Every week I feel like I should ask how you are doing. I wonder if any of you are ill or know someone who is ill and whether I can bring you a pot of carrot ginger bisque.
Instead of soup, the best I can do is present a new batch of heart-warming fabric collage quilts from artists all around the country (such as “Archer,” detail above, by Bettina de Miguel). These pieces are all unique and lovely. Some adhere strictly to the advice they’ve received from my book “Serendipity Quilts” or from one of my eWorkshops. Others have taken my technique and adapted it to work for them. As they say, it’s all good.
Tom says we are down to enough submitted quilts for about two or three more Finish Line posts. At one point we had enough submissions for ten posts, so we’re getting low. If you have a completed quilt you’d like to have appear in a future Finish Line, please click the button below for instructions. We try to use them in the order they are received, so the sooner you send your submission the sooner it will appear here!
Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"
Jenell Wright
Jenell Wright’s quilt is based on the spiral exercise from the Online Fabric Collage Master Class Manual. Jenell completed the exercise as I had suggested, using it to learn how to blend from one color to another. Notice how both the orange-brown spiral and the lime-dark green negative space both blend from light to dark values—with a great use of a variety of printed fabrics—a beautiful ode to Spring. Nice work, Jenell.
This same exercise is available separately as the Fabric Collage: Spiral eWorkshop. If you are considering the Master Class, you may want to purchase the Spiral eWorkshop first as a “test drive” of the Master Class Manual. If you later decide to purchase the Master Class you will be a given full credit toward the cost of the Spiral eWorkshop.
From Jenell:
I bought the Fabric Collage Master Class Manual 2 years ago but hadn’t tried the technique yet so I made time to get started. It was really fun!
I used all fabrics I had on hand. I really enjoyed putting it together. I covered it in green netting and used gold metallic thread for the free motion quilting. My stitches aren’t perfect but it was a “focus on fun” project—and I had a great time and am very happy with how it turned out! Next I will do a butterfly, and I aspire to do a portrait quilt someday.
Kim Juran
Kim Juran from Cincinnati, Ohio, attended my Harpswell, Maine Quilt Retreat in July, 2014 where she started the flamingo above. It’s always so much fun for me to see how class projects have turned out. I love the bold colors Kim chose for her bird, and the equally bold blocks of color she used for the background work nicely to balance the flamingo’s curves.
The other thing that I like to hear, is when someone has enjoyed the collage process so much they’ve continued with more quilts on their own. Kim also sent in her fabric collage version of Gustov Klimt’s, “The Kiss.” Personally, I’ve been inspired by Klimt’s work for as long as I can remember—with his combination of realistic and graphic elements. Kim did a beautiful job interpreting his painting in it’s ravishing color and texture.
From Kim:
This was taken from a photo of a flamingo—A pink flamingo—that I purchased through Shutterstock.
I have always loved Flamingos and looked forward to creating one of a different color. I bought a photo from Shutterstock and went to Maine to learn how to collage.
Loved the process and have done many collages since, most recent is a copy of Klimt’s Kiss using lots of shimmery gold fabrics.
Cindy Nelson
Cindy Nelson from Davis, California started out with my book “Serendipity Quilts,” and gained more insight through blog posts, including other Finish Line submissions. After making the sun and moon face patterns from the book, Cindy says she wanted to move onto something more personally meaningful.
From Cindy:
This piece of is our wonderful deaf dog rescue named Willow. I struggled a bit with all the white, but in the end, I think I was able to capture her essence. I wasn’t sure how to “end” her, so I added the flowers for extra interest and color. I still haven’t tried piecing the background, but I’m happy with how her portrait pops against the purple.
Cindy’s first collage quilt was the cat, below. You can definitely see that Cindy has her own style emerging in these fur-baby portraits—they could be part of a series. She has a nice way of working in larger print motifs to accent and add flourishes to these pets. I think they’re both lovely and, as Cindy mentions below, magical.
From Cindy:
A local cafe cat named Eddy was tragically killed by an off-leash dog. I made this for the owner of the cafe. I made it to resemble Eddy, but also to make him look a bit magical, as many of the locals felt that he was. He lived under the cafe’s porch for a good 10 years before his unfortunate demise.
Bettina de Miguel
Bettina de Miguel hails all the way from Holland … Ohio. What an ecstatically happy quilt this is of her daughter’s dog. The headdress of flowers and the bubbly circles surrounding him certainly add to that feeling. The background circles and irregular edge are an unusual treatment and work great for Archer—assuming that part of his story is that he’s fun-loving, a bit goofy, and loves to chases balls. I think this is another pet-portrait that could be classified as “magical.”
From Bettina:
The origin of this quilt is from a photo of my daughter’s dog Archer. I learned your technique from your book “Serendipity Quilts” and from your YouTube videos. I have been thinking about taking your masters online class. You are truly an inspiration.
