Fabric Collage Finish Line: Online Submissions 4

Here’s a lovely collection of fabric collage quilts from around the world. Their makers hail from Scotland and New Zealand, from East Coast and West Coast, USA—we live in a wonderful age when we can so easily share our passions. While these quilts are outstanding, each with unique details that I appreciate, I also find them representative of the quality I’ve come to expect from these Finish Line submissions, such as “BBQ Bob” by Leigh McMorrow, above.

I continue to be amazed and gratified at the work that’s being done. It pleases me to imagine people all around the world sitting in their studios, in their spare bedrooms, at their dining room tables creating fabric collage quilts. I feel like I had a small hand in setting this snowball rolling down the hill.

Each week I receive more submissions, so you can expect more of these posts in the near future. In the meantime, don’t forget you can submit your finished quilts using the button below. Thank you for sharing!

Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"

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Susan Bain

From Aberdeen, Scotland comes a quilt by Susan Bain. This small 12 x 12 inch quilt must have been a challenge to make—but that’s just it, it was part of a group challenge. Usually I encourage my students to work big—there’s more room to play with the fabric—so I’m very impressed with the detail that Susan achieved in this miniature collage.

Susan worried me when she referred to fabric collage as similar to fitting together a jigsaw in her statement. In fabric collage as I teach it, adjacent pieces of fabric layer one atop another. Butting edges like in a jigsaw puzzle, would be much more work than necessary and likely to part and reveal the foundation fabric somewhere down the road.

But, when I saw the detail photo below that Susan sent along, she worked exactly how I would have had her do it. Each section of that shell is created with a variety of small (in her case very small), overlapping pieces of fabrics. The red shell is very interesting because of that attention to detail. Very nice.

From Susan:

After following your blog and purchasing your Serendipity Quilts book I was eager to try out your collage technique. I don’t have a lot of time to quilt but my quilting group were taking part in an exhibition for the first time in March 2019, our theme was “The Sea” and quilts were to be 12” square. This was the push I needed!

I so enjoyed the collage process, it was just like doing a jigsaw! However next time I might try and work on a bigger scale, those little pieces were a tad fiddly, but then again working on a small scale means I’m more likely to finish the quilt! Originally I was going to place the turtle on either a collaged background (too fussy), or a light neutral background (too insipid) but finally decided on the black/grey batik which I thought was more dramatic. Thank you for your inspiration.

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Anita Duke

I have to wonder if Anita Duke of Greenville, SC, is an accomplished artist in another medium, such as painting. Her mastery of value to create shape and depth are outstanding in this piece. Landscapes can be difficult in fabric collage, so I don’t often recommend them as subjects for my students—at least not as beginning subjects. Anita succeeds admirably. Her use of contrasting threads in the quilting adds to the sense of motion and direction in the water. Anita says she would love to take a class with me and I would love to have her, though I think she has water and rocks covered.

From Anita:

I had purchased your book “Free-Style Quilts” many years ago and then left it on the shelf. But when my fiber group went to a traveling quilt show and I saw your “Polka Dodo” in person, I knew that was something I had to try. I pulled out the old book and tried the fish, then I bought “Serendipity Quilts” and did the sun, and then I found all the wonderful videos that were on YouTube…and I was off!

While I have done several collage animal quilts, landscapes are my favorite. This quilt is of a prominent rapid on the Chattanooga River in South Carolina where a short hike allows you the watch the rafts and kayaks “run the sluice”. It was only possible to create this because of my collection of Stonehenge fabrics from Northcott. It was challenging figuring out how to create the shadows and highlights to give dimension. Creating the illusion of water moving was another issue. While you would expect it to have a background of trees and sky, I cropped it intentionally, because I did not want the color green to distract from the blues and browns (my favorite colors). I love the collage process and results and dream of being able to take one of your classes someday.

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Leigh McMorrow

Leigh McMorrow’s frog above could hardly be more different than the subject she chose for her class with me in June 2019. See her rusty old car by clicking on the class link. She managed to imbue the old car with character and this frog has plenty of personality himself. Here in Maine we love our little tree-frogs called “spring peepers.” My sister had one that would hang out near her front door handle. I enjoyed reading Leigh’s story of “BBQ Bob,” another delightfully curious little peeper.

A reminder to click on any of these photos to see them larger.

From Leigh:

I purchased the book Serendipity Quilts, I have also purchased the master class and made the spiral Susan suggests. I then took her class in Harpswell this past June.

