On August 1-3—in a very roomy, light-filled, and temperature-controlled (it was very hot outside) classroom off a side hallway of The National Quilt Museum—a fanciful fabric collage school of sea-life was in the making as twenty students let loose with their fabrics, scissors, pins and glue to create nineteen very colorful fish, and one seahorse. In photo above, wonderfully untidy (messy but not scary) piles of fabric and scraps unfold on the tables of Lynn Gross and Corrie DeCamp.
In blog posts last week and the week before, I gave overviews of my 12-quilt “Specimens” exhibit at NQM in Paducah, Kentucky—installed and hanging until November 19, 2024. The museum also arranged for me to teach a class while my show was on display. The format we settled on was a three-day workshop, which is just enough time to sink our fabric collage teeth into a perfect subject for a hot summer week—fish. Fish imagery lends itself to a certain playfulness and adaptability to numerous artistic styles and color palettes.
I love teaching this class because it allows me and my students to throw all caution to the wind and lose ourselves in the play of color and pattern. There’s a lot of information to cover in just three days, so there’s no time to dawdle in getting started, and this class jumped right into the deep end of creativity.
As all teaching mornings begin, there were daily demos and Q&A, leading my students through the fabric collage process. Below are a few fishy quilt examples hanging on the classroom wall, to add to other quilts of mine we could talk about in the museum gallery.
To get a quick-start in a class such as this, I suggest starting with one of my fish patterns, which all but two students did. So as I proceed with showing you all the fantastic work accomplished in such a short time, I’ll link to the patterns used in case you’re inspired to try your own hand at catching a fish, or two.
Let’s begin at the end
You’ve seen a few results, now see their beginnings and progressions in the slideshow below:
Catching the waves with, “Wavelength”
This fish pattern caught the eyes and interest of four of my students (following below), but by the end of class it was hard for even me to guess at their beginnings. It’s one of the things that I find great about teaching this class—no two fish will be the same, it’s not possible. Since we work free-hand and don’t create templates, it means that each collage—even generated from the same pattern—will automatically, to one extent or another, vary in shape and arrangement of fabrics due to the fabric selection and whims of each creator.
The creative flow of “Wavelength” in slideshow below:
Dipping into the goldfish bowl
Carpe diem, carpe carpem. Sieze the day, sieze the carp. My students did both. Just over 1/3 of the class chose my, “Carpe Carpem” goldfish pattern, to base their fish design on. But as you’ll see below, they were anything but the same ol’ carp.
The making of the amazing evolutions of “Carpe Carpem” in slideshow below:
And then there were five
Rounding out the selection of my fish patterns is, “Spiny Lionfish.”—a fish that is more fin than body, but an alluring fin it seems to be.
And here’s the in-progress photos of the final five sea creatures:
Your work and generous sharing are always inspiring! I will get to one of your workshops at some point! Posting on this one to say how fabulous you look in your chocolate outfit! I have a huge smile knowing that my clothing design work is supporting your creative work by your looking so funky and comfy and how you’ve made the outfit “you”.
Thank you!
Cheers, Kate Lamontagne
These quilts are fabulous!! What a fun and inspiring class! I have to try it!
You are such a great inspiration. For some reason, the Fish pattern brings out such creative products! Thank you so much for sharing. Great Fish projects!
Thanks,
Michelle Jones
These sea creatures are amazing! Where do I find a sea horse pattern? I sew lots of quilts but never have seen anything like your fish out of scraps. Judy