Birds! Whether your ordinary backyard (or barnyard) visitors or tropical runway models—they all make great subjects for fabric collage. Today’s Throwback Thursday shows several examples of how my students have tackled their feathered subjects—such as Jane Munsell’s, “Mr M.” (above).
Birds present an interesting challenge. How does one create feathers in fabric? One could cut out each individual pinion from a feathery or even leafy fabric. I do not suggest this! If it sounds tedious to you, I’m right there with you. Instead I encourage my students to work in “clumps” of feathers, usually making up an area of similar value or texture.
This Saturday in your regular post, you’ll see four more examples of fabric collage birds, so study the birds in this post and see how they compare to the ones coming this weekend.
A reminder that all my 2025 fabric collage classes—both in-person and online—are scheduled and (except for one) open for registration. See the link for more information, including dates, fees, and descriptions.
2025 Live Online and In-Person Fabric Collage Classes
NOW AVAILABLE!
Susan Carlson Fabric Collage: Fantastical Fish eWorkshop
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.
Gift Cards Now Available for Any susancarlson.com Product or Class Purchased Through Susan’s Website
Gifts cards are available in six designs for any amount and can be applied as a “coupon” to reduce the price of a larger purchase—or towards a smaller purchase with a remaining balance to be used at a later date.
For more information, click here.
Susan Carlson Fabric Collage: Sea Turtle eWorkshop
Learn fabric collage through a start-to-finish project—from pattern and fabric selection through quilting and binding. Each step is clearly written, illustrated with photos, and further demonstrated with videos. Learn the technique with a Sea Turtle then launch into any fabric collage project you wish. Lifetime access and suitable for all levels, including beginners. Sea Turtle Pattern included
Read all about the Sea Turtle eWorkshop in this blog post: Fabric Collage Sea Turtle eWorkshop Launch.
Fabric Collage Online Master Class
The Susan Carlson Fabric Collage Online Master Class Manual is a multi-media resource guide to the process of fabric collage. Using video, photos, text, and links to my blog posts for further relevant reading and information, I take you from beginning to end in creating your own fabric collage masterpiece, following my guidelines in a step-by-step format. Lifetime Access. Suitable for all levels, including beginners.
Read all about the process of creating the Master Class—explanation of its genesis—the whys and hows Tom and I made some of the decisions we did in this post: Online Master Class Now Available: Some Reflections.
Facial Features eWorkshop
Designed as a supplement to the Fabric Collage Online Master Class, or for those who have a good understanding of the basics of Fabric Collage. Lifetime Access. Intermediate or advanced levels suggested.
The Facial Features eWorkshop contains 8 videos and over 8 hours of in-depth instruction for creating each feature of a portrait in fabric. The videos are annotated with “Jump Points” allowing you to scan forward and backward to the information you need. Facial features PDF templates are included as reference and basic designs to work along with. Like the Fabric Collage Online Master Class, membership in this eWorkshop is for life.
Book: Serendipity Quilts—Cutting Loose Fabric Collage
Full color throughout. Five projects of increasing complexity, four patterns to enlarge are included.
These books will be signed by Susan and can be inscribed to a particular person.