On the Road: Fabric Collage at Woodland Ridge Retreat, Downsville, WI—September 2022

“Trust the Process,” was Valerie Moore’s declaration on the final day of a 5-day fabric collage class at Woodland Ridge Retreat in western Wisconsin. Valerie and eleven other lovely ladies arrived prepared to dive into the process and technique of fabric collage last month near the end of September. But before I introduce you to them and their projects, let me show you around the retreat center first.

Woodland Ridge Retreat is one of my favorite places to teach and a great place to wind up this year of in-person classes. Come to think of it, I’ve often finished up past years here, but usually in November, with snow showers, so I was thrilled to experience the location with color in the gardens and green leaves on the trees along the wooded walking paths behind the building.

A note to click on any and all photos to view them larger.

This year I flew in and out of Minneapolis airport and had a cute little rental car (see photo above) for the 1-1/2 hour drive to and from Downsville, just outside of Menomonie, WI. I had my fingers crossed for a colorful car (I was visualizing lime green) and with the luck of a last minute substitute, my rental went from white to red, a fine color as well! I admit I’m one of those people who name their cars, even the short-term ones. So, since my flight left Maine at dawn and I flew on Delta Airlines, I named her “Delta Dawn.” All I can say is that Delta made good time on the highway (I had to rein her in at times) and she likes to crank classic rock.

Unfortunately for being able to spend more time with Delta, the retreat center that owner Chris Daly has set up is self-contained with classrooms, lodging, and dining right there, no need to get back in your car at all. Woodland Ridge has even morphed into a fabric store with bolts and more bolts lining one of the two large hallways of the building—so there’s even no need for a car to go on a fabric hunt for more collagable fabrics.

If you’re wishing you could pull out a few of these bolts for a better look, Chris has them available in her Etsy shop, Dye Candy Fabrics. She’s even made a sub category of “Susan C’s Fabrics” with selections I’ve purchased for myself or my live online classes!

The other hallway leads to the kitchen where Chris coordinates amazing meals, served in the open juncture in the middle of the building. I use the display walls of the second wing to pin up classroom samples and finished quilts I bring along with me, see photos below. This year a couple classroom chairs became extra display space for a couple collage portrait samples of mine.

And now, please meet my class, and Chris, below.

The following photos introduce you to the projects these ladies were working on this week. First we have Valerie Moore. You met her at the very beginning of this post in her “Trust the Process” t-shirt. However, she wowed us the rest of the days with sumptuous outfits made from African print fabrics. It’s a wonder no one cut into any of the ruffles to add to their collages. Alas, the only ensemble I got a good photo of was the one in the class photo above.

Aside from those outfits, Valerie came prepared to go bold on a dog portrait with contrasting color and a large-scale drawing. Her hound-dog posed its own challenges, but she did exactly what I tell folks to do—go step-by-step and push through any walls you hit. Eventually the image comes together, and true enough, this pup was showing his personality by the end.

Next we have Robin Rogers and the fish she’s creating for her granddaughter. Robin told us that her granddaughter had high hopes for a unicorn, but for this first collage project, she’s getting a fish. But as the days progressed, the initial selection of fabrics Robin had brought was being added to by classmates. The hope is that the colorful creatures now filling and hiding within this collage, will make up for the fact that it’s not a unicorn. Last I knew, Robin was keeping her eyes out for a unicorn print to cut out and add to the menagerie. Take a close look at the detail below and see how many critters you can find!

Kathe Simons on the other hand, came with plans to create a collage of her granddaughter. She knew that the funny-faced photo (see below) would be a challenge, and to Kathe’s credit, she informed me on day two that she was switching to a much less ambitious portrait of a crescent moon instead. Kathe said I should let you, my blog readers, know this because once she made that decision, she had so much fun and felt she was able to learn more and take a portrait farther than she would have otherwise. I think it was day four that the moon’s face was finished (at least the first draft was) and she began a sun face for even more practice. A fun moment for me was when Kathe pointed out the blended gradation of aqua to green fabrics she had achieved around the sun—she’s right, she got it.

Low-stake images as beginning fabric collage projects are always a good idea—they open up a more playful approach for using color and the printed designs in fabrics. The goldfish design that Robin was using, the moon and sun above, and the butterfly below, by Jean White, are all patterns that can be found on my website. The simple line drawings can be enlarged to any size desired as an introductory subject for fabric collage.

Jean began her butterfly prior to class as collage practice and brought it along for feedback. Her official subject for the week though was Niles the Nile Crocodile. You probably know I have a soft spot for crocodiles and it was a joy to see Niles essentially “emerge” from the foundation fabric.

At one point there was a discussion about his light and dark values. A great way to more easily discern values is to edit a photo into a black and white/monotone version, as we did, below. Jean had had questions about Niles’ neck, and in b&w, it was more evident that there needed to be better blending of fabrics between cheek and throat. Plus it proved that yes, he has a fabulous smile.

Even though Pati Vitt had photos of her cat on hand as a backup collage subject, it was clear that portraying “fire”— below, was an idea that she had for a long time. We both knew this would be an abstract piece, open for interpretation by the viewer, but she was ready to put her all into it, and she did.

