Coming up this week in your regular Saturday post we’ll have the second of two reflections on teaching at Empty Spools 2022. I had lots of great students who came to class well prepared. To help in their preparation, a few weeks before class I held Zoom meetings with my students to go over their subjects, patterns, and fabric choices.
I also assigned homework, i.e., blog posts to read on the topics needed to get started in any fabric collage. Today we share another of those “homework” posts: creating a fabric collage palette.
A palette, you say? Isn’t that for painters? I like to think of fabric collage as painting with fabric so the analogy is quite apt. In this case, creating a fabric palette refers to cutting out hand-sized chunks of fabric from your selections. As I say in the post, creating a palette is an overlooked and under-appreciated first step in fabric collage.
Kathleen Dotson, pictured above with her rainbow snake, made good use of her palette during the first of the recent classes I taught for Empty Spools in California. Students don’t typically finish their main image by the end of class, but Kathleen did, plus collaging the background! Thanks in part I believe to having such a varied and well-organized fabric palette to easily pull from as she was working. A mere day after class ended, Kathleen sent me a photo of the completed collage, quilted and bound.
So read about making a palette today, and on Saturday you can see how fabric palettes were put to use in Part 2 of my Empty Spools classes.
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.
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.
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.
Good morning Susan,
I have your book Serendipity and would like to know what the difference is between your book and the Master Class you are offering. Is just two forms of the same?
Can I learn the same from your book as the Master Class?
Also is the Master Class forever for me after purchasing? I don’t have a lot of time in a week babysitting a grandchild so I would want it forever.
Also is there a printed version of the Master Class?
Thank you for your time in advance for answering my inquiries, Cathy Cloutier
There is a significant difference between the book and the Fabric Collage Master Class. Largely there’s a difference in the way I work. Serendipity Quilts was about using scraps as your fabric source. I don’t work that way often. So I work and teach differently now as is more reflected in the Master Class. The book gives projects to work on. The Master Class teaches the technique so you can make whatever project you want.
How long do you have the master class once purchased?
Is there a printed versionnof the Master Class?
These two questions weren’t answered in my first email.
Cathy Cloutier
You are correct! The Master Class is yours forever and no, there is no printed version. The Online Master Class is multi-media and contains links to further information on the various steps of the collage process, taking you directly to videos and blog posts, which would not be possible in print. Furthermore, we update the Master Class every so often by adding new material such as information from videos and blog posts published more recently. The updates happen seamlessly on your end and primarily serve to corral related information from the weekly posts, making it easier on the Master Class owner’s end to access as much information as possible on my fabric collage technique.
Is the cost of the Master Class still 149.00?
Cathy Cloutier
The price is $199. If you were in a previous or upcoming classes you get $30 off. You can also get a $30 discount when you sign up with a friend.