This quilt is of a tiny little tree frog that used to sit on a hurricane bolt attached to our house. He would come out and watch whenever my husband would BBQ. I really love fabric collage because you don’t have to “stay in the lines”. It allows me more freedom artistically.

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Gretchen Brooks

Gretchen Brooks 0f Gainesville, Florida says she has always been interested in owls. That’s a really good place to start when faced with the decision of what subject to choose for a fabric collage quilt. It’s helpful to go with something that is intrinsically interesting to you. Fabric collage is not a fast process, so a subject that is near and dear to you is more likely to hold your attention during the time it takes to create your image.

I love that Gretchen says she just dove in and created the image—obviously she was ready to go and the Muse was with her. She mentions that the background gave her some issues, but she certainly solved them. I especially like how there’s so much movement in the background, and how it contrasts with the stillness of the owl, moon, and branch—calmness and concentration amid chaos.

I have not been able to attend a class with Susan, but have followed her newsletter and blog posts, and watched her amazing videos for years. I bought her book, Serendipity Quilts, and with help from the videos, I dived in and constructed my owl quilt.

 

I loved this way of doing collage (my previous experience had always used fusing). I have since used her collage technique to add elements onto pieced quilts.

 

I have always been fascinated with owls and live in an area where I hear their frequent calls. I used an internet copyright-free photograph as my image source. At first I had difficulty with the gluing process, but soon got the hang of it. My favorite part of this type of collage is the flexibility of changing out fabrics before making a final decision. For me, the most difficult part was constructing the background. I used several sheer and sparkly fabrics to achieve the effect I wanted.

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Carol Fagan

Carol Fagan, from Te Kuiti, New Zealand, used the Fabric Collage Master Class Manual to create her lizard-shaped quilt. She used a light colored citrus patterned challenge fabric for the tuatara’s skin—collaging the slices of fruit and grouping the soft colors to create a cohesive lizard body. I like the contrast of those pale colors to the boldness of the other prints she used to indicate his form, contour, and texture. Congratulations on Carol’s well deserved award!

From Carol:

Tuatara Tropicana was my entry into the 2019 NZ Hoffman Challenge. This challenge requires the quilt to be less than 36 inches square, not square or rectangular, and to use an appreciable amount of the challenge fabric. I was fortunate enough to be awarded the 2019 Contemporary Quilt award.

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Cathy Laws

Cathy Laws of Tucson, AZ, made this lovely quilt for a friend. Cathy did a great job creating the fur. Also, she dealt very successfully with the foreshortening of the paws and legs—always a challenge. This may be Cathy’s first submission to a Finish Line post, but from what she says, it’s far from her first fabric collage quilt. It just goes to show that the more you work with this collage process, the more you learn and the better you get. I haven’t seen the results of Cathy’s other collages (send them in!) but she got a perfect likeness of Ponchie—and it’s one lucky friend who received the portrait.

From Cathy:

In 2018 I found Susan’s book, Serendipity Quilts. I decided to go through all the lessons in the book to learn the art collage method. I started making all the projects and I follow the blog posts and learn from all the great art quilts shown there. I tried two pet portraits, too.

This quilt was made for a friend. I asked her for a picture of her favorite cat. This cat is Ponchie and has been gone for many years. She says it looks just like him so I am satisfied with the result..

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Maia Fischler

Maia Fischler of Corvallis, OR, sent this quilt of her cat. I love the story behind the quilt, which must have been a great help in deciding on the background. Backgrounds can be deceivingly tough and are where many people bog down in their quilts. The background in Maia’s case helps tell the story of her beloved Diego.

I also like Maia’s color choices for this collage. Diego is created with “cool” colors of reds and purples (as opposed to “warm” colors that would lean toward oranges and yellows). In addition, she also chose cool yellow-greens for the moon and the moonlit ferns. Combined, there’s no doubt that this is a nighttime scene, and that Diego is pushing his curfew.

My first exposure to Susan’s techniques was through her early book Free-Style Quilts, which I still use frequently for inspiration. I’ve also dog-eared Serendipity Quilts and am a devoted blog follower.

This quilt is a memorial to a great cat. It’s set in our backyard on a moonlit night, and he’s giving the look he always did when I tried to call him in on such a night. “Really? Do you realize how gorgeous it is out here? And you want me to come in just so I don’t risk tangling with a coyote? Priorities, woman!”

I used Susan’s gluing style with a black mesh overlay, because I wanted to add shadows and darkness. The next time I make a quilt, I’ll try to use more of the organic shapes in the fabric, as she teaches. I am inspired every week by the artwork of Susan’s students. Thank you all for sharing your work!