To close out 2023, we’ll be sharing a series of Fabric Collage Finish Line posts featuring the quilts of followers and students—such as Beatriz Englert’s portrait of her granddaughter (detail above). We have just enough submissions to take us to the end of December’s Saturday’s posts. At that point, we’ll be nearing our 100th Fabric Collage Finish Line—that’s a lot of finished quilts shared by you, my readers and students!
To thank you for this fecundity of fabric collage quilts through the years (the first Finish Line was in August 2016) we’re presenting (drum roll please) our first ever:
Fabric Collage Finish Line Fabulous Give-Away
PRIZES
Five 3rd Place Prizes—$25 Gift Card to susancarlson.com
Five 2nd Place Prizes—$100 Gift Card to susancarlson.com
Five 1st Place Prizes—$200 Gift Card to susancarlson.com
One Grand Prize—Free Admission to any All-Levels Susan Carlson Live Online Class ($995 value)
Winners will be determined by a random drawing. To enter, simply submit any finished (quilted and bound) fabric collage quilt (in the collage method that I teach), between now and midnight December 31, 2023, Pacific Time. It is important that you complete the submission form entirely. Incomplete entries may not be accepted. Prizes are not transferable. One entry per person, please.
IMPORTANT: You may re-enter a quilt that has appeared previously in the Fabric Collage Finish Line, but you must re-submit the quilt using the link below. For those who have had multiple quilts appear in Finish Line posts, please choose one quilt and it’s story which you would like to enter and re-share for this give-away.
Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"
When the New Year rolls around, each Saturday we will announce winners and display the winning quilt entries in special Finish Line posts. On January 6, we will announce third place winners, on January 13, we will announce 2nd place winners, and on January 20—Finish Line post 100!—we will announce the first place and grand prize winners. Submissions not selected for a prize will be featured in future 2024 Fabric Collage Finish Line posts.
As you think about new or re-entries to submit, here is the first course of December’s Fabric Collage Finish Line feast. As always, I thank these ladies for sharing their beautiful work. Let their quilts and stories inspire you to submit your own fabric collage quilts.
Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"
Lizzie Stebbins
Lizzie Stebbins lives in both Key Largo, Florida and Jefferson, Maine—I’m pretty sure you can guess which times of year for both. Even though she flees my home state of Maine in the winter, she’s a pretty cool person and a pleasure to be around—she also knows me oh too well when it comes to the natural color of a manatee (read below). You can see more of Lizzie’s colorful collages in these posts: Harpswell, Maine Collage Quilt Retreat, October 2019, The Fabric Collage Finish Line: Online Submissions 11, Fabric Collage Finish Line: Online Submissions 19, Fabric Collage Finish Line No. 73, Fabric Collage in Bar Harbor, ME, September 2022, and Fabric Collage Finish Line #85.
From Lizzie:
I’ve been an avid fan of the process ever since I first saw Susan’s “Specimens” exhibit at Maine Quilts. I bought her book, Serendipity Quilts, made a spiral, a turtle, a fish, and have never stopped collaging. I was lucky enough to take my first in-person class in 2019, then again in 2022.
It seems like every time I start a collage, one small success – an eye, a nostril, an ear – and I’m off and running. This time it was those “wrinkles” on his muzzle. I made this quilt for a challenge called “It Isn’t Easy Being Green.” Even though manatees are gray in reality, well that is not the Susan Carlson way! So, a green manatee for the challenge. Florida manatees are considered a “threatened” species. Because of their slow speed and relatively high buoyancy, manatees are often struck by boats, which is the primary cause of human-related deaths of the species. Additionally, manatees continue to be threatened by loss of warm-water habitat and periodic die-offs from red tides and unusually cold weather events. So it isn’t easy being a manatee. I used tulle to add some sparkles to the highlights as well as for the “bubbles.” I searched this photo online and it is a public domaine image with no attribution required.
Beatriz Englert
Beatriz Englert of Seminole, Florida was inspired by a photo she took of her then 8-year old beautiful granddaughter. She wanted to show her free spirit and impish eyes. This is not the first collage portrait Beatriz has tackled. I was first impressed by her talent when she interpreted the very plain marble image of Michelangelo’s David with very bright print fabrics in this class, and then again in 2018 with a Gustav Klimt inspired collage portrait. Great use of patterned fabrics for facial contours in all three of of them.
Click on any photos in the post to see them larger.
From Beatriz:
Used only Kaffe Fasset fabrics and your collage techniques, which I learned at two workshops a few years ago; one in Portland, Maine and one in Kalispell, Montana. Had the original photo enlarged at Walgreens to a poster size and then traced the shadow lines with a Sharpie onto paper. The office supply enlarged the traced copy to the large size I needed. I’ve been using this collage technique ever since. The only change is the addition of different colors of tulle to cover the entire quilt before machine quilting. This particular quilt has glitter tulle, which makes a HUGE mess in the studio! It add the extra sparkle I needed. I kept the background a simple ombre since her head is so detailed.
Barbara Fooks
The world is a big place and I’m so tickled when people from all over show up as part of my fabric collage community—Barbara Fooks of Kitchener, ON, Canada, is one of those people. I’ve never met her in person, maybe someday, but in the meantime, she sends in finished quilt after finished quilt. Her lovely results demonstrate how we now have such a great ability to learn online and through Zoom meetings. See two more of Barbara’s quilts here: Fabric Collage Finish Line: Online Submissions 22 and Fabric Collage Finish Line No. 74.
From Barb:
I first saw Susan’s work in 2019 when I looked up collage quilting, and came across Susan’s website. I was amazed, astonished, and awestruck! Shortly thereafter I purchased the Master Class Manual and did a spiral. This is now the fifth quilt I have finished. I watch the Patreon Show and Share even when I am not participating, and followup on the blogs and in the manual often during the process. Susan has helped me find a talent I didn’t know God had given me.
My niece and her partner were planning to get married, so I started a collage of their dog, Ollie, a Papillon with a lot of white fur. I asked my niece for pictures of her dog, and chose one of him sitting on a couch. I was struggling with all that white fur, and asked Susan’s help with shrinking him down to just a headshot. Unfortunately the the wedding came and went. I continued plugging away, collaging a background of greenery. He’s finally finished, and I have learned a lot. I am glad I made the choice to focus on the important part. I have a collage of a swan and cygnets, but again all that white. Not sure if I am ready to make maybe a gold swan.
Gift Cards Now Available for Any susancarlson.com Product or Class Purchased Through Susan’s Website
Gifts cards are available in six designs for any amount and can be applied as a “coupon” to reduce the price of a larger purchase—or towards a smaller purchase with a remaining balance to be used at a later date.
For more information, click here.