Okay! The New Year is here and it’s time to announce the first round picks for our first ever Fabulous Fabric Collage Give-Away! The next three weeks will be dedicated to showing off the submitted work that was randomly selected in all four rounds of the giveaway—one collage quilt per person. Personally, I wanted nothing to do with deciding the “winners.” I look at the work that you sent in, and the work by my students in classes, and I truly love it all. No matter what level of collage experience you may have, you’ve finished at least one fabric collage quilt—yes! You’ve won that battle to begin your collage journey no matter how far it may take you. A big thanks to all who submitted finished quilts during the month of December, and a big congratulations to all for those achievements.
Tom and I want to start this new year off in the best way possible, and we decided that offering outlets of creativity (besides our blog posts in general) was something we could do—building on the love of fabric collage and the support that you’ve shown and shared with us throughout the 8+ years of blog posts (totaling more than 400 Saturday posts).
In this week’s special edition of the Fabric Collage Finish Line—#98 as we count up to our #100th Finish Line post on January 20th—we announce the first round picks of our Fabulous Giveaway. Five names and entries were selected at random (using a computer program) to receive a $25 susancarlson.com gift card.
That $25 gift card could purchase the Spiral eWorkshop ($25) or a handful of my patterns ($5 each), or most of my book, Serendipity Quilts ($29.95). All these products are good directions to continue a fabric collage journey. The Spiral eWorkshop introduces the technique of fabric collage with a playful project. And my patterns provide readily available designs to continue with the collage technique, originally intended to supplement Serendipity Quilts. The $25 gift card could also be applied as a coupon towards a larger purchase from my website. Recipients have been notified by email.
And now, drumroll please, the five recipients of our first round drawing are: Karin Tracy, Karen Stenback, Marty Gottron, Marnie Coke, and Christy Beard. The quilts and stories that they entered are presented below.
Congratulations ladies—have fun and keep collaging—let’s see where you go from here!
Karin Tracy
Karin Tracy of Aubrey, Texas, attended my retreat in Maine in Oct 2018 at the Harpswell Inn, and then submitted the finished portrait quilt of her granddaughter Alia, just a couple months later for the Finish Line: Volume 15—Auld Lang Syne 2018, and this was one big, bold, and beautiful portrait quilt! A couple years later, Karin collaged her three bird-watching cats, documented in Finish Line Quilts: Online Submissions 6. Karin has shared a lot of her process in those posts, the reads are well worthwhile.
I think Karin sets herself up with particular challenges with her collage quilts—this third quilt has quite an unusual perspective, yet she’s done another great job, you can feel the excitement building in their little postures, captured in fabric. Lovely, Karin.
From Karin:
This is from a photo of my grandchildren watching the Camas Days parade in Washington. I wanted to keep my skills going that I learned from Susan so this is the third one I did. I aim for at least one a year—they take a lot of energy and focus and are addictive and challenging at the same time.
Karen Stenback
Karen Stenback of Lancaster, CA, replied that she learned the fabric collage technique via my book and online demos from blog posts and the Fabric Collage Master Class. However, she also submitted a spiral collage for Fabric Collage Finish Line (Sort of): Thursday Night Spirals, which tells me she also attended our webinars of 2020—a couple of which dealt with adapting a photo of someone you know into one of my sun or moon designs. Karen, you have created a heartfelt and striking rendition in this quilt of your son—it’s as if his memory is shining from the darkness. I’m so sorry for your loss.
From Karen:
This was my second collage quilt using Susan’s technique and pattern. It is of my son Steve, who passed away at age 37. I like to think of him now residing with the other celestial beings.
Martha (Marty) Gottron
Marty Gottron of Lee, Massachusetts has created a very nice collage portrait of this little waterbird—she used the patterns in her fabrics in just the right way show us the visual texture and values of the feathers. Below, Marty says her new goal is to use unrealistic colors for another bird or animal collage. Marty, you’ve probably read this post already (it’s one of my first from 2015!), Why Color Is Irrelevant, but in case it’s been awhile, it may help you in how to consider the values of your image as you select colors. You’re doing great, enjoy!
