Reflections on the Fabric Collage Sea Turtle eWorkshop

Current Events

When I finish a big project I feel it’s a good time to take a moment to reflect. While the experience is still fresh in my memory I think about what worked, what didn’t, what would I do differently. I take a moment to savor the feeling of accomplishment. This exercise amounts to a deep cleansing breath for my brain before I consider what to do next.

As I finish up crossing the T’s and dotting the i’s on my Fabric Collage: Sea Turtle eWorkshop  I’m finding it hard to get in the right mindset to reflect.

The corona virus is dominating our attention right now. For those of us who travel for their living and ask others to travel to attend our classes, it adds a layer of stress. Empty Spools Seminars in California, where I was scheduled to teach two consecutive sessions starting next week, cancelled both just three days ago. I was to be traveling today, with the bright side being a lot of extra room to myself on the flights. The decision to cancel, and none of us teachers ever take that lightly, was taken out of my hands. I was very thankful for that because as the week progressed, I had finally realized I’d need to cancel—for myself, for my family, and for my students. That reality was hard to accept, and will necessitate new ways of thinking and adapting.

And now a teaching schedule that had been set for a couple years is being looked at in a new light, with new decisions to be made for next month and two months later. With cancellations happening all around us, how long do we keep a wait-and-see attitude? What’s the new criteria?

So two mornings ago (it seems much longer than that), as Tom and I considered our plans for the next few weeks, we revisited a thought we had been considering for some time—providing teaching webinars as an addition to in-person classes. We had already even purchased the equipment we’d need. It had been a thought for the future, but the time has come. Using two-way video streaming we’re hoping to provide fabric collage classes as close to the in-class experience as we can, eliminating the risk of gathering people together. It’s already in the works and I’ll let you know how that endeavor progresses.

Above: Steps in the Fabric Collage: Sea Turtle eWorkshop. Clockwise from top left: Tracing pattern, piecing, quilting, background. Click on the images to see them larger.

Developing an eWorkshop

Now let me refocus back to the experience of creating this new eWorkshop, which has been occupying our time in a very positive way.

First of all, let me just say that it took far longer than we thought it would. We set aside a month, thinking that would be more than enough time. It would probably only take a couple weeks.

Well.

In the end we have spent three months producing this eWorkshop. Fortunately, I think the time has been worth it. Tom and I both think it’s the best work we’ve done together so far (except for possibly our son).

There are, I think, a couple reasons for why it took so long. First, we originally thought this Sea Turtle eWorkshop would be a Module, an add-on project based on the techniques presented in the Fabric Collage Master Class Manual. Instead, it took on a life of its own to become a stand-alone resource, teaching the fabric collage process as it relates to this project.

But also it took more time because we’ve gotten better at what we do. It seems to make sense that as you get better at something it should take less time to do it. What we found is that the more experienced we got, the more we knew what we could do and ought to do. So while we could do things relatively quickly, we always did more. We added more video, more examples, we broke the steps down even more precisely.

Above: Tom gets in tight for a closeup so you can see exactly what I’m doing.

Here’s how we put this Sea Turtle eWorkshop together. We shot video of each step in the process, meaning that I had to have a day or more just to get the sea turtle to the next step. In that time I was working, Tom edited the previous video, then took notes for the text portion of that step. Often we shot both beginning and ending videos for the same step—say, piecing the shell—explaining first what I was going to do, then in the next video explaining what I did. In some cases, we also shot time lapse videos of me working on the collage (sometimes joined by my cat Djinni). So that’s a total of three videos for some steps—beginning, in-progress, and ending.

The result is, we think, a clear, step-by-step, understandable process of creating the sea turtle quilt.

Above: Tom edits a video for the step on creating your fabric “palette” for your fabric collage turtle.

Our intent for this eWorkshop was different than for the Fabric Collage Master Class Manual. The Master Class is process oriented. It teaches the process of fabric collage that can be used for a variety of subjects. The Sea Turtle eWorkshop is project oriented. It teaches in detail the techniques for producing this particular project—learning the basics (and a few extras) of the process along the way.

Above: Converting a photo of your fabric choices into black and white helps you see the values without being distracted by color. Click on the images to see them larger.

The instruction builds skills that may be useful in later collage quilts. For example, choosing to work in one color (green) for my sea turtle example, allowed me to focus on and emphasize the use of value, which is something many beginners struggle with. Learning where to place values to create the illusion of form on a two-dimensional surface can be applied to many fabric collage subjects.

In other words, you may ask yourself, “Can I learn how to do fabric collage through the Sea Turtle eWorkshop?”

The answer is “Yes.”

An Anecdote

As I worked in front of the cameras, I was pretending I had a class of students in front of me. After more than 26 years, I can picture that quite easily. I imagined seeing all their expectant faces, knowing I had to encourage them, show them what they needed to know, and then release them to see where they could take it. Having a responsive class gives me energy and inspires me.

However, they weren’t really there. And sometimes the energy and excitement was harder to gather. After a particularly trying video session of many takes, I had a little talk with Tom. Tom’s face isn’t always terribly expressive. He frowns even when he’s not thinking frowning thoughts. He’s concentrating, he says. If I caught a look at him in the middle of a take, I found myself thinking “What am I doing wrong?” There would go my attention, and another take would follow. Until finally we had a little talk. “You have to give me smiles, nods of encouragement,” I said. “You’re my audience.” Pretty soon he was giving me grins and thumbs up from behind the camera—which sometimes were distracting as well. After that talk there were still snags but they seemed to go a little smoother.

After a few one-take videos in a row, the very last video we shot, a “short” introduction to the eWorkshop, was one of the longest to shoot—it shouldn’t have been, but it was. We kinda laughed, shook our heads, and had a couple beers afterwards. Then Tom pieced together the video below.

 

Acknowledgments

I need to thank some people for their help, especially my Patreon supporters (see box at top of right-hand column). With their monthly donations, they continue to make it possible for us to invest the time in the weekly blog posts and endeavors such as developing online learning resources. They provide the cushion it takes for us to feel comfortable dedicating three months to projects such as the Sea Turtle eWorkshop and the Fabric Collage Master Class Manual.

And of course, once again I am extremely thankful I have Tom as a partner, because this is not something I could ever dream of doing on my own. His skills include writing, videography, website management and design, photography—not to mention he’s pretty handy and more than willing in the kitchen for when I run late in the studio.

He’s taken, ladies.

So watch for next Saturday’s blog post, March 21st, where we will launch the Susan Carlson Fabric Collage: Sea Turtle eWorkshop.