The Fabric Collage Finish Line: More Quilts from Online Submissions 2

For those who don’t know, Finish Line quilts are fabric collage quilts that students have either started in one of my classes and finished on their own or ones they started and finished independently using my book Serendipity Quilts, the blog, or the Fabric Collage Master Class Manual as their resource. If you have a quilt of your own to share, please use the button below to submit your quilt.

Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"

My recent request for readers to send in their Finish Line quilts received a huge response—it’ll take me weeks worth of posts to show them all to you. I expect to post another Finish Line next Saturday, then follow up with a couple On the Road Teaching posts, having just returned from classes at both Art Quilt Tahoe in Nevada, and Woodland Ridge Retreat in Wisconsin.

For simplicity’s sake, I’ve decided to simply post the new Finish Line quilt submissions in the order in which I received them—ending this week with the majestic moose by Joan Anderson you see in photo above. So if you submitted a Finish Line quilt and it’s not in this post, please be patient and know that I’ll be getting around to yours later in December.

Thanks to all my Finish Line quilters!

*   *   *

Sharon Waggy

My apologies to Sharon Waggy, a three-time student from Charleston, WV, for skipping over her blue-tiful, blue footed booby. She sent this in some time ago, but here it is at last! She started this quilt in my June 2016 Harpswell Maine Quilt Retreat.

By the end of the week’s retreat, Sharon was well on her way creating this handsome fellow. As with a previous quilt of her cat, she has a nice way of working with the prints in the fabrics—such as using a variety of curves, circles, and meandering lines to indicate the flow of feathers.

What Sharon finished outside of class, and what I particularly like, are Wedgewood’s blue feet. They have visual texture, you can see the bones, the grasping claws, and the webs between. Impressive enough to attract the lady-birds.

Take note of the simple yet effective background. The postmarked fabric reminds one of travel and far flung locations—the watery waved quilting lines reminiscent of the ocean. Together, they’re qualities of the Galapagos Islands, where these unique birds are found.

From Sharon:

I have always been fascinated by this wonderful bird since first learning about them in science class studying Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in grade school. I submitted the final quilt to our state juried exhibition with the title “Wedgewood the Blue-Footed Booby—Darwin’s Galápagos Islands Exhibition 1835” Officially identified by the state curator as the longest quilt title ever submitted, lol. I was honored to be awarded a 3rd place ribbon in the 2018 juried exhibition at the WV Cultural Center. The NQS certified judge included in the return comments “Your Booby makes me laugh!” These delightful birds usually elicit that reaction from visitors, so I was happy to have evidently captured that humorous essence.

And I was delighted when she sent in this picture of her cat, Cosette, who is the subject of her own colorful quilt that was featured in a previous Finish Line post. Looks like “Cosy” might have felt a little jealous of Wedgewood.

*   *   *

Cathy Smith

This is the second fabric collage quilt Cathy Smith has made using the Fabric Collage Master Class. Cathy is from Jimboomba, Queensland, Australia. Her first submission was “Fearsome Frilly”—a frilled-necked lizard of Australia—which can be seen in this Finish Line post. I am so grateful for the miracle of the internet that can send my instructions to enthusiastic quilters around the world. As much as I may like seeing new places, I can’t personally get everywhere.

From Cathy:

“Dance of the Brolgas “ is finally finished. 10 weeks of work! Brolgas are large Australian cranes, grey in colour with dark wingtips, with a great mating dance. I wanted my collage to capture the exuberance of the dance, so I added fabric bling to the birds. I was planning a collaged background, but when we tried them on this piece of fabric from my stash it was just right – the strong colours were perfect with the lighter brolgas.

Eyes were made separately and added on to heads, also made separately. When I looked at it from a distance, I discovered there was very little difference in value between the wingtips and the red-purple background. Several options were tried but I ended up outlining them with a couple of silver threads.

 

To portray the idea of dance, I added some wavy lines in sparkly tulle, and sequins glued to red tulle. Lastly, I came across the green sparkly lace type fabric—not what I would normally buy, but the perfect green. The background colours and the bling filled in the space that comes with long legged and long necked birds. I’m pretty happy with it now—ideas grew and changed as I made it.

This is such a magical piece and I loved reading Cathy’s thoughts throughout the collage process. The background is perfect—and she was absolutely correct filling in the empty background spaces with strands of sparkle. To me, the pair looks like they’re dancing at a festival of lights, his expansive wingtips haloed by a spot of light.

*   *   *

Pamela Kuck

Pamela Kuck from Shawano, WI, has some very kind things to say about the Fabric Collage Master Class Manual and especially the spiral exercise, the project with which I start people off. I can see the blending of colors she may have learned there in her parrot’s chest and belly. Nice work!

I have followed Susan Carlson since I started quilting five years ago. Started by reading her book Serendipity Quilts, and have avidly followed her blog posts through the years. Last spring I joined her Fabric Collage Master Class after trying unsuccessfully to get into several of her in-person classes. She’s popular but I have to say that her master class was wonderful! For a change, I decided to follow every suggestion, including doing the spiral exercise at the start which ended up being a game-changer for me. It allowed me to focus on color and design, melting one color into the next, without having to try to work on realism or lighting or any of the other qualities that come with replicating a photo or image. It was magic! I’d highly advise taking this online offering…what an opportunity to learn from a master!

