Okay, okay, I know I said I’d wait until tonight to begin my new collage, but I got a little carried away with cutting my fabric palette, I’ve been so looking forward to getting started. But fear not, the photo above was only a trial run with rough cuts and folded under edges to see if I was on the right track—the first draft of cutting and pinning for this next Fly on the Wall: Studio Watch begins at 7pm Eastern Time tonight, Thursday, November 14. The next evenings will be November 30, December 7 & 14.
Many of my fabric collage quilts have been created with certain challenges in mind. For example, in tonight’s first session of the new series, the challenge is to make use of African print fabrics in creating a collage portrait of a leopard. Other quilts with similar challenges include “Dixie Dingo Dreaming“, which used Australian Aboriginal fabrics, and “Gombessa“, which employed an African “whole cloth” for the background and Indonesian batiks for the fish, reflecting the home ranges of the coelacanth subject.
I include “Gombessa” as this week’s TBT, because like the leopard I’ll be constructing, it’s a good example at how restricting your range of fabrics in order to tell the story of your subject can be liberating rather than limiting—helping you get over the potential hurdle of choosing which colors and which patterns to choose when making a fabric collage quilt. There are countless fabric options when you start a project, and it’s helpful to have a theme, such as concentrating on African fabrics.
See and learn and ask questions live, as I begin working with the bold patterns and saturated colors of African fabrics, by registering for this 4-part Fly on the Wall: Studio Watch series.
Fly on the Wall: Susan Carlson Studio Watch—African Fabric Leopard
November 16 & 30, December 7 & 14, 2023—7:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Each session will last roughly 1-1/2 hours.
All sessions will be recorded for viewing later if you cannot attend one or more.
Price: $78
USE THIS LINK TO REGISTER
In the first session of the 4-week series, I begin work on a leopard, based on a photo by my cousin’s wife, Tanja Bauer. I’ll be concentrating on African print fabrics. However, other fabrics have already spoken to me, so there will probably be a bit of variety included before all is cut and glued in the end. This Fly on the Wall will be a little different from previous series (Winfrieda the polar bear and my Sun Oma portrait) in that I’m waiting to begin the first draft until you’re there, looking over my shoulder. You’ll get to see it live from the beginning, as I explain my thoughts and process as I go along. It’s hard to gauge exactly how long a collage will take, but my goal is to have the first draft of the leopard finished by the end of this first series.
Facial Features eWorkshop
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- Eight videos (over 8 hours combined length) collected into one convenient and organized spot
- Each annotated with “Jump Points” allowing you to scan forward and backward to the information you need
- Facial Features Templates included as PDF’s to download and work along with
- Like the Fabric Collage Online Master Class, membership in this eWorkshop is for life
$99
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(With a special Summertime offer good from now through August 31st, 2023)
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.
What does the class contain. Is it a tutorial only on how to do the pattern or do you get the pattern also.
Hi Carolyn, my Fly on the Wall series is (so far) all about inviting my students and readers into my studio as I work on a current fabric collage. I talk about what, how, and why I do what I do, and answer viewer’s questions. It’s not a class, tutorial, or pattern. It’s about how I approach my own artwork. However… the Fly on the Wall for February 2024—about fish—is a big exception to the original idea. For that particular month, I’ll be demonstrating the collage technique with the intent that the audience does join in on the project, a way for all of us to get a creative start to the new year, and a pattern is provided. There’s no feedback on individual projects, but still Q&A. Hope that clarifies what our Fly on the Wall is about.