Fantastical Fish Fabric Collage—February Results! Part 1

Last month was Fish February for Tom and I—and for many of you it was a month to let go and try something new. As a slightly different approach to my various Thursday Night presentations, I selected a project for you to join me on—a fish collage—beginning to end. We called it our Quilter’s Fantastical Trophy Fish Follow-Along Class.

So many of you took us up on it, we thought it a good idea to invite submissions of fish-in-progress (or finished) for a blog post. Well, let’s just say the response has been as fantastic as the fish photos arriving in our email box—such as “Sun Basking Sassy” (above), by Ann Wilbur. So this will be the first of a few amazingly creative and inspiring fishy posts to come—a true treat as winter warms into spring (of course in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s as summer cools into autumn).

In any case, as subjects for fabric collage, fish are a great choice wherever you are in this world of ours, since there are as many ways to interpret a fish as there are fish in the sea. This is true for both beginner fabric collagers—looking for a low-stress subject to learn the technique—or for experienced collage enthusiasts—who may want to loosen up with a fun way to play and experiment with fabric.

This versatility of subject matter and how to interpret it was why I chose fish for my February 2024 online fabric collage class. For four Thursdays attendees followed along as I explained how I was making my fish collage. I then gave them step-by-step instructions (and homework) for working on their own fish.

Like I mentioned, today’s post shows off just some of the fishy quilts created during the class—with stories, explanations, and words of collage wisdom—submitted by their creators. Future fishy posts will follow every couple weeks or so. Some of these collages are still in progress, but that was part of the point of this class—getting started—one of the hardest steps to make.

Congratulations to all who made that first step, and more! You are inspiring and fantastic. 😉

There are four posts with student work in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

NOW AVAILABLE!

Susan Carlson Fabric Collage: Fantastical Fish eWorkshop

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FOR MORE INFORMATION

INCLUDES:

• All four recordings from the four-week class.
• Extended 10-minute edition of piecing time lapse (see below).
• Over six hours of video instruction.
• Annotated videos with “jump points” to help find the information you need.
• Links to helpful blog posts.
• Free fish pattern of your choice.

Learning resources referred to in this post include: Serendipity Quilts, Spiral eWorkshop, Facial Features eWorkshop, Fabric Collage Master Class, 5-day online Zoom classes, and my patterns (including fish and sun/moon patterns).

Click on any of the smaller images below to view them larger.

Susan (Sue) Wilson

“Hot Lips” (28 x 20 inches), 2024, by Sue Wilson

From Sue Wilson of Pittsboro, NC:

I’ve been sewing and quilting for 50+ years and have always enjoyed the process of machine appliqué, making my own patterns and finding just the right fabric to “paint” the subject. The idea of making a face in fabric intrigued me. In 2019, I participated in Lyric Kinard’s “Playful Portraiture” workshop. It was fun. It was exciting. It was difficult. I set it aside.

Still, the desire to create faces in fabric lingered. As we welcomed 2023, I discovered Freddy Moran’s Face the Year Project (2018). At nearly 90 years of age she had made 54 fantastical faces in 54 days. Certainly I could make 12 in a year! I had my goal for 2023.

But I had a lot to learn. I realized I didn’t actually know what makes a face! So I drew a face every day for 100 days. I studied with local artist Emma Skurnick, who helped me learn to see shapes in faces and value in colors. Over time, I created seven appliqué faces using techniques I already knew. I really wanted to take my creative efforts to a new level… from simple appliqué to fabric collage. But something was missing.

Then I discovered Susan Carlson’s book, Serendipity Quilts – Cutting Loose Fabric Collage. Oh, boy! I had found my teacher! I was determined to follow the exercises in that book. I purchased the “Spiral eWorkshop” for additional support. That project was so exciting, it kept me up at night! I followed the spiral project with the Sun Portrait. It fit neatly into my Faces goal, and (I do believe) catapulted my work to the next level. My Faces took on a new level of complexity and depth. Finally, I worked through Susan’s Facial Features Workshop in the fall of 2023 (what took me so long??) picking up some nice tips and skills.

The Moon Portrait was my 11th (and final) Face completed in 2023. Didn’t make it to 12, but I learned so much along the way. The “Fly on the Wall” FISH webinar has been a wonderful ‘next step’ into studying with Susan.

What I learned doing the FISH quilt:

• Don’t glue the edges yet … not yet, not yet, not yet!

• But if you do, the water spray bottle is your best friend, easily dissolving the glue.

• Avoid straight edges and large areas covered with only one type of print – the result is too flat. Cut around curvy, organic lines and shapes to experience magical merging of fabrics.

• Those skinny, skinny strips of fabric seen in your fish tail, fins, etc? I couldn’t believe your luck in finding fabric with those perfectly lined up lines. Ha ha! You had cut them out! Eureka! I can do that! I added skinny hot pink fabric lines in the tail section, adding to the interest and cohesiveness of the tail area.

• Novelty prints, with or without significant meaning, add a little surprise and is fun. I was proud to find a place for a playful frog in this project!