Lullabye is my sister’s beloved pet. She sent me a photo and I decided to put what I learned from the master class to use in creating this birthday gift for her. All I had was one photo to go by, but tracing the parrot, enlarging it onto my backing fabric, and then beginning the job of “painting” it with fabric was so much fun. Happy to say I am finally in a class next summer with Susan — because there is always so much more to learn!

And I’m happy to hear that I’ll get to meet Pamela next summer. I’m starting to see the results of the Master Class Manual on students attending my classes, especially when they, like Pamela, start at the beginning (so many of us do like to jump ahead, don’t we?). The spiral exercise is at the beginning for a reason, and Pamela put her fingers right on it. From what she’s already learned, she’ll have a head-start in the “real” class, and will be able to absorb the personalized coaching I have to give her even better. See you then, Pamela.

*   *   *

Leslie Dickinson

Leslie Dickinson, from Port Townsend, WA, started this owl while in my Portland Maine Quilt Retreat in 2018. She has since taken another class and says she is “feeling a fraction more comfortable with collage.” She hopes to finish her second animal (her cat Bob) soon. I’ve been following her progress on that quilt on the private Facebook page for Patreon supporters, where she has shared pictures of the quilt in progress and received feedback from other users.

From Leslie:

Our local Raptor Rescue gets a number of injured raptors every year, working hard to help them recover and then release them close to where they were found. However, not all can be released due to the severity of the injury, they then become educational ambassadors. I chose to make Gandalf, a Great Horned Owl, as a benefit for the center and all proceeds will go to caring for these lovely birds. The Owl is collaged with all leaves, most of them are batiks, it was on a movable design wall for close to nine months and I finally decided it was time to finish him. Moving forward quickly after that, I cut him out and put a thin stabilizer under it, did a bit of thread painting, dyed the background fabric and attached him with Steam a Seam lite. Then I did a bit more thread painting and used a simple meandering stitch for the background.

Leslie does have a nice touch with fabric collage and has used her choice of fabrics to help tell Gandalf’s story. By using only leaf printed fabrics, she puts the owl in his forest environment. Leslie also has a love of thread painting and has added further textural details that threadwork. Gandalf must be special indeed to have inspired such lovely work from Leslie, in addition to the care from such rescue organizations.

*   *   *

Jane Kennedy

Jane Kennedy, from Hendersonville, NC, started this quilt very recently, while attending my October 2019 Harpswell, Maine Quilt Retreat. Here are some in-progress shots from that class:

Working in one color-way was no problem for Jane. Her pup’s portrait, seemed to steadily emerge from the line drawing on the foundation fabric. She used a photo taken in enough light to show the underlying form of her black Schipperke and was able to refer to it as a guide for the light/dark value placement of the fabrics. Curly-cues and frilly curves of the blue prints (note the cute little nostril flares) add a loving fancifulness, words stitched into the background add to Ginger’s story.

From Jane:

Ginger was my dog who passed away in 2018. She was an all black dog and using all blue fabrics interpreted the black color well. I really enjoyed learning this process with Susan. She is a very good teacher, and I can’t wait to start another one!

*   *   *

Denise Withrow

Denise attended my MISA (Madeline Island School for the Arts) Tanque Verde, Tucson class in 2017, where she started this bobcat quilt.

The surrounding desert, Tanque Verde Ranch borders Saguaro National Park in Arizona, seemed a natural setting for this wild cat subject. The naturalistic direction and vision that Denise had in mind was not the easiest for a first collage subject. However it didn’t take long for me to see that Denise was going to do just fine. I mean, look at those eyes, nose, and paws. She was able to interpret what she saw into what she found in her fabrics. What a treat to see it all finished.

From Denise:

My sister took the photo of a bobcat who was watching something we can’t see. I was intrigued with her. What is her interest? Whatever it is, she doesn’t seem to want to hunt it. But she’s certainly interested.

*   *   *

Joan Anderson

Joan Anderson started a quilt of a bear in my June 2019 class at the Quilt Gallery in Kalispell, MT, and had “Mato” submitted for a Finish Line post a couple weeks later. I’d say she was inspired. And now she’s completed another impressive creature.

One thing I remember about Joan was that she almost gave up on her vision for the bear—he was to be bright and colorful, but beginning is tough, and he wasn’t cooperating. Before I knew it, she had a new pile of fabric in front of her, lovely printed batiks, in a range of brown values. We had a chat, and to see how Mato the bear turned out, click on the above link. But I can see that that pile of brown batiks has become part of this moose’s story, with a little bit of bear fabric included.

I look forward to see where Joan goes with the rest of her series. At the pace she’s going, I won’t have to wait long.

From Joan:

I was fortunate enough to take Susan’s class in Kalispell Mt , June of 2019. I learned so much about fabric value and design. So, when I returned home I finished my bear from class and decided to start a new project. I wanted to do a series of Yellowstone animals, so I choose a moose for my next art quilt. I wanted to make sure that I could still apply Susan’s teaching.

Yellowstone has always been an inspiration for me. I love the large animals of the northwest. I am now hooked on art collage quilting thanks to Susan.