Next year in October 2025, I’ll be teaching in Italy! I invite you to come join me.
For a few years now, Tom and I have tossed around the idea of a destination workshop—someplace exotic—but the logistics of organizing my own class in a far off country were formidable.
Thanks to Pamela Haack and Strada Toscana, all those sorts of plans and organization have been masterfully taken care of. I’ve been invited to teach my fabric collage at their beautiful venue in central Italy—and enjoy the week to come with up to 15 lovely students. I decided that my sun and moon portraits would be just the workshop to teach amid the rolling hills of the Tuscan countryside.
Serendipitious Fabric Collage in Italy with Susan Carlson: Bel Sole (Beautiful Sun)
At Strada Toscana—October 19 – 24, 2025
To Register and For More Information
USE THIS LINK
The classroom goal of the week is to “let go and play” with fabric while learning the basics of portraiture. All aspects of the fabric collage process will be discussed, with class time focused on the fabric collage piecing technique. The overall goal of our week together in this beautiful medieval location is to thoroughly enjoy the collage process while in the company of other travel-loving fabric enthusiasts.
This is will be my first time teaching in Europe and my first visit to Italy. This trip to the foothills of Tuscany will take us to the little village of Città della Pieve and the Hotel Vannucci—a former villa with its own history dating back hundreds of years. Pamela will be guiding us on local tours to experience the history, museums and art, culture and dining of the area. The anticipation is already building.
In addition to lessons in creating facial features, we will focus on developing the rounded form of our subjects—understanding how to create the illusion of form and depth in fabric collage.
For our fabric collage subjects we will use my Sun or Moon Portrait patterns. A sun design could easily be interpreted as a beautiful full moon—Bella Luna—as well. These designs are also projects (photos above and below) from my book Serendipity Quilts. I have long found celestial portraits to be a great introduction to the basics of fabric collage portraiture without the added concern of creating the likeness of a particular person.
For fantastic celestial portrait examples of the work of my creative students, please check out this collection—Fabric Collage Finish Line: Solstice Edition.
Our Tuscany locale’s sun-kissed reputation will be inspiration as we work on our solar collages. In fact, early in the week, we have the chance to experience a bonus workshop—dying fabric with locally grown saffron. Being able to then use these fabrics in our collages will be a special addition to this class.
Saffron crocus fields and saffron harvesting are an October sight of this region of Italy—one of our side trips will be to learn about the history of this beautiful plant and how to dye fabric into a beautiful range of yellow coloration. On that day, we will dine on saffron risotto for dinner. Talk about an immersive experience!
Serendipitious Fabric Collage in Italy with Susan Carlson: Bel Sole (Beautiful Sun)
To Register and for More Information
USE THIS LINK
Each student will be working with a varied fabric palette, so each sun or moon will develop their own personality as the week progresses. Much like a painting emerges from a canvas, our images will seemingly emerge from our foundation designs as we layer dabs of fabric.
I’ll be providing pre-enlarged sun and moon patterns for use in class so each student can choose the size they feel particularly inspired to work with.
A month or so before the October 2025 class dates, I’ll schedule Zoom meetings to help students prepare for and answer questions regarding the class. In these pre-class Zoom sessions, I’ll discuss and demonstrate fabric selection focused on color, values, and printed designs, as well as how to prepare a fabric palette.
Membership in the Fabric Collage Master Class is a pre-requisite for this workshop. This online learning resource will provide step-by-step reminders and reference of the entire process before, during, and after class. Purchase (if student does not already own the Master Class) can be made any time after class registration.
Quilting will be completed at home (no machines required for class).
To Register for Serendipitious Fabric Collage in Italy with Susan Carlson
and for More Information
Toward the end of the week, we’ll discuss how to move forward on our fanciful solar portraits—considering where and how to add more details using sheer fabrics, found lace or other materials, or whatever speaks to us. These additions put the finishing touches on the projects and memories of our week of Serendipitous Fabric Collage in Italy.
This is an amazing opportunity to combine so many “bests”: fabric, food, fun in Tuscany with Susan. Wow.