Susan Carlson Fabric Collage: Student Work—Finish Line 24

I long ago ran out of complimentary adjectives to describe the images I receive for these Fabric Collage Finish Line posts: inspiring, beautiful, colorful, lovely, enchanting, fantastic, and so on and on. Mesmerizing could be used for the detail of Judy Bilardello’s “Lola,” above.

You can apply any and all of these words to the quilts in this post. But when I look at these quilts I have such a sense of satisfaction. Satisfaction that something I did or said—through book, blog, class, or the Thursday Night presentations of 2020—touched these ladies in a way that brought out such creativity. Life, truly, is good.

I like to acknowledge the steps and stages these collaged quilts have gone through. Which is why I try to include in-progress shots when possible—so you can see and understand that these pieces didn’t just magically appear, complete and ready to hang on the wall. They took physical and mental effort, time, creativity, and commitment. So much of success in any field requires this same effort. Sometimes the ones that succeed are the ones that go step-by-step, day by day—piece of fabric by piece of fabric—until they are truly satisfied.

So to the ladies whose work is featured here, I say thank you, this is truly good work.

If you too would like to submit some good work for a future Fabric Collage Finish Line post, please click on the submission button below:

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Karen Snow

Karen Snow of Galesburg, IL, did these two quilts of her grandson (above) and daughter (below), incorporating their faces into a moon and sun pair. She attended my Thursday Night in My Studio Live! webinars, where I delved into various portrait demonstrations. Toward the end of the series, I showed how to customize my sun and moon patterns with portraits of familiar faces. But even before that evening, Karen was already on her way to create this celestial duo. I love the pun in the title of the moon quilt and the moth fluttering around as though attracted to its light.

From Karen:

My daughter sent me a picture of my grandson sleeping and I knew immediately that I wanted him to be a sleeping moon. So I brushed up on my “Susan skills” with blending and went to work! I had taken the online master class but hadn’t taken any others. I read Susan’s book but I had never tried to “let loose” yet. I had only made realistic images. This one was FUN! I loved letting loose once I let myself! I know a yellow face isn’t far from realistic but I did get some orange in there!

My grandson has Autism and at the time of making this, he was nonverbal. I wanted him to know when he got older that his grandmother loved him to the moon. His hair was getting long and I wanted it to flow off behind the moon shape but at the time, I didn’t know how to represent that. I think I would do it a little differently now.

From Karen:

I started collaging 7 years ago without knowing anyone else was doing this type of thing. Then I found a group on Facebook and finally found Susan’s technique. I enlarged and marked my photos exactly as Susan does in the beginning but I gradually started glueing and piecing as she does after taking the Online Master Class. The greatest learning experiences came from her Thursday Night presentations! They are the best!

I created this round piece after I made my grandson into the moon. My daughter said she wanted to be the sun to go with him. The subject had a hat on in the photo so I didn’t know how I would make her into a sun shape to start with. I had the picture I liked best and she had on sunglasses and I thought that would be fun on a sun so I just started in on it. But after finishing the hair and face I was stumped. I went to Susan’s book for inspiration with her sun. After looking at it, decided I would put a ring around her and then go from there. After the ring was completed, I realized she was almost exactly the same size that I had made her son as the moon so I stopped there to frame her.

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Marie Wood

I remember Marie Wood (from Johns Creek, GA) from my Thursday Night in My Studio Live! presentations—another person that attended week after week! And I certainly recognize this face as it is based on the template I provided for a series of demonstrations on making a whimsical face. That series was called “Facial Features” and had eight parts: Introduction, Nose, Eyes, Mouth, Neck and Hair, Child vs. Adult Faces, Glasses, and Teeth.

Marie fulfilled my goal of introducing whimsy into the piece. There are spirals in the eyes and flowers in the cheeks. And are those wheat eyebrows? Hair is an especially apt place to let go and be free-flowing with the fabric, which she does for sure!

