New Zoom Follow-Along: Fascinating Fabric Collage Bugs and Butterflies

Introducing a special summertime Thursday Night series—Fascinating Fabric Collage Bugs and Butterflies—live from my studio!

Starting mid-July and for four Thursdays, I’ll invite you to join me via Zoom to play with fabric and create a fascinating insect collage—patterns of beetles, butterflies, or a cicada specially designed for this class, will be available.

Summer is always a great season to celebrate insects as a whole, but the summer of 2024 is a particularly special moment for a celebration of cicadas. Trillions of cicadas emerged this year in 17 states. Alas, where I live in Maine was not one of them. I envy those of you who have been surrounded by the raucous din of these cyclical insects.

I’ve had a fascination with cicadas for as long as I can remember—my collage quilt “Cicada Summer” (photo above) is a 2005 interpretation of memories. I grew up in Maryland, and cicada nymphs would emerge from the base of our front yard maple tree, then molt out of their larval casings as winged adults. When you’re in elementary school, the concept of “broods” that would only emerge every 7 or 13 or 17 years was incomprehensible when waiting even one year felt like an eternity. I would search the tree trunk every summer for any empty cicada shells clinging onto the bark and, in my memories, there was cicada song to be heard every year. It was the sound of summer.

So in celebration of this year’s “super” emergence of cicadas from both 13 and 17 year cycling broods, I am designing a new pattern—a cicada, of course—that can be used as the base of a new fabric collage project. When you sign up for the July/August Follow Along, you can choose one of my free bug or butterfly patterns—either the yet-to-be-released cicada pattern, or another choice from my patterns. You are also welcome to create your own insect design to work along with me.

Each presentation will begin with a slide show to get you started or to catch you up with previous week’s progress on my bug collage and then continue with a live demonstration. There will be opportunities to ask questions throughout the session. I encourage folks to watch, listen, and ask questions during our time together, then work on their own project later.

As with previous Thursday Night events—such as February’s Quilter’s Fantastical Trophy Fish Follow Along—you will receive a link to the recording of each session. These links will help you catch up if you miss a night and will be yours to review after the class has ended.

Fascinating Fabric Collage Bugs and Butterflies Zoom Follow-Along

July 18 and 25, and August 8 and 15, 2024—7:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Each session will last roughly 1-1/2 hours.
Price: $78
USE THIS LINK TO REGISTER

Included:
• Four nights of demonstration and instruction
• Question and answer periods
• Free pattern
• Recordings of all sessions
• Materials list

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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.