The Fabric Collage Finish Line: Online Submissions 15

Except for one very handsome dog, all the fabric collage quilts in this edition of the Finish Line are portraits of people. Portraits are easily the most difficult subject. Capturing the likeness of someone you know or someone famous is difficult and very potentially stressful. So I applaud all these portraits, including Sadie the dog’s portrait. Above is a detail of “Pixie” by Lynne Hummel.

Early on (like in the 1980’s), I created fabric collage portraits on commission. Now, I limit my human portrait subjects to family (as seen by the most recent quilts of my niece and my son)—otherwise, I’ve more or less gone in the animal portrait direction for the last couple decades.

However, it is a treat for me to see these portraits that others have made. The talent and creativity that is out there, waiting to be unlocked by fabric collage, is astounding. It pleases me to no end that my blog, books, and classes have given others the information and courage to step out on their own artistic journey. Thanks for making my day, ladies.

Believe it or not, I’m starting to run short on submissions to The Finish Line. If you have a fabric collage quilt ready to submit, now’s the time! Please share with me and others by using the link below. Thank you.

Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"

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Lynne Hummel

Lynne Hummel of Rockaway, NJ, has been attending my online Thursday Night in My Studio Live! presentations, which began in late March of this year. She took the challenge of creating her own fabric collage face based on a template (below) I was using for a couple demonstration portraits. Two series of presentations (four weeks each) taught the basics of fabric collage portraiture, which apparently Lynne picked up very quickly. I adore this portrait—a Muse if I ever saw one.

 

From Lynne:

I love the outdoors especially the forest and I picture this gal as a kind and hopeful woodland spirit. For the first time I tried using tulle to add some bling and an air of mystery and magic. There are five different types of tulle. Yellow on the right side of the face, black on the hair on the left, different sparkle things in the corners on the left and an orange tulle over the entire piece

The quilt above is the one Lynne made in conjunction with the presentations. She then took what she learned and created the portrait quilt below.

For more information on the various portrait and facial features recordings of the Thursday Night in My Studio Live! webinars, visit my website and scroll down: www.susancarlson.com

While the technique is the same, creating a fabric collage quilt of a recognizable person is a real step up in difficulty from a generic face. Wow Lynne, great job. And a thanks to you and everyone else in these Finish Line posts for taking and sharing their in-progress photos—I know it benefits others to see the creative process in action.

From Lynne:

I was inspired by a photo of Kamala Harris that appeared on the front page of the New York Times on Aug 12, 2020. I contacted the photographer Daniel Acker to ask his permission to use it and he said “ go for it!” I thought the photo had an air of authority and Strength. Also, no teeth were showing!

I took several of your online classes this summer, 7 or 8 I think. I also follow your blog and read one of your books. I wanted this to be somewhat realistic looking and I wanted to challenge myself to try some tulle and also add a bit of bling!

You can’t tell maybe from the photo but there is sparkle maroon tulle covering her hair, teal with black flocked polka dot tulle in the background and a really sparkly brown and green polka dot tulle on her shirt. Also light green/yellow on the left side of her face and a bit of black on the right side of her face and hair. We’re talking a lot of tulle here. Now that it’s done I love the sparkly bits and I like that the tulle worked to unify elements like the hair.

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Lorna Millen

Lorna Millen of Sun Prairie, WI, attended a five-day workshop with me in Harpswell, Maine in October 2018. The quilt she started in that class was featured in this Finish Line blog post. This is the second portrait of her daughter and each time she has tackled and defeated a difficult aspect of fabric collage: a portrait using (pretty much) realistic colors. Flesh tones: they’re tough. I think what sets her use of color apart is that she has a soft yet confident touch with her fabric choice—like a master watercolorist. She uses the entire range of values within that color: pink, with a subtle and effective touch in placement of the prints found in her fabrics. In this case the darker she goes the more evident the fabric designs. The highlight on her daughter’s temple is almost white. The shadow on her neck is almost purple. Beautiful and heart-warming job once again, Lorna.

Below, Lorna makes a comment on my own take of flowers as a choice of subject matter. I’ve learned from years of teaching to at least warn folks of the repetitious quality of flower petals and leaves. But sometimes there’s no way around it and, as in this case, the seemingly endless field of sunflowers is exactly what tells the story of this portrait—well worth the time and effort.

From Lorna:

“Sunflower Girl” is a portrait of my daughter inspired by a photo I took of her at a sunflower field here in WI. The photo spoke to me about how fast she was growing up and I loved the contemplative look on her face. I thought the flowers and foliage would be a challenge, and it was! I can see why it’s not Susan’s favorite subject!