From Marie:

I have taken the Fabric Collage Master Class Online this winter but this face was just made while viewing the Thursday Night Workshops with Susan on creating the face. Susan inspired me to try making a face so I did a whimsical one to start. Since we are social distancing, I call her “Sequestered 2020” since this may be what we look like when this pandemic is over! This was lots of fun to do. I found myself scurrying into my quilt workshop as often as I could to audition another piece of fabric or two on her face!

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Sally Fly

Sally Fly of Langley, WA successfully tackled the toughest subject in fabric collage: the baby—they are just so perfectly soft and round, with no wrinkles to use as guidelines! Add the glass-smooshed lips and palm—very good. For this first portrait, Sally also chose colors well as I always suggest adding warming yellow tones to a portrait fabric palette—be it a peachy-tone base, or a green, blue, or rainbow-colored portrait palette.

From Sally:

This is from a photo of my great grandson at 14 months. He is pressing himself against a window and so pleased about it. Jacob is a very happy boy who loves to explore things, and this expression tells a lot about him. I just had to try it as a fabric collage, but it was a first portrait for me. Others have been dogs, cacti and flowers. I enjoy the process and now have a huge number of scraps to use! Have been quilting over 20 years with many styles and freemotion quilting, but now focus mainly on art quilts. For fabric collage I started with the Serendipity Quilts book, bought the [Master Class] Manual and am devoted to the blog. Tried the Zoom series, but here our internet isn’t reliable. Since we spend winters where the internet is better, I hope to join again. Thanks for all the wonderful demos, helpful comments and pictures. There is one pic of progress, one trying out choices for a “window frame,” a close-up and a full size. This will be framed under glass, hopefully looking like a window!

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Judy Bilardello

I had the pleasure of meeting Judy Bilardello of Santa Cruz, CA, in one of the last classes I taught pre-pandemic at Art Quilt Tahoe in November, 2019. She then attended my 2020 Thursday Night presentations and just a month or so ago, my May 2021 Live Online class. The two finished quilts here were begun in each of those classes. Judy’s got a good eye for translating the color and pattern in her fabrics into her fabric collage creations. And she’s truly lovely to work with as well.

From Judy:

I took a class with Susan at Art Quilt Tahoe in November 2019, after having practiced samples from Serendipity Quilts. The in-person experience was so valuable and, really, so much fun. Susan pointed out subtleties and nuances I would not have noticed on my own.

After receiving permission from Paul Keates, who took this magnificent photo, I knew I had to bring Lola to life in fabric. Those eyes look directly into my soul.

Originally I saw her in a snowy setting but began to realize she would be very comfortable living in the coastal mountains of California near my home. Scattered throughout her “fur” are images of ocean life, indicative of the habitat where she now dwells. It was only after making that decision that I was able to choose a background that satisfied her. I thought that background choice would be the easy part of the fabric collage process but I tried and rejected many options before making a final selection. COVID and summer fires delayed the quilting process but she is home at last!

From Judy:

I made my first quilt with Susan during a week at Art Quilt Tahoe in 2019. I then bought the Master Class Manual and participated in Thursday Night in My Studio Live via Zoom while we were all sheltered in place. I own her book, Serendipity Quilts. All of these experiences led me to the week-long [live online] class where Ozzy Bunny was created.

I chose Ozzy as the subject because of the joy she brought to 3 of my grandchildren when they were at home every day during COVID sheltering. Ozzy became the friend they needed. She sat at their feet as they Zoom schooled. She hopped around the yard with them when they took their breaks. She was affectionate and entertaining month after sheltered month. I’m pretty sure she enjoyed being portrayed in a color palette that was as playful as she.

I used blue and purple for the darker areas of her fur and portrayed her lightest fur in yellows. Her whiskers are glitter lines from a sheer fabric. The shadow of her ear was created with blue tulle and she sports green sequins here and there just for fun. After all, she made life fun for my grandkids and kept my creative spark alive as well.