As I look forward to my Live Online fabric collage classes, one of my most interesting tasks is to assign people to groups, which in Zoom are called breakout rooms. I try to group them by subject matter first, but take into account their association with another person in the class, their experience, and so on.
In my latest Live Online Class eight of my students had chosen dog subjects, so they made up two groups of four each. That alone automatically put the last four students into the third breakout room. They all happened to be repeat students and had chosen a wide variety of subject matter for this class—thus when it came to naming their group, they called themselves the “Hodgepodgers.”
Below a class pic with all twelve students plus me and Tom.
The final group of four students from my November 2022 class, the “Hodgepodgers,” chose varied and colorful subjects—children, a “Highland Coo,” a tropical donkey, and an Audubon swan. The ladies from the first Zoom breakout room, the “Paws-atives” were featured in a previous post here. The second group, the “Doggone-Its” were featured in a previous post here.
At the end of the week, Tom and I asked students for feed-back and comments. LeahGrace Kayler, who has taken multiple live online classes with us replied:
What I especially appreciated this time, and perhaps it was as much how I showed up as what you did or didn’t do differently, was the spaciousness of the class. Everyone seemed to get what they needed, and we had room for hurricanes and surgeries and newborns. There was no drama, only life.
I think it’s a perfect comment to finish up this trio of class posts—everyone worked hard on their projects and helped others with theirs—they were all caring and supportive—open to each other and to their creativity. Thank you ladies—you were great.
Hodgepodgers
Be sure to check out the Special Edition Finish Line: Live Online Class that we posted on Thanksgiving weekend, featuring an impressive “walk-through” gallery of 36 collage quilts previously completed quilts from students in this class. Since these Hodgepodge ladies are all repeat students, they contributed quite a few finished quilts in that gallery post.
Grace Crocker
Goal: to get started on a fabric collage of a favorite photo of her brother Larry and herself, taken 81 years ago.
Yup, you read correctly. I think Grace said she was six in the photo—this woman is deep into her eighties and is amazing. I think everyone in the class wants to be her when we grow up. Even though Grace, from California, fell into the latest time zone, she was still the first, and one of the last, who logged into or out of the classroom every day. She gets a phenomenal amount and quality of work done. She’s intense and funny and such a pleasure to work with.
In our pre-class coaching session, Grace wanted to focus on the drawing she’d be working with. The photo, taken from an old slide, wasn’t bad to work with, given when it was taken—and she had already drawn a pretty nice tracing from it. But the children’s hands were giving her trouble. In the screenshots above and below, you can see the annotations I made (in black)—basically confirming the lines Grace had drawn, but clarifying as needed on details that were hard to see in the photo—especially how foreshortened fingers would look or where knuckles would fall. Grace took it from there.
This collage was one that Grace had in her mind and essentially practiced for all year, as she made seven other collage quilts! She knew the colors and fabrics she’d be using for these portraits (though I was able to make a couple helpful suggestions). When I came around to consult on our class days, she’d have two or three questions ready for me, and then I’d move on. When I came back around, there’d be another area of collage pinned in place, ready for review. What lovely, memory-filled portraits she’s creating.
Leigh McMorrow
Goal: working with the light and darks of values—regardless of color.
Leigh McMorrow from Florida, created this collage based on a photo she took of a Highland Coo, “Rosette,” who she met on a trip to Scotland. “Nicole” was added to Rosette’s name since she came to life as Hurricane Nicole was hitting the eastern shores of Florida where Leigh lives. Leigh had attended one of my 2019 Maine retreats, to see her completed quilt from this ME class, click here.
From Leigh:
I enjoyed the breakout rooms immensely. It was great to be able to work and just chit chat with the ladies in my group. It was exactly like the in-person classes. The education was just as good if not better than in-person because Susan is speaking only to you when she is giving creative criticism.
In our pre-class coaching, Leigh already had a good drawing to enlarge and work with, so we concentrated on identifying “long and stringy” sorts of fabric patterns to mimic a Highland coos hair (see photo above) that Leigh should keep her eyes out for—designs that let the fabric work for you.
In this case, the fabric not only worked for Leigh, it spoke to her. Early in the week, she told me that this cow that she met was named Rosette. With a name like Rosette, I suggested working some roses into the portrait. Leigh did better than that—before you knew it, Rosette’s elongated fur had become layer upon layer of flowers and petals of all varieties. Leigh had so much fun working on her.
