Tomorrow, Sunday, December 31—New Year’s Eve!—is the deadline for submissions to our Finish Line Fabulous Give-Away. So please, please send in your entry for this drawing before midnight Pacific U.S. Time.
Already sent us a submission years ago? Or a have a quilt(s) that recently showed up in a Finish Line post (including these December posts)? You can re-enter any one quilt of yours that has previously appeared in the Finish Line. For example, Robyn Ellis, whose portrait of her brother appears above, submitted this quilt before we began the give-away. So she should now re-submit this quilt, or she can choose one of her other finished collage quilts instead, into the drawing for the Fabric Collage Finish Line Fabulous Give-Away. See info below.
It has been such a treat to receive so many submissions of finished quilts over the past four weeks. We’re hoping, however, that there are a few more of you out there who have been putting off sending in your entry. Well, procrastinate no longer! The time is nigh! Details are below.
But before you get immersed in this post, Tom and I would like to wish all of you a great and safe start to the New Year—may it be just right for whatever you’re up for. I say that since Tom and I have been reminiscing about holidays past. We remember our 20’s—heading out for First Night celebrations until 1am or later. By the time Sam came along in our 30’s, there were pot-lucks with friends to toast in the New Year. As Sam got older, we’d pick a movie theme and have those movies playing past midnight. I have fond memories of “Spaghetti Western” New Years with of course, spaghetti for dinner. This year, Sam will be staying over with us at home and Tom will make a favorite yet time-consuming meal for them—chicken fingers and waffles. I’ll come up with a fun-for-me vegan entree, and break out our board games to occupy a few hours into the night. And at midnight, regardless of who’s asleep or not, I’ll give a kiss to or text message my family to bring in the New Year.
An end-of-2023 thank you to all of you for sharing your art journeys and time with us—and for being there as part of our own journey through this past year—we had some rough moments along with the good, and always felt the love and care you sent to Tom and I, and my entire family. All the best to you and yours, and a toast to a brilliant 2024 to come. Cheers.
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)
Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"
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. If your work shows up in these December posts, please re-submit (or choose a different finished collage you’d rather submit) for the Give-Away. Thanks!
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.
And now for the final installment of Finish Line quilts submitted before December 2023 (previous to Give-Away call for submissions). Again, if your quilt has appeared in any of the December Finish Line posts, or anytime in 2023, or in any previous Finish Line posts through the years, please read the above info about re-submitting to be in the running for January’s Fabric Collage Finish Line Fabulous Give-Away! We don’t want you to miss out!
Laura Steiniger
Laura Steiniger of Tucson, Arizona and San Diego, California, sent in this quilt based on a photograph of her granddaughter and bestie, a Goldendoodle named Ruby. What a sweet portrait not only of her two subjects but of the connection between them—they are are literally wrapped around each other with Ruby’s paw peeking out below—even the colors Laura chose connect the two and help tell the story. I look forward to seeing the collage portraits and personalities of Laura’s other grandchildren as she works through my Facial Features eWorkshop.
From Laura:
This is my first attempt at doing a portrait. I have successfully made two dog collages after taking a workshop with Susan at the Tanque Verde Guest Ranch in Tucson, AZ. I love this technique for creating beautiful, organic quilts. I feel there is much to learn about doing “human” faces and have signed up for the portraiture class. My four-year-old Granddaughter loves her quilt, exclaiming “It’s me!” I’m looking forward to learning how to better interpret children’s faces…as I have five more little grandchildren to create quilts for.
It’s funny that Laura’s work should turn up in this last blog post of 2023, since I’ll be returning to Tucson and MISA’s Tanque Verde Ranch location in less than a month—my first travel and class of 2024 (openings still available). So as a little trip down memory lane, below are some class photos from that 2017 class where I met Laura, as she worked on soulful Kahlua—one of the two dogs she has created as collages, mentioned above. See both of Laura’s completed canine quilts in this Finish Line post: Completed Student Work Volume 8.