• Sheers, sparkle add so much to the finished project! Start collecting.

• Since I did not “collage” the background and liked the existing clean edges of the two fabrics I used, I made a “facing” binding. I do like the look of it, but had to be careful using the iron to press neat edges… didn’t want to melt that top layer of tulle! I have tried your “wrapped and glued” binding once, on my rendition of Moon Portrait (submitted to your Finish Line blog post, end of year 2023). I can see the appeal! and will definitely use the technique again in the future, specially after watching one of your videos that shows exactly how it’s done.

This picture shows my FIRST TAIL. I wasn’t happy with it, but hadn’t found anything better in my stash.

Came across a piece of fabric that looked perfect for the “tips” of the tail. A new tail began to come together. I discarded the first tail. (Don’t worry, I still have those fabric pieces!) Other pieces were moved or removed. I thought the striped fabric of the back body would be perfect, but not as it is here… too big of a piece, looks flat.

I added some stripes to that back body… much better! Plus more embellishments overall.

I wanted to be brave and use a colorful, wild background. This was too much for me!

deTAIL I wish the sparkle of the turquoise tulle, embedded with glitter, showed up in this photo! I do like my pink skinny lines, adding interest and cohesiveness to the tail parts.

I was happy to hide a little frog in this fin! Note the sparkle in the purple circular gill below and to the left of the frog.

Ann Wilbur

From Ann Wilbur of Central Iowa:

My first exposure to Susan’s art was in 2014 and I was intrigued. The book got bought but I never did anything but sporadically flipped through the pages. About a year ago I bought the Master Class and I did a spiral on my own and loved the process. Actually, the final product is loved as well. Then came this class and the stars aligned. Finally the collage journey has really begun. I’m “hooked”.

The colors for the quilt were initially determined by the fabrics I found in my stash. The yellows and oranges are common in my stash so I grabbed them first. After watching Susan for a few weeks I started branching out with more colors and texture. My real breakthrough was when I took the story telling idea to heart. My fish suddenly had a setting, a purpose, a life. That made fabric selection much easier. Sheers are being a bit stubborn. There’s a few I want to use but not having a huge stash of sheer fabrics is really frustrating! Finding the right look is going to take me some extra time.

Barbara Grant

From Barb Grant of Pacific Grove, CA:

I adore aboriginal fabrics,. The stories in the fabric, and the strong colors. I wanted to limit this fish to only those fabrics, check. However, the background was too busy for her. I’m pleased with her personality, she is a strong ocean girl!

This is Kya. Plan to use the lower fabric in narrow strips on the top and bottom of the fish. Pinned, she’s still in progress.

Shirley Wendt

From Shirley Wendt of Enid, OK:

I have wanted to work in more of the art quilt style. I saw some of Susan’s quilts on You Tube and Facebook and saw she was offering online classes. I have done other quilt alongs I found online and enjoyed them.

It is a combination of fabrics I had in my stash and newly purchased fabric. Once I got more of the fish completed, I saw that it needed some special additions, I looked for those fabrics that gave it more flash.

Sylvie Aguilar

From Sylvie Aguilar of Acton, MA:

I first learned fabric collage through books and classes. It was mostly done with fusible, until I discovered Susan. Not being able to get into one of her live classes, I bought her book and followed her blog religiously to learn as much as I could. Her technique spoke to me. I was fortunate enough to get into my first online class in May 2021. After 3 on line and 1 live class, I am still learning.

I decided to join the Thursday night fish along to get my creative juices flowing again. So glad I joined. The fish is a very fun project to let loose. No rules!

My goal with this class was to once again explore color but also learn how to add more to the background. I really enjoyed this mini class. As always, Susan and Tom are an experienced team, whether in person or online. The information is given in a way that you understand. They are always well prepared and on top of things. It’s a great experience. You will learn a ton no matter how many classes you’ve taken.

Linda Stevens

From Linda Stevens of Pettibone, ND:

I started a spiral fabric collage after purchasing Susan’s book, Serendipity Quilts. Knowing I had a lot to learn, I signed up for her Fantastical Trophy Fish Class held in February 2023. About three weeks into my Trophy Fish, I found the spiral collage and was going to toss in the trash. I thought better of it and it now lies folded up in the Serendipity Quilt book as an excellent reminder of how much I learned in our Fishy Class.

My Fishy Quilt was like putting a jigsaw puzzle together without the help of the picture on the box. I struggled to start. The backbone and the eye areas turned out to be my starting places and I started making progress, but it took me the whole first week, working on it 4-5 hours/day. I left the fish on a work table during the entire class and would often stop by to gaze at what I’d done, sitting down and redoing an area because I didn’t like it or working on a new area. Even when I thought I was done, I was still tweaking this and that. I finally had to firmly say STOP! It’s DONE! My most important take-away was how important colors, prints, lights & dark values, and movement are to collage and I now look at every piece of fabric in my stash with a whole new eye. Prior to this class, I never really saw fabric. I plan to make another Fish. My goal is to sign up for the Animals Only class so that I can create a collage worthy of my beloved German Shepherd, Toby.