As with last week’s Bodie the dog by Jackie Dalley, Leigh has already submitted new photos of fabulous Rosette for next week’s monthly Patreon Zoom meeting review—live viewing and recording available to Patreon subscribers at $5 month or more. It’ll be fun to work with both Leigh and Jackie again.
In the previous two posts of this Live Online Class, I mentioned how there were various outside of class events happening. One of the major topics was, “How’s it going with Hurricane Nicole?”—directed at long-time Florida resident Leigh McMorrow. Eventually evacuation orders were made but Leigh took it all in stride, having already booked two nights during class week at a hotel—making sure high-speed internet and emergency generators were on-site. Workspace re-location happened mid-week—photos below, are TV shots of her town beach as the storm was approaching. Leigh and her home were very lucky and she was back in her studio (with restored electricity) by class wrap-up on Friday evening.
For our final review at the end of the week, Leigh sent in the photo below, highlighting a scrap of her fabric she noticed on the hotel hallway rug as she and her husband were heading home. She picked it up, and saved it. Of course. Princess Rosette Nicole may need it.
Leslie Beck
Goal: to work with a variety of colors to create values, and bolder prints for visual texture.
Lesley Beck and her husband met this little fellow on a vacation to tropical climes from their home in Northern Virginia. Isn’t that cap of fur on his head wild looking? Lesley has attended other online classes, working on another equine, Teddy the miniature horse. Teddy is bright yellow and monochromatic. This time, Lesley wished to work with multiple colors for Ringo the donkey.
In narrowing down fabric choices, tropical sorts of prints came to mind to portray their vacation surroundings. The flowers and even the texture of some fruits found in fabric designs add nice touches to this fuzzy guy. I love the light green cap that Lesley fashioned for Ringo—it has a visual texture that mimics that top-knot of the photo. Lesley played with a few different arrangements of the shapes she cut for her fabric palette.
Sometimes it takes quite awhile to find just the right place for even a small piece of fabric—happens to me all the time. For instance there are two or three types of pineapple prints scattered throughout the photos above and below. Can you find them? Click on photos to view them larger. And in the end, Lesley may decide that pineapples aren’t going to work for Ringo after all. And that’s okay, because she’ll have found something else that does work.
Vickie Ostrow
Goal: to work with light values and prints to create contours, shape, and form.
In a screenshot from Day 1 below, Vickie and I were looking at some of her fabrics and talking how the prints can help define the contours of the swan’s body and feathers.
Vickie Ostrow lives in Maine—just a couple hours down the road from me. I’ve worked with Vickie in a few Maine retreats—funny enough, one retreat was the same as Leigh attended, and their completed quilts were in the same Finish Line post. Vickie has always collaged very colorful subjects, but his time she wanted to challenge herself into using a much more subtle palette of whites and other related light colors. The photo she used is an Audubon print that she loves. Vickie contacted the Audubon estate and received permission to use the image.
Now I’m not one to get very excited about using white or beige fabrics (though my newest collage is a big exception). However, Vickie has been collecting fabric for her swan collage for a long time, and it shows. She’s been able to find and collect white and beige fabrics that are interesting with larger patterns and some with touches of color. I’m excited to see where Vickie takes this—she’s already getting nice contours with the prints and dimension and form with her variety of light valued colors.
Dye Candy
Chris Daly of Dye Candy—an Etsy shop selling beautiful fabrics—wasn’t a student in this online class, but her fabrics were present in everyone’s workspace. When Tom and I began these online classes in March 2021, we wanted to add a personal touch and sent out welcome packages with a hand-picked assortment of small bundles of ten fabrics I selected from Dye Candy. The selection below is what the students of this November 2022 class received.
Chris first and foremost owns and operates Woodland Ridge Retreat in Downsville, WI—where I’ve taught now and then for years—most recently this past September. I just found out that she’s begun putting together fabric assortments and quilt kits—now available in her shop, and I thought I’d pass the word along. I often get asked what sort of fabrics I select for fabric collage. Well, let’s just say that Chris and I have very similar tastes. There’s even a side category in the Etsy shop titled, “Susan C’s Suggestions,” where Chris has gathered still available fabrics that I’ve selected for my students (or myself) over the past couple years. If you’re looking to add to your stash, her shop is a good source to check out!
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