The Fabric Collage Finish Line: More Quilts from Online Submissions

Help! I’m running out of Finish Line quilts! I have a few left in the inbox, but not enough for a whole blog post, so if you have a quilt you’ve finished using my fabric collage technique, use the link below to submit your quilt.

Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"

It doesn’t matter how you learned fabric collage. As you’ll see in the post below, some folks take a class with me, some use my book Serendipity Quilts, some use the Fabric Collage Master Class (as did Pat Beaudoin in the sun portrait above), and some use a combination of these. I am equally proud of the quilts no matter how they started out. Thank you to all who have shared their finished quilts.

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Sandi Schrader

Sandi Schrader started this quilt in my June 2018 Harpswell Quilt Retreat. As you can see from the in-progress shots below, however, much this quilt was completed after class. There’s a real soulfulness in the eyes of her fur-babies.

From Sandi:

This is our all black German Shepherd and our buff Cocker Spaniel. The shepherd is quilted with straight lines, the cocker with curly quilting. The cocker is a bird dog who protects us well from robins, crows and airplanes. There is a blue bird in his upper ear on the left side. I loved the collage process.

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Tala Lindaro

Tala Lindaro has a unique style all her own. The fabric collage interpretation of her “cartoons,” as she calls them, are full of life and humor.

From Tala:

In the past I had played a bit with fabric creating fun faces, but felt I could use some hints and tricks. I was searching on line when I came across Susan’s Online Master Class Manual. It only took about 2 minutes to decide to purchase it, and I was on my way.

I have always been fascinated with faces. Never felt drawn much to photography, and found drawing a realistic face daunting. Pair that up with being addicted to doodling and before I new it I had multiple numbers of cartoonish faces. Some interesting, many hilarious. Jumping into fabric to do the same seemed the natural next step. I’ve included here a copy of my “cartoons” as well as my fabric interpretation.

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Pat Beaudoin

I recently met Pat, who is from Dundas, Ontario, Canada, at my Harpswell quilt retreat this October (the workshop she refers to), where she started work on a lioness. You can see the beginnings of her lion in this blog post. Her use of the Fabric Collage Master Class Manual before coming to class, gave her a very good grasp of the fabric collage process. I was quite impressed with what she had done on her own, which includes this sun face, which she shared in her meticulous in-progress shots below.

I am following Susan’s Fabric Collage Master Class and am lucky to be going to her fall workshop in Maine this year. I did the practice spiral and wanted to try another pattern. I chose Susan’s pattern, Sol.

About the time I was finishing the quilt our golf group started promoting the member-guest. The theme was Under the Tuscan Sun. When I showed them my almost done quilt and offered it for a prize, they jumped at the chance and the member who won was very excited to get it as she was leaving for Tuscany the next day.

I loved doing this so much I have moved on to a live subject—a friend’s dog. Hopefully that will be ready for the Finish Line soon.

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Anita Liberman-Lampear

I met Anita Liberman-Lampear, from Ann Arbor Michigan, on my first visit to AQT—Art Quilt Tahoe, in 2016. In that class she began a portrait quilt of that famous scene from “I Love Lucy” with Lucy stomping grapes. Apparently, Anita really likes to challenge herself. After that difficult subject she chose one of her granddaughter that provided its own challenges, as she explains:

I had already done a collage quilt, Lucy!, that was made in Sue’s class at Art Quilt Tahoe. I really wanted to create another of my then 16 month old granddaughter from a picture I took of her. I decided I could create this on my own using the techniques and lessons from Sue and a few of my quilting friends.

This photo has always been one of my favorite pictures of my granddaughter (now 3 years old). I knew I could do it. I got stuck on the eyes and the perspective of the slide. But got some great advice from AQT friends and a local fabric store friend. I learned a lot from this on what to include and what I didn’t have to include and I still need practice on eyes but after 5 tries, I think I did ok. Lessons learned: Faces are hard… practice; Perspective is not always obvious… ask for help; Don’t get bogged down; and finally, sacrifice beauty for beauty (thanks Kathy from Ann Arbor Sewing).

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Jenny Satterthwait

 

Jenny Satterthwait was in my Kalispell class this year at the Quilt Gallery. She came over from her home in Idaho. I love when quilts have a good backstory, and Jenny has an interesting one to accompany her quilt.

I had been doing fusible collage quilts and a friend suggested that I look at Susan Carlson’s method. I started reading all the blogs and bought Serendipity Quilts. In September 2018, I tried to sign up for a class in Montana to be held in June of 2019 but it was already full. Long story short, I ended up getting into the Montana class because of a cancelation AND decided to also go to an upcoming class at Lake Tahoe in November that I had signed up for when I thought I couldn’t take the Montana class. This is the quilt that I started in June in Montana.

I love this technique and I loved taking the class from Susan. The hours seem to fly while I am immersed in a project. While on a trip to Africa in March of 2014, we stopped on the top of a hill with this majestic Cape Buffalo and several of his friends for company. The reason for our stop was to toast a dear friend of the friends we were with who had loved and died in Kenya. We didn’t know him but we could feel his love for Africa and the animals that lived there. Within this quilt, I have hidden several animals (as well as a bottle of whisky), one animal is just for Susan.

For the drive back home, Jenny loaded up the piece in the back of her convertible. I hope she put the top down!

Be sure to check out the creatures she snuck into the piece highlighted in these detail shots. I think I know which creature was just for me. (Hint: it’s the non-African one.)

And the tree that Jenny created for the sunset background is based on a design from a book by my friend and fellow fabric instructor, Gloria Loughman.

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Judith Wilton

While teaching in Perth at Handcrafters House, Judith Wilton (of Augusta, Western Australia) brought in the picture below as her inspiration. A resident of Australia, Judith took the picture herself.

The image was based upon a photograph of a leafy sea dragon washed up on the local beach in Augusta.

Having seen the colours of these amazing creatures in our state aquarium, I wanted to reflect a spectrum of colour in my dragon. The process of collage allowed my own creativity to be used within the defined structure of the dragon outline, with lots of fabrics. Great fun!

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Lianne Schellenberg

Lianne Schellenberg has done two quilts of her mother Dora. She also started another portrait of a relative in my class in Sisters, Oregon in 2018. She was quite successful working from only the book and handicapping herself by working in such a small scale. Smaller doesn’t equal easier, I tell my students and would have told Lianne then, but she learned this for herself as you will see below.

I purchased Susan’s first book “Free Style Quilts” in 2002. I was so excited about her technique I had to try it. I made this picture of my mother by studying the photos in her book and reading the text. I was so excited to see my mother appear, I did a jig. Needless to say, my image was way to small, but I still cherish it. I since have taken two classes with Susan at Sisters, Oregon.

 

The first quilt of my mother was a guild project using purple fabric. Purple was my mother’s favorite color, hence “When I’m an old woman I shall wear purple” was my theme. At the second class I took with Susan, we talked about my first attempt of creating my mother, and my desire to do another picture of my mom. I am glad I tried again!

This new picture of Dora is 23 1/2 X 29 1/2 inches. Needless to say, it was easier to work with!

The first class I took with Susan was in 2013. I was excited, but really nervous also. Susan is so calm and kind, she makes a person very comfortable. The quilt I did was of a clown my son drew. Susan helped me with color choices, depth and shading. She also helped me understand it was all about value, and flesh color could be any color a person wanted to use. She’s so talented!

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That’s it for this round of Finish Line quilts. Be sure to send in your finished fabric collage quilts for inclusion in a future post!

Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"