Even More Fish in the Sea: Fantastical Fabric Collage, February Results! Part 3

Beginners to fabric collage rejoice! The popularity of my February 2024 four-week Fantastical Quilter’s Trophy Fish class inspired me (and Tom) to create an eWorkshop based on the series. See the details below.

The eWorkshop format allows you to work at any pace you want—either faster because you don’t have to wait a week for the next installment—or slower as life interposes itself. The eWorkshop will be there for you to use whenever you are ready.

Take a moment to admire the quilts in this post from students in that fish class. These collages are still in progress, but the vibrancy of color and richness of pattern are already on full display.

As subjects for fabric collage, fish are a great choice since there are as many ways to interpret a fish as there are fish in the sea. This is true for both beginners—looking for an easy, low-stress subject to learn the technique—or for experienced quilters—who may want to loosen up and just have fun playing with fabric.

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.
• Materials list
• Links to helpful blog posts.
• Free fish pattern of your choice.

Today’s post shows off even more of the fantastical fish quilts created during the four week class—check out the fabulous Part I here. Many of these collages are still in progress and some are finished—either way, the vibrancy of color and richness of pattern are on full display.

Congratulations to all you fantastic fabric collage artists and a big thanks to those who have shared your results with the rest of us.

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.

Nancy Lander

From Nancy Lander of Auburn, Maine:

I used a scherenschnitte pattern of a bass because I enjoy fishing for bass here in Maine. The fish is about 25 inches long and looks like it’s jumping out of the water. I wanted my fantastical bass to be jumping out of the water with life, rather than a mounted trophy fish. When I fish, I always catch and release. The fabrics I chose are bright colors with bold patterns. I enjoyed auditioning the different options and made changes only after thinking about the choices for a while. I am wondering about the quilting and am anxious to try it out.

I think my biggest takeaways include:

go big when creating the fish as it’s easier to get creative with the various fabrics (That was a surprise for me. I thought my 13 inch fish looked big before I went to the first class. So my 24+ fish is so much better. I won’t hesitate to go even bigger next time!)
using big bold fabric design images work amazingly well when collaged
trimming makes a huge difference to “blend” the different fabrics together
using lots of different fabrics is great but also reusing some in different places will make the piece more cohesive as a whole
audition, audition, audition the fabrics
taking a photo allows you to really see it
changing and tweaking spots before glueing is helpful (I posted my partly done pinned fish on Facebook to get others ideas on areas to tweak. Turns out some mentioned the same two areas that were bothering me!)
using the tulle overlay adds a lot to the piece
playing with fabric has never been so much fun under Susan’s guidance!

Marnie K. Coke

From Marnie K. Coke of Leith, Ontario, Canada:

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being a participant in the Fantastical Trophy Fish follow along class this February. Susan is an amazing artist and truly inspires those who are fortunate enough to be her student. Listening to Susan sharing her thoughts as she goes through the creative process as well as having the visual documentation has opened up the artistic possibilities of fabric collage to those of us who may not feel they are ‘artists’. I LOVE this. Thanks so very much Susan.

‘ELEGANZA’ was inspired by a photo of a Ram Cichlid, a very colourful tropical fish, chosen as a subject for the Fantastical Trophy Fish fabric collage assignment. My previous experience with this art form was creating a portrait of one of my grandsons. I learned the process by following Susan’s blogs and videos. Participating in the follow along this past month has been an exceptional experience. I had a few aha moments: Explanations by Susan about the blending of fabrics and shapes extended my understanding and helped with the 2nd and 3rd drafts (I still have much to learn). Most importantly, I learned to let go of the need for perfection and let intuition take over; go with the flow so to speak; and above all, I had a lot of fun doing this.

Brenda Carter

From Brenda Carter of Fort McMurray, AB, Canada:

I chose fish from the African cichlid family using African fabric. This particular fish caught my eye with his huge mouth. Once I got it done, my husband and I thought what a fun idea to add a cigar in his mouth.

Sheila Clark

“Finella” (24 x 18 inches), 2024 by Sheila Clark

From Sheila Clark of Sidney, BC:

I really enjoyed learning how to make a fabric collage fish with Susan. It was great fun searching for “fishy” fabrics, experimenting with different textures and layers, playing with the fabrics and learning Susan’s techniques. I’m still in the process of deciding on the background fabrics, so the fun isn’t over yet!

Mary Schmieding Weibel

Marty Gottron

From Marty Gottron of Lee, MA:

I have your master class and have taken a couple of on-line courses as well as following your blog. I was particularly pleased that this exercise finally made me loosen up a bit and try colors and patterns that I might not have considered before. So, a big thank you.