Kaye Burns
Kaye Burns from MacArthur, California, has attended many of my classes, both here in Maine and at the Quilt Gallery in Kalispell, Montana. This is, by far, not her first time in the Fabric Collage Finish Line—if I got the count correct, this will be finished fabric collage quilt #13. See more of her work here, here, here, and here, for a start. Kaye is extremely creatively prolific, so the fact that she began and completed this triple portrait quilt within two months, doesn’t surprise me in the least.
I’d say that Kaye has become known for her horses and other large animal quilts. This foray into portraiture was a new direction, and she got it, down to the pearls. She talks about her challenge with skin tones. I absolutely agree and doing them with realistic coloration is sometimes even more of a challenge since you’re going for full realism and not artistic interpretation. Great job (as usual) and nice smiles, Kaye!
From Kaye:
Every year my mother-in-law sends me a Christmas card photo of herself and her two grandkids (my niece and nephew). And having taken many of Susan’s workshops before in the past, I felt I should set myself a challenge for this year of doing people I know. So I chose last year’s card and started this quilt in Susan’s 2019 Advanced Workshop in Portland, Maine this year and completed it a couple of weeks before Christmas. The biggest challenge for me with this quilt was getting the skin tones right, especially in the shadows. Do I go with a darker shade of fabric or some tulle? Well, you can see the answer varies because sometimes I did it with the one and sometimes the other.
Anyway, I love love love the process that Susan teaches and how she helps in the classroom with her positive feedback and encouragement. It is very liberating, especially if I can find a subject unlike this one (next time!) where I feel I can branch out with color. Thank you Susan and Tom for all you do for us all!
Nina Bronk Kellner
Nina Bronk Kellner from Maryland attended my Portland, Maine Quilt Retreat in 2018. The first set of in-progress shots below shows the work she did in class, the second set the work she did on her own. Nina took my “go big” instructions to heart and arrived at class with two very big cat faces—a big undertaking, but she dearly wanted to do both of them. She finished up the week with the central face of the first cat collaged, which is right on track for the length of time in class, and left with what seemed to be a good understanding of the fabric collage process.
Obviously, she had an even better understanding than I had hoped because these portraits are excellent. Despite her trepidation to get back to the collage after class had ended, she did beautifully on her own. She got Oliver and Maxie’s expressions perfectly—what a wonderful memory of these two brothers.
Since that retreat was close-to-home in Maine, Tom stopped by the class and interviewed students for a blog post: Choosing Your Subject for Fabric Collage. Nina was one of those interviewed, so check out the link for video interviews from my student’s perspectives, and to see just how big these kitty-cat faces are!
From Nina:
I was about a quarter of the way done with the cat on the left when I went home and put it away for about a year, too scared to do it on my own. I finally took it out again November 2019 and went to town to finish it.
Based on a black and white photo of two of my cats who were litter mates when we adopted them. I still have Oliver (left) who is 9 but Maxie died when he was 5 of a congenital heart issue we didn’t know about. The collage process was a lot of fun but I’m terrible at quilting and feel like I messed it up a bit with my terrible quilting. I used netting. I don’t like what it did to the cat coloring on the right but felt I needed it because I had so many small pieces that gluing all the edges well was impossible.
Marijane Figg
Marijane Figg from Sequim, Washington, attended a four-day class I taught in September of 2019. Contrary to the usual, she finished the collage of her subject and had moved onto the background before class ended. Obviously, she changed it all out when she got home, and I do think that this fellow looks more at home in his final surroundings. I noticed how those pink “squiggles” in the background tied in with the blue squiggles on the seahorse, like he was trying to camouflage himself. Upon closer look, in the detail shot below, you can see that Marijane added the pink squiggles after quilting! Just goes to show how versatile and adaptable fabric collage can be. Keep going, Marijane!
From Marijane:
Am delighted with the finished quilt! Love this new technique, working with glue and playing with different color combinations. Looking forward to creating many more projects with this technique.
Tamara Milostan
Tamara Milostan from Brighton, MI was featured in a previous Finish Line blog post. Her very graphic lion head quilt appeared here.
In this quilt, Tamara is showing us her softer side with a lovely memory quilt of her granddaughter. Yes, fabric collage isn’t a quick process, but (in my opinion) well worth the time it takes. And what a satisfaction it gives to us and others. I look forward to seeing more creations, Tamara.
From Tamara:
This quilt was inspired by a picture of my 4-year old granddaughter about to run into the field of sunflowers instead of staying on the path.
This is my 3rd collage quilt after going through Susan’s Master Class. The background is all collaged and Emmie is collaged and I also used intense color pencils and thread painting on her hair. It took forever to cut out grasses and weeds, but I love this moment in time that I caught.
Susan,
Your quilts & classes are very inspiring!
These collages were so fun to see.
I love student works. They’ve all done great jobs!
Darlene
Those are all so beautiful! I follow all your posts and have two of your books and the turtle pattern. Keep getting out the pattern, books and fabric and end up putting them back in my “turtle” box.
Maybe someday I’ll get the courage to begin. Thanks for sharing.
Jan