who stopped by my classroom to show me her finished quilts. I liked the bit of sparkle she added to the cheek of her goldfish. Always so nice to see these finished pieces in person. Thanks for bringing them, Irelle.
Janice Hume
Janice traveled from Prince Edward Island in Canada to attend my Maine Quilting Retreat in Harpswell, Maine—May 2016, where she collaged a bright and lovely North Atlantic fish of the “Winged Butterfish” species.
Within a couple weeks after class, I received this email from her:
Hi Susan, I’m all finished!!! I am so pleased at how Frankie, my fish, turned out. I am not sure about my choice of tulle [as a top layer for quilting] as it seemed to dull the bright yellow/oranges and I like bright colours, but I was pleased about not having to sew along each edge! Thought you might like to see the finished product. Have a great summer!
And now, three years later at the beginning of another summer, when I asked her about posting Frankie:
I would be honoured if you show Frankie on your blog post. It was such fun going to your class and although I have only completed two more small fabric collages, I think it is one of my favourite ways to quilt.
And I do look forward to and read your Finish Line blog post. You’ve been to so many interesting places and it is great to see the works in progress and pictures of the places at which you teach. I would so enjoy attending any of your classes again but it’s just not in the cards for me at the moment.
Here on PEI it’s just beginning to warm up but we’re hoping for lots of sun and beach weather. Hope you have a great summer! —Janice
“Frankie the Fish” by Janice Hume
Stephanie Schneider
In September 2017, my first stop in a circuit of teaching for three guilds in Southern California (SoCal) was Flying Geese Quilters Guild in Irvine. I don’t often teach 2-day or 3-day classes such as these were, but it can be a nice change of pace. It’s also nice to be able to focus on the limited subject matter such as bugs or butterflies. Despite starting out with similar and even the same designs, it’s always fun to see how different each quilt turns out in the end. The results are deliciously varied and unique.
Stephanie’s butterfly had a great start with how she used the prints in her red-violet fabrics on the top wing—they look like they’re melting into one another. And what a great way to finish and hang an outdoor creature—on driftwood, photo below. (Hmmm, I have some driftwood collected….)
Hello Susan — I have completed and hung “Purple Butterfly” from the 2-day class in September. I’m so proud of it! I think I have found a technique that resonates with the ‘fabric fool’ in me. 🙂 He measures 40 x 26, and I think the binding goes very well with the style. I took a standard binding strip, attached fusible web to one edge and cut it irregularly, sewed it to the back and flipped it over to fuse the front (I imagine that glue would work as well.) I think it works very well with the style. I hope to see you again, and to learn more. Best—Stephanie Schneider
Sara Blythe
The Naples Quilters Guild of Naples, Florida, invited me to teach a class in February 2016—a perfect time of year to escape winter in Maine. Being four days long, students got a bit farther in their projects, especially those that were based on my designs such as Sara’s butterfly—the same pattern as Stephanie’s above—but in the end, both unique specimens of the Lepidoptera order.
Sara grouped and concentrated the colors on her butterfly, allowing the huge variety of prints she used to blend together, which created a cohesive whole. Otherwise it could have looked very scattered, potentially confusing the upper and lower wings. Beautiful job. But I think he metamorphosed into a moth when placed on his final background.
Hi Susan, I am sending you a photo of the butterfly quilt that I started during your great workshop last February in Naples, Florida. Getting ready to put on the hanging sleeve. Thanks again for your help and inspiration!! P.S.—I was lucky enough to find the perfect border fabric for my Nightwing butterfly, it’s actually a star map!
At my Summertime Quilt Retreat in Harpswell, Maine, June 2016, Gail Wilcox (below left), Karol Strang (right), and Nancy Robins (not pictured), showed off a group project they completed prior to the retreat with quilting friends in North Carolina. The fish is based on my lionfish pattern.
One of the women in the group enlarged the pattern, then cut it into pieces and distributed the pieces among the eight participants. The twist is, the other participants didn’t know that they were creating part of a fish. When the pieces were assembled, there were a few gaps to fill in, but otherwise they used the sections as is.
Wow! It turned out great! What a fun take on a round-robin quilt project. They then placed the pieced fish on a whole-cloth background and quilted it.
Sandi Cain
Another Maine Quilt retreat that preceded my blog was the one that Sandi Cain attended in June of 2015. It was a great class that bonded so very well and helped each other. Sandi progressed well with her fanciful gecko. And not only the gecko, but the background as well. She managed to create a loose and natural looking tree-like background using many non-tree-like colors. It’s all about the value, and it worked for her.
A very short time after the class ended, Sandi sent out a finished photo with the note:
I finished it!! Anyone else?
