Do you need inspiration to start your next (or first) fabric collage? The following quilts should help. These are all student works, though none were begun in any in-person classes. I call them students—from classes, from reading blog posts, from my Fabric Collage Online Master Class Manual , and attendees of 2020’s Thursday Night presentations/webinars. Like all of us, these artists were all beginners at some point—so no matter what level of experience you have, you can see from the following quilts that fabric collage is a versatile art medium that inspires all sorts of creativity.
We have a very nice variety of quilts this week, such as Kathleen Howard’s chameleon, detail above. These quilts display the different levels of complexity that fabric collage can accommodate—be sure to click on photos to see them larger. Marni Fisher’s spiral is a project I encourage beginners to start with. It teaches the techniques involved in fabric collage with a simplified image that is easy to complete. Heck, I encourage people to create a spiral quilt no matter what their level. It can be a well-deserved break for stress reduction and an immersion into pure playtime—and who doesn’t need that right now?
Thank you ladies for the sharing your artwork!
Kaye Burns
Kaye Burns of upstate California is a prolific and talented fabric collage artist. Her in-progress and completed quilts have appeared in numerous On the Road and Finish Line blog posts. She lives with numerous well-loved animals on a ranch and has completed quite a few portraits of them—with a winged horse thrown in here and there. I’ve had the pleasure of Kaye being in quite a few classes of mine, and I always look forward to seeing her next quilted addition to the collaged menagerie. I adore Lily Two.
In January of 2019, Tom and I gave Kaye and her friend Cynthia Chaddick their own blog post—The Finish Line #17: A Focus on Two Friends in Fabric—which made a nice story and corralled many quilts into one post. Toward the end of that post, is a portrait of Kaye’s horse, Bubbles. Her personal challenge for that collage was to use brighter and bolder fabric prints, as opposed to “realistic” fabrics. I do believe I recognize a few of those fabrics in Lily Two.
Since that 2019 post, Kaye’s work has appeared in 2020 posts here and here.
From Kaye:
This is a portrait of our little cow dog Lily. She was the second dog we have had whose name was Lily, and when we got her, she knew her name so there was no point in changing it since our first Lily had passed. We had Lily Two for about 15 years, so she had a good long life.
I really enjoyed making this quilt with the freedom that Susan encourages us all to do with colors. Lily Two was black & white, but she was a free spirit so it was fun giving her more colors.
Joan Anderson
Joan Anderson of Island Park, Idaho, took a class with me in June 2019 in Kalispell, Montana at the Quilt Gallery. You could just about see the moment when the fabric collage bug bit her, hard. I do believe Joan when she says she’s addicted. Her striking quilts have appeared in previous Finish Line posts with her grizzly and moose and bison.
I now see that Joan has deviated from her “large animals of Yellowstone” collage series with the mother of Icelandic horses—an equine goddess if I ever saw one. Beautiful, Joan.
From Joan:
The class was wonderful and put me on a path to collage quilting. I am addicted. Susan is a patient teacher and great at guiding you thru the process of creating with fabric.
Skalm is the name of the first Viking Icelandic mare recorded in their history. Icelandic horses are a sturdy breed and beautiful to look at.
Kathleen Howard
Kathleen Howard of Santa Cruz County, California, attended the 2016 Houston International Quilt Festival where I had a solo special exhibit, “Specimens,” which included “Crocodylus Smylus,” a quilt of a 20-foot long saltwater crocodile. I met so many lovely people at that event, and it’s wonderful to know how my work has inspired people like Kathleen—then and now. She may not have attended any in-person classes, but I recognize her name from the attendees at this year’s Thursday Night Zoom presentations, where I’ve had a chance to “meet” her again through a question or two.
In her quilt, Kathleen has given her chameleon specimen a very cute and silly (note title of quilt) personality which makes me smile. He does indeed seem to be tentatively creeping along. Kathleen, I noticed your use of colored tulle for extra detail on the chameleon and to vary the coloration of the background leaves. Nice job! You’re an excellent student.