Click on any photos in this post to see them larger.
Robyn Ellis
On my second trip to Australia in 2018, I first met Robyn Ellis of Sydney, Australia at a class in Urunga, NSW. What a beautiful spot that is along the eastern coast, I’ll always remember the din from the flocks of amazingly colorful lorikeets. I’ll also remember the focus that Robyn had as she began this portrait of her brother—it carried such personal significance to her—not what I would recommend as a first fabric collage subject. But as you’ll see in the class photos below, Robyn caught on immediately and made very good progress in the course of our week together—I’m so happy to now see it finished. She tells a nice story about her journey with this quilt—her thoughts and decisions—lovely to read and to see her final, loving, result of this very special memory quilt.
Further work and thoughts of Robyn’s can be found in these posts: Australasian Quilt Convention, April 2019, Lightbulb Moments: Fabric Collage Epiphanies at AQC , where Robyn, along with other students, give short fabric collage insights of what they learned (with Tom as videographer), the AQC red panda in Finish Line #86, and a self-portrait in Finish Line #90.
From Robyn:
I commenced “His Favourite Photo” many years ago in a class at Urunga, NSW, under the expert tutoring of Susan. Time passed, and I kept getting those roadblocks. The shirt and background were the worst issues, preceded by many tears each time I dragged it out. Back to the brilliant blog posts, and occasionally the book, I would be reading for hours how to do this and that. The blog and the book do not match the class input, but gosh they kept encouraging me and I tried to follow along.
My brother hated having his photo taken. But this one taken on a family holiday in 1956-57 at Lone Pine, an animal sanctuary, in Brisbane, when he was 11.5 years, remained his favourite. Even weeks before his death, he asked me what his favourite photo was. Yes, the one with the snake I replied. How many times had I heard that.
I got to play with colour. The photo was a black and white picture, so I could do as I wished. Ian was seriously colour blind, but he always like anything bright that I was working on. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of working with colour and tone to get the shading and shadows to appear. So away I went.
I had made progress on the face, arms and snake in class. In our discussions, Susan suggested a black shirt, but as Ian had only recently passed, I didn’t want black. So it was left undecided. But a rainbow serpent used the full spectrum of colour and I didn’t want the snake to blend in. I ended up with about 7 fabrics that were Aboriginal or similar in design and cut away at them. Yes I again cut tiny little pieces, can’t seem to break that habit.
The next major hurdle was the background. I searched high and low, and even bought the same fabric twice on occasions. I asked your colleagues Susan, with whom you taught at AQC. The end result was a soft colour wash.
The quilting is not my best work. Like the red panda, the glue lifted off over the many years I have been working on the piece. It became an issue to the point I had to stitch around each piece. This then lead to a tight quilted background to match the density of stitching. And I couldn’t solve the tension issues. Did I put the wadding in upside down, was I overlooking something on the new machine, were there too many tears running down my face or was the deadline for finishing fast approaching and I was panicking a bit. I’m yet to solve the first two, but the last were so true. I won’t have my nose up against it when it’s hung, and I can enjoy having him around in a rather special and different way.
Mary McKay
As it happens, Mary McKay of Palm Desert, CA is another MISA Tucson alumni, this time from a 2019 class. That may have been the first time I met Mary, but now the years all blur together after numerous opportunities since then to work with her—both in-person and online and next month, full-circle back in Tucson! Mary may say (below) that her first project “bombed out,” but I’d say she did just fine for a first collage. I mean, just look where she’s at now, with her husband’s portrait above—”fantastic,” I’d say—and her current double portrait in the works, is even better. Mary has been one of my students that has, over just a few years, worked her way up to more challenging subjects. She’s learned so much along the way, has been such a pleasure to work with, and has become a friend. Thank you, Mary.
Below are the two most recent finished fabric collage quilts of Mary’s, but to show you the commitment Mary has given to the fabric collage process, check out Fabric Collage Finish Line #88, for “Oscar” the sea otter and links to 12 more pre-April 2023 posts that Mary’s work shows up in.