She got congratulations, but no other takers (at that time). Just now Sandi wrote me of her sense of accomplishment with that quilt:
The quilting went so smoothly after the tulle went on. I just wanted to show off what I had done to my friends and family. Believe me, those of us who have had little ones understand that each day never ends up accomplishing anything!!
Susan, I really enjoyed the retreat. I have done a few things since then and for me, it’s therapeutic.
Sally Evans
Sally has taken two or three classes with me in the New Hampshire/Maine area over a few years. In October 2016 it was in Portland, Maine for the Advanced Quilt Retreat. She usually has more than one quilt in the works at any given time, and brings along pieces that she has completed for show-and-tell, such as the New England Sea Turtle below. Click on these or any photos to see them larger.
After getting far enough along on her “Old Oak Landscape” (see it in this finish Line post), Sally chose a gecko pattern to finish up the October retreat.
This red fellow is not a big guy and he’s very intricate looking. Sally did a very nice job cutting designs from her fabrics and rearranging them to create the illusion of a sharp and scaly texture on a soft fabric collage. Another challenge completed.
A Fiery Gecko by Sally Evans
Marguerite Miller
Even before I met Marguerite in January of 2016 at Quilting in the Desert, in Phoenix, Arizona, she email me:
Dear Susan, I am enrolled in your class in January and I am very excited to begin. I plan on working on either your gecko or the turtle. I have both patterns and I have enlarged them. I didn’t enclose a picture for your approval because you already know what they look like [I loved that part]. I am looking forward to learning your layering/collage method.
I am enclosing a gecko I made from your small pattern using a fusing method. I know I can do better. I am looking forward to meeting you and working with you. Sincerely, Marguerite Miller
And there’s her fused gecko below. It’s cute but flat. She did do better in class, as you’ll see.
Susan, I learned about you from a friend and after viewing some of your patterns, I chose the Gecko pattern and had a great time selecting fabrics and gluing him together on a non stick surface. I auditioned several backgrounds and never could find the “right” one. When I heard you were going to do a workshop in Phoenix I jumped at the chance to be in one of your workshops. I enlarged the Gecko pattern and as you know the rest is history. I love it and am so pleased the way it turned out. Thank you for your kind words as I worked through learning the process.
The photos below show how far Marguerite got in class—quite far along considering this is a big gecko gal.
And then, Marguerite placed a little surprise gecko into the background as she was finishing it up for quilting.
I wanted to name the quilt “Mother and Child,” but then after we stopped laughing at that, I decided to call it “My Garden Geckos.” I won Judge’s Choice at the Sun City West Quilt Show in 2017. It was the first time I had ever entered a Quilt Show and I was very proud of my achievement. Thank you Susan, for your help and encouragement. 😎 —Marguerite Miller
Sheilah Capurro
Sheilah created a very cute portrait of her schnauzer Sherlock in my class at Art Quilt Tahoe in November 2016. Sherlock has recently been completed and you’ll be meeting him in an upcoming Finish Line post—but not this one—Sherlock was not one of my designs.
However, Sheilah’s gecko below is based on my pattern. She created it after class and was able to let go and have some fun with color and pattern in the fabric in a way she was not able to when she was creating the image of her pup. And as simple of a design as it is, she has imbibed it with a special story, in her own words, below.
My “Somewhere Over the Rainbow Gecko,” resplendent with glitter tulle on the head and feet, is one of many quilts I have crafted of the flora and fauna of Kauai, inspired by our annual trip to the Garden Isle. The Gecko is often regarded as a guardian spirit in Native Hawaiian Culture. Like little jewels of the island, it is a treasure hunt to find them at night with my grandsons.
Thanks, Susan, for all your inspiration on this technique, I enjoy it so much.
Maureen O’Hara Fox
And finally finishing up this blog post, is a Facebook post of a quilt by Maureen O’Hara Fox from the United Kingdom. According to the post, Maureen is 84 years old, new to the process, and this is her first collage quilt. Very cool.
These Yin-Yang Betta Fish are part of another set of patterns found in the back of my book, Serendipity Quilts. So if you already have the book, you can already get started on your own version of one of my collage quilt designs. As I say in the book, “Cut Loose and Let Go!”
If you’d like to share your finished collage quilt with others as they’ve shared with you, Tom has made it easy with the handy-dandy “press here button” below. Upcoming Finish Line themes include the “Dog Days of Summer 2019” and “Undersea Creatures”—among others yet to be determined.
Use this button to access our new submission form for “Finish Line” fabric collage quilts.
Wow! Beautiful work ladies! Even using one of Sue’s patterns, each turtle, fish and butterfly is so unique! Love the “personality” of every single one! And, so much fun to see all the interesting background, border and hanging options!!!
I am honored to be among such creative company. Your patterns make it available to anyone to attempt this fabulous medium. Trying to get Hub (Irv) to do a fish! After all, he loves to catch, release and eat fish! We will see!