I took advantage of the Facebook Patreon group [now a monthly Zoom Show-and-Share] for feedback during the various stages of working on the quilt, and the members gave very good advice. The quilt has been accepted into a SAQA Exhibit called “Midwest Views.”

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Cindy Cell

Cindy Cell of Austin, Texas says this is her first collage quilt. I’ll have to take her word on it. What an accomplished collage. Anyone would be proud of it whether it was their first or fiftieth. I especially like how she has let the patterns and colors in the fabrics work for her. The tongue is one piece of fabric, probably a leaf or a petal. Note how she used the lines of the pattern to give contours to the tongue AND used the bit of orange color to highlight the tip of the tongue where there would be a highlight. Brilliant. And Sadie’s snout: polka dots to give the indication of whiskers and tiny compact patterns of irregular dots to create the visual texture of the nose.

The flying fur gave me a big smile—Sadie, caught in the act of one of those grand doggie shakes that start at the head and end at the tail. I can just imagine it. Nice framing of this portrait with the piping “containing” the bits of fur, but not the very edges of the collage. Nice attention to detail—I can’t wait to see what Cindy comes up with next.

From Cindy:

One of my COVID distractions was to challenge myself to learn collage quilting. I’m an engineer so my instinct is to approach quilting in very precise geometric terms. Trying to fight that tendency, I like to try techniques that push me outside my comfort zone. Collage quilting fits the bill for me. Armed with a copy of Serendipity Quilts, Susan’s wonderful blogs, and determination, I jumped in.

“Let the Fur Fly Sadie Girl” is my first collage quilt, inspired by my son’s Chocolate Lab/Australian Shepherd Sadie. She lived with us for a couple of years while my son went to graduate school so she has a special place in my heart. I hoped to capture her joy in all things and her goofiness.

 

I agonized over each section of the quilt, eyes, nose, ears, body, background. Fabrics were auditioned, discarded, replaced. My quilt room exploded with small bits of fabric everywhere. Concentrating on smaller areas at a time helped me work thru problems. To finish I framed the quilt with a pieced piped binding. Extremely pleased with the result and all that I learned, I look forward to my next collage.

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Tamara Milostan

Tamara Milostan of Brighton, Michigan is a user of the Fabric Collage Online Master Class Manual, and an “avid” reader of my blog posts. Her quilts have appeared in three previous Finish Line blog posts—and, in my humble opinion, her skills are growing with every collage. Her graphic lion appeared here. Another quilt featuring her granddaughter Emmie, appeared here. And her stylized face from my Thursday Night in My Studio Live! Facial Features series appeared here.

In this fanciful portrait of Emmie, Tamara caught the innocence and perfection of a sleeping child. Her colors and fabrics blend and fill the crescent moon seamlessly. Nice quilting lines that radiate from the moon as well. The quilt was inspired in part by my quilt “Blue Moon Sam”—in-progress blog posts here and here.

From Tamara:

This quilt was inspired by Susan’s son as a moon and Karen Snow’s (also Master Class participant) collage of her grandson. I also participated in the Improvisational Face sessions that Susan offered.

 

This is my 5 year old granddaughter. She is a delight. I knew I wanted to go around the color wheel and putting yellows in the middle gave me a start.

 

I used water color pencils on the face and intended to cover most of it with fabric but then just went with it.

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Emmaline Peterson

Seven-year-old Emmaline Peterson has the honor of being the youngest quilter to have a fabric collage appear in the Finish Line—and it’s her own wonderful self-portrait! Her grandmother, Julie Peterson of New Winsor, New York, submitted these pictures and the story of the fabric collage quilt Emmy and she made together. I love how Julie appreciated the energy, joy, and limited attention span of a young artist. Julie could have left this an unfinished “UFO” project. Instead, she honored Emmy’s efforts and completed this moment in time.

From Julie:

Emmy is seven years old and I challenged her to make a quilt using Grandma’s scraps. Her initial drawing was great and she transfer it on to cloth herself. Then came the hunting for fabric she thought would fit. I did try to have her cut small pieces in order to get the look she wanted. She was very good with Coopers mane, the fabric she choose and cut herself. I did tell her to choose a fabric with what looked like a sparkle for the eyes. She was so happy when she found round circles for the eyes that had a little white in them.

You could feel the joy she felt as she glued her fabric choices she made down. She would jump and spin around and laugh. What a joy! Then like most 7-year olds she lost interest, a four day project was beyond her at this point. I was determined to have a finished quilt for her, therefore I quilted it as it was. She loved it. The smile on the finished quilt is pure Emmy! This will be something I feel she will always treasure.