Every week we receive submissions from readers for fabric collage quilts to appear in our Finish Line blog posts. Tom fields these emails so he’s the first to see the images that folks send in.
Despite our readers’ best efforts, sometimes the images are just not high enough quality to use. This can be for a couple of reasons, the most common being that the images are too small. They need to be a certain minimum resolution (about 1000 pixels along the longest edge) to be suitable for publication. Often the solution is simple: Tom replies back and asks for larger images.
Other problems Tom encounters are more difficult (or impossible) to fix, such as out-of-focus photos, or images that are not square within the frame. To address this issue, we asked our friend Joel Davidson, an accomplished amateur photographer (and husband to Marilyn Davis, whose work you see above and has appeared here and here and here) to help us develop a post with tips and tricks any of us with a smart phone can employ. Read today’s Throwback Thursday for Joel’s suggestions.
Following up, for tonight’s Thursday Night in My Studio Live! presentation, Tom will be taking over the evening as he does a live presentation based on this blog post. He’ll show how to use your smart phone to take well-lit, in-focus, and squarely-cropped photos—the points that he’s always hoping to find when he opens up those quilt submission emails.
There’s still time to register for tonight’s December 10th Zoom presentation.
Once you have learned the ins and outs of cell-phone photography for your quilts, you may want to submit a collage for either: our December 17th (free!) Thursday Night Year-End Wrap Up (student works based on or inspired by any of the year’s live presentations, details below), or for a future Finish Line blog post, or possibly for both! Submit your fabric collage quilts below—please mention “Thursday Night” in your submission if it is for the Year-End Wrap-Up! Thank you.
Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"
Take a Flattering Picture of Your Quilt with the Camera in Your Pocket
Thursday Night in My Studio Live!—Final Zoom Presentations for 2020
See full Showcase of Thursday Night presentations here!
• Smart Phone Quilt Photography: December 10, 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time
You don’t need to be a professional and have lots of fancy equipment to take good photos of your quilts. Take flattering photos of your quilts with the camera in your pocket: your smart phone! This presentation will expand on a blog post covering this topic, so read up on the hints and techniques here, then attend the live presentation featuring Tom and I as we walk you through the steps and answer any questions.
• 2020 Wrap Up with Student Gallery: December 17, 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time
This free Zoom event will wrap up our 2020 Thursday Night presentations and feature collaged works from attendees (or those that have purchased the videos after the live event). If you created a collage based on or inspired by our Thursday Night presentations (22 of them so far!), please submit photos at whatever stage they are at. Use the link below to submit your work and a bit of info about them. Be sure to mention Thursday Night in your submission. Learn how to take a super shot of your quilt—or in-progress work—on December 7th’s presentation, then send in those photos for this year end Thursday Night Wrap-Up fabric collage show!
Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"
I’ll also share what I’ve been working on and what I have coming up in the new year, which includes new ways and new opportunities for learning fabric collage.
A reminder that we are continuing the offer of a Pandemic Collage Coping Free Pattern. Get your free pattern by visiting the Patterns page—susancarlson.com/patterns/—and using this Coupon Code:
goawaypandemicfreepattern
Be sure to click Apply Coupon before proceeding to checkout. Those who used the previous coupon code for a free pattern can use this one for a new free pattern. And if another pattern or two catches your eye, you’re welcome to add it to your Shopping Cart. 😉 One free pattern per customer. Offer expires December 31, 2020.
Susan Carlson Fabric Collage: Spiral eWorkshop
Wondering if fabric collage is for you? This eWorkshop is intended for beginners in fabric collage. The spiral project is simple, low stress, but still teaches the basic techniques of fabric collage. It also serves as a handy refresher course for those with more experience.
Susan Carlson Fabric Collage: Sea Turtle eWorkshop
Learn fabric collage with Susan Carlson. Each step is clearly written, illustrated with photos, and demonstrated with video. Learn with a Sea Turtle then launch into any fabric collage project you wish.
Fabric Collage Master Class
For instructions on the entire fabric collage process, you can purchase the Susan Carlson Fabric Collage Online Master Class Manual. Using video, photos, and text I take you from soup to nuts, beginning to end in creating your own fabric collage masterpiece.
Serendipity Quilts for Sale
$29.95 plus shipping. Full color throughout. Four complete projects, start to finish, of increasing complexity. Learn fabric collage with this book.
Look forward to webinar tonight, to improve my photos.