Both Pati and I woke early for quiet time and coffee. Still in our pajamas, we’d see who got to the coffee maker first, passing in the kitchen or hallways, or I’d say hi as I padded past the classroom where she was already contemplating the flow and movement of her fire. Interesting enough, Pati’s job deals with controlled burns for land management, so this subject makes complete sense. In Pati’s words, she “gets” orange, but struggles with yellow and smoke. I think that Pati’s got a good start with this tough subject and I hope her fiery contemplations continue.

Cheryl Lamon attended my November 2019 class at Woodland Ridge where she created the double portrait of her twin grandsons, photo from the end of the 2019 retreat below left. This year she came to create another double portrait… of her twin granddaughters! That’s pretty wild! Congratulations Cheryl, you’ve got a great set of portraits, and grandchildren, to be proud of.

I first met two of the students in this class last year in June, 2021, at another Wisconsin location I teach at—Madeline Island School of the Arts—and here they were together again! Nancy Bonkowski, above, began her panda in that 2021 class, but I’ve also had the distinct pleasure of teaching her in other classes between then and now, the most recent being in Santa Fe, New Mexico this past May, where she began the portrait of her brother’s cat. Nancy’s goal for the week was to complete the cat—all those final details to finesse highlights, shadows, and the angularity of the cat’s face. She also got going in a good direction for the background.

Nancy’s panda had been put away for the past year, but during the last couple days of class he came out and we got to work finalizing his checklist as well.

Cheryl Kosarek was the other student I met last year on Madeline Island, where she began the tree frog you see completed below–it’s always fun to see completed work from a past class. This year Cheryl’s attention was completely focused on her honey, Burt. The old photograph from the 60’s (or 70’s?) wasn’t the best to work with, but when you’re trying to catch a moment in time like that, you work with what you have. And Cheryl did an amazing job (be sure to click on the photo to see his collaged turtleneck!). She knows Burt so well, the portrait just flowed out of her. I think we all loved Burt by the end of the week.

I do tell my students to “go BIG” with their drawings—that way you’ll have plenty of space to play with your fabrics. You’d think that the adorable purple squirrel below left, would be considered BIG, and it certainly is, but it was the smaller version of the sizes Nona Flores brought to work with. Even with this “small” squirrel, she certainly had plenty of room to very successfully play with color and value and the visual texture of her fabrics.

If I remember correctly, Linda Draft (above right), said something about next time making her design larger, but since she had a head-start before class in constructing her eagle, she kept going at the size it was. She’s doing a great job working with small pieces of fabric—obviously she has the patience for it—and I love the way she’s interpreting the dark feathers of the eagle into a rainbow of darker valued colors. Beautiful.

I’ll finish up the projects with two that were just about finished within the five days. Below is Deb Banstable’s large (maybe life-sized?) parrot, stretching beautifully across a patch of jungle-like leaves. This fellow was based on photos Deb had taken at a bird sanctuary and is now interpreted in fabric with many carefully cut petals—perfectly sized to become feathers. Deb certainly made great choices of what fabrics to bring to class and (seemingly) breezed right through this piece, the collage Muse was definitely with her this week!

And last but certainly not least, is Sandy Gravunder with her wild fish, below. It’s everything I enjoy about fish collages—based on a pattern but open to interpretation, making adjustments as you go based on inspiration from your fabric. I mean, look at those fins and tail, it’s all about the fabric. I have a catch-phrase in my book Serendipity Quilts—”Cut Loose and Let Go!”—and Sandy certainly did both. Her impressionistic fish and the world it lives in is awesome.

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A BIG thanks to all these ladies and Chris for another wonderful week at Woodland Ridge. Great company, great food, great surroundings, and great inspiration from all the positive energy and creativity. To everyone reading this, “Cut Loose and Let Go” and also, as Valerie says, “Trust the Process.” 😉

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Morning Walk Videos and Audios to Leave You With

I mentioned at the beginning of this post how traveling to Wisconsin in September was more favorable weather-wise than later in the year. That means it’s easier to get up early enough to fit in some sort of walk on the trails behind the retreat center. A couple days it was only for 20 minutes or so, but still quite nice.

This visit I happened to see Sandhill cranes (from a little distance) across one of the ponds at the bottom of the small hill—very cool. One morning I heard a loud honking and quickly opened my Merlin app for an audio ID and it was the Sandhill cranes. And another morning I startled them and got another recording.

Since I have access to Tom’s expertise in video manipulation, I easily talked him into combining separate videos with audio recordings to create the short video groupings below.

This first video concentrates on the Sandhill cranes with three short segments—two catch the cranes in the distance with an audio overlay of the amazing honks they make, followed with a panorama of the pond with Canada geese audio in the background. All-in-all only a little over a minute long.

This second video is less than a minute long with two views of the wooded trails—one with an audio overlay of the hoots of a Great Horned owl heard late one night and recorded from my bedroom window. The second woodland video segment was recorded during a light drizzle and contains an audio overlay of a Barred owl recorded the same night as the other owl.

In case you’re wondering why I was awake to hear the owls at all, it was the night before flying back home, in which case I don’t sleep well anyway. But I certainly appreciated knowing these creatures were also awake—I’d never heard a Great Horned owl before.