From Marty
My husband and are both birders and he is also a photographer. I collaged a couple of his photos using “wonderunder,” and they turned out fine. But then the owner of our local quilt store showed me your Serendipity book, and based on the methods you wrote there, I made a few fish and a spiral and found your process to be much more freeing and creative than the way I’d been doing it. Since then, I’ve purchased the master class and also an episode of Frieda and the Leopard, and I look forward to the Saturday blogs.
My husband took the photo of the godwit when we were visiting friends near St. Pete, Florida, a couple of years ago. The challenge for me was to try to capture the look of the bird without being slavish to the photo. My goal now, and it’s hard for me, is to try to capture an image in colors that are not necessarily the real colors of the bird or animal. I particularly like your process because it allows one to play, to try things and see where they lead. I’m working on a fox now, which is taking forever, and have ideas for a couple more birds.
Marnie Coke
Marnie Coke of Leith, Ontario, Canada, told us that she reads every blog post of mine that she can find. It makes me feel good that that’s how she learned the collage process, because she’s made a super portrait of her grandson. It tells me that Tom and I achieved what we set out to do back in 2015—to share and teach the fabric collage process to anyone willing to follow along—no class needed—the information is there, accessible to everyone. Of course there’s now 400+ posts to sort through, but searching under “How-to” in “Categories” is a way to get to the meat of the process.
In any case, Marnie has certainly soaked up the instruction—big “wow’s” to his eyes, mouth, and hair—and the peachy-sunny colors with the great use of the fabric prints is right-on. Can’t wait to see the rest of your grandchildren’s portraits, Marnie!
From Marnie:
I began this collage with fascination for the process Susan presented. Originally inspired by my attempts to replicate a painting of my late brother in law, I decided I would follow Susan’s fabric collage process in making a quilt of one of my grandchildren. I’m hooked and will continue making collages of my other 3 grandchildren.
Christy Beard
Christy Beard of Columbus, Ohio, has taken three in-person classes with me. Previous collages of Christy’s include two birds and a portrait of her grandson. I think this collage of Christy’s granddaughter (there’s definitely a grandchild theme running through this randomly selected collection of quilts) is her best yet. It’s another unusual perspective and shows so much energy that seems to be spilling out from this little girl, figuratively and literally, with Christy’s choice of bright and (mostly) primary colored fabrics, and breaking the quilt boundaries with her granddaughter’s wild hair. I love it.
From Christy:
This is a quilt based on a picture of my granddaughter I took at a playground. It is very important to me to show personality. She is a unique child who carries both light and darkness. The shading on the portrait shows this. I have done several portraits using the collage technique. The challenge for me is to use value to create definition. While color choice is not unimportant it is not my primary concern. Who would think that green and purple fabric would make an intriguing portrait? Cotton fabric and tulle were used. The edges were finished with a multi layer zigzag stitch.
Fabric collage opened doors for me and gave a new way to regard fabric design and value. It is fun.
I noticed that all of the classes Christy took from me were all in Maine and all in October (funny how I just noticed that). See more of Christy’s work in these posts: October 2017 Maine Quilt Retreat; Portland, ME Collage Quilt Two-Fer—October 2018; and October 2019 Advanced Fabric Collage Maine Quilt Retreat. The 2019 class was one of the last I taught in-person before the pandemic. However, in late September 2024, I will be teaching in Maine again, in Bar Harbor, through MISA (openings available, Christy!).
Christy, along with other class students, also gave blog readers some tips on Choosing Your Subject for Fabric Collage in video interviews with Tom, and her first collage of a colorfully patterned kookaburra can be seen in this Finish Line post, Volume 14: A Second Fabric Collage Aviary.
So that’s the wrap-up of the fantastic first round selections for our 2024 Fabulous Fabric Collage Give-Away. Thanks to all participants for sharing! In next Saturday’s special Finish Line we will share the next five names, quilts, and stories in the scintillating second round post! 😉
Congratulations to this first round of winners! I loved seeing works I had not seen before. This is a great way to start the year!