From Mary:
Frank the collage started in an in-person class in Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 2022 with Susan. Everyone was motivated and thrilled to be not only with Susan, but in Santa Fe. A great group of women in a beautiful setting coalesced into a mob of color, cutting, collaging crusaders.
Mary continued her progress on Frank through private coaching sessions and monthly Zoom meetings with Patreon. In the photos below, you can see where Frank was by the end of January 2023’s Live Online Fabric Collage Class.
Frank’s portrait collage has been a long time in the making. Fortunately, he comes from a family of crafty people and understands the creative process: the mess and the lack of cooked meals that accompany such a project.
Frank is also a life-long birder. We were in Panama and the two of us were sitting —right here—and he was so, so happy.
The more collages I make, the more I realize I enjoy the challenges of making faces. Though as much as I love Frank and his face, I am never making another mustache.
As Mary mentioned, she began her portrait of Frank in Fabric Collage Week #2 in Santa Fe, NM—May 2022, but pretty much finished him in My First Portraits Only Online Fabric Collage Class—September 2023.
Much of the work Mary put into Oliver, the Galapagos Tortoise, happened in this class, May 2023 Live Online Fabric Collage Class, but he also showed up here and there for feedback in other online venues as mentioned for her husband’s portrait. I think that “tenacity” is the word for this particular collage—Mary took Oliver through many changes. In the end, she brought up the idea of some radical cropping to just get rid of the problem areas. It was a great idea, and now Oliver’s forthright and forward-moving personality shines out from his dark border.
From Mary:
I took my first class with Susan in Tucson a few years ago. I loved the process but totally bombed out on the project. I left knowing I wanted to do more but also knowing the photograph had to have obvious-to-me values. I’ve tried to make that my guiding light, with mixed success and buckets of Susan-help.
Oliver is based on a photo taken by Oliver von Holzing, who burst out laughing and graciously gave me permission to use his photograph taken in the Galapagos. It’s a great photo of an enormous tortoise: but what I really love is the tortoise’s face. I wasn’t about to make the whole tortoise so I kept cropping and cropping. My original plan was for Oliver to fill the entire muslin so there was no need for background. Oliver’s wrinkly, ancient, folding leathery skin would fill the space.
Oliver has a great face and a wonderful extending leg. What became impossible was making Oliver “whole” because I couldn’t make fabrics work with his facing right side. There wasn’t enough context for a normal brain to see a tortoise.
I discussed it with Susan and decided to either quit or finish it as is. She was incredibly supportive and here we have Oliver emerging from dark shade into light. Thanks to Andrea Elliott, a long arm quilter extraordinaire, Oliver is now living his best collage life possible.
I think Oliver demonstrates that a good photograph does not guarantee a great collage will follow.
I think that Mary’s “Oliver,” is a great example that sometimes what we learn along the way is more important than where we finish. Personally, I have a soft spot for Oliver (he makes me smile), though Mary had some tough times with him and didn’t end up with the vision she originally had. However, she seems to be at least satisfied where he ended up—with his gaping mouth and wrinkled, leathery, and colorful skin. Plus, he’s finished.
So I think that ending our 2023 Finish Line posts with Oliver, is appropriate. You can look at the ending of a year in the same way: that what we learn along the way is more important than where we finish. Or similarly, the idea of “Progress Not Perfection”—taken from the name one of my May 2023 online class groups gave to themselves—is good to keep in mind when looking back or looking forward. May we all make good progress in 2024, learn some new things and have some fun while we’re at it, without the concerns of perfection. Happy New Year, folks.
Final Chance!
Don’t forget to enter YOUR completed fabric collage quilt in our
Fabric Collage Finish Line Fabulous Give-Away!
Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"
Deadline midnight December 31, 2023, Pacific Time
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.
Happy New Year, Tom and Susan, and many thanks for your biweekly blog posts, a wonderful start to my day. And here’s to a peaceful, joyful, and creative 2024!