From Kathleen:
I thought the work displayed [at the Houston Quilt Festival] was breathtaking and I came home wanting to do something that would be my humble version of that technique. I bought both of Susan’s books. I was never able to take an in-person class, but found out about the Master Class from someone who had taken a class with Susan in Tahoe. My birthday present to myself in December of 2019 was to enroll in the online Master Class.
During the pandemic I learned about the webinars from her studio. I have attended almost all of them. Hearing Susan talk through the process so clearly finally gave me the courage to start. I am not good at drawing, but Susan’s ability to explain her process made me think I could try. As I progressed and watched the webinars, I gained more confidence and am very proud to have finished this quilt. I am going to start another one soon!
I love to photograph animals and plants. I love a bit of whimsey. I knew a long time ago that, if I could get the courage to try the collage technique, I wanted to do a Panther Chameleon–an animal that is whimsical by its nature. Not likely to travel to Madagascar, I found a photograph online that had the photographer identified. I contacted the photographer and gained permission to use the photograph for a quilt, with the understanding that I might submit it to quilt shows, etc.
The Panther Chameleon is so amazing in its natural coloration and is naturally shy. I imagined my chameleon walking through the foliage, not knowing how stunningly beautiful it is, and hoping not to attract attention from unpredictable humans.
I used to do jigsaw puzzles to relieve stress at the end of the work day. I found that the collage technique gave me the same sense of flow and focus, and stress relief, during this difficult time for all. I am looking forward to figuring out my next inspiration. I hope to use one of my own photographs next time.
Marni Fisher
Marni Fisher of Black Creek, British Columbia, Canada, is an online student who obviously had some fun with this spiral quilt—an opening exercise in the Master Class Manual, but also available separately as the Spiral eWorkshop. I can see all the thought Marni put into this piece—she’s worked with light and dark values, contrasting colors, and with all sorts of fun animal print fabrics that she’s blended one into the other. Excellent. Her hand-quilting is a great finishing touch, using a circular design that supports the motion of the spiral. Nice background treatment too, Marni.
From Marni:
Susan divided the steps into easily followed written instructions and informative videos. It was the first time I’ve done a collage quilt. I enjoyed the process and really appreciated the emphasis she gave to creatively cutting scraps.
Alice Megna
Alice Megna of Round Mountain, Texas is a Susan Carlson Online Fabric Collage Master Class participant. After completing the spiral exercise, she decided to make a collage of an iguana.
I just love the variety of fabrics Alice used on this guy—prints and scrap-like pieces of fabric that don’t necessarily look like they’d work together—but certainly do. Alice says the shadows on the rock brought him alive. Yes, cast shadows can add a lot, but Alice had already done a great job with highlights and shadows to create form on the iguana himself, with warm yellow-lime-greens for that strong sunlight on the body, and cool reddish-purples for his shadowed undersides. Very interesting, fun, and engaging fabric choices.
From Alice:
Iguana Silvia (silvia means forest) is from a photo I took in Costa Rica on a tour of one of their forests. The shadows on the rock were the last thing to add on, and it was amazing to me how that added dimension, and made it come alive. I look forward to doing more collage quilts in the future.
I love these and your books as well as blog! I am getting my feet wet with the process and learn from everyone else’s creations.
I love all of the quilts in this post. Thank you for giving me some great ideas.
Beautiful works of collage art, ladies! I always enjoy student work and especially loved these!
I love the personality in each of these quilts and the knowledge we gain from viewing them. I always look forward to your Saturday morning posts… Susan, thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks for including me in this post. I see all the wonderful intricate collages and thought “Mine will never look like that”.
Marni, I am amazed that you hand-quilted your piece. You added another level of difficulty and creativity here. Of course, Susan encourages us to think there are no boundaries to what we can do!
Of course we are your students, and I always refer to you as my teacher. It’s been great this year getting to know you better with the webinars etc, as well as the Masterclass. Thanks for being a great teacher and friendly person!
Susan, thanks for featuring all these people who have done amazing work through your books and online classes and webinars. It points out how available your excellent instruction is even if we cannot attend in person. Thank goodness for the technology! And your and Tom’s work to make this accessible to us.
I loved seeing again Kaye Burns’ and Cynthia Chadwick’s work. Their work is inspirational!