Susan Carlson Throwback Thursday: A Patreon Show and Share of Fabric Collage Quilts

This past Tuesday at our monthly Patreon Show and Share we invited followers of the blog to attend for free. We had over 100 registrants for the meeting! While not all could attend, they’ve all now received a link to the recording of the meeting.

The monthly Show and Share works by those wishing to be panelists sending us photos of their collage work beforehand. Each participant decides what sort of feedback they’re looking for. Tom loads the photos into a slideshow program for me to view. During the meeting I use Zoom annotation features to mark up those photos as we discuss them—such as the white marks I made on the photo of Nancy Bonkowski’s beautiful Russian Blue portrait, above.

These Zoom meetings are a way I say thank you to my Patreon supporters. Each month (or annually), my patrons make a contribution toward keeping my blog posts coming to you free each week. So once a month, usually on the second Tuesday, we meet via Zoom to share our fabric collage quilts. While I give the bulk of the feedback, the community that has developed is quite knowledgable and always comments and sometimes even catches points that I have overlooked. They are also incredibly supportive of each other, heaping praise and encouragement on the week’s panelists.

If you learn from and enjoy these blog posts, please consider becoming a supporter at any amount that works for you through Patreon.

Below are screenshots of the collage artwork Patrons submitted for Tuesday’s Show and Share, with captions of some of what was discussed. If you missed the chance to sign up for this free event, just drop Tom an email ([email protected]) and he’ll reply with a link to the recording.

A big thank you goes out to those who shared their work—as well as struggles and successes along the way—things we can all learn from. And another thank you goes to our fabulous Patreon community who show up and share their time, thoughts, and creativity each month. You keep us going in so many ways.

We kicked off the evening with this stunning collage, titled “Hope After the Storm,” by LeahGrace Kayler. LeahGrace has been working on this piece for about a year, including during an online class in January. She has put so much time and attention into every detail, we were at a loss to find anything to “correct” in this beautiful spoonbill portrait.
Dale Goldberg began this quilt in January’s online class. She has since shared monthly progress at the Show and Share Zoom meetings, and how fun it has been to see this unusual portrait of pretty young legs take shape. Dale refer’s to this collage as “Gams,” based on a playful photo posed and photographed by her nieces.
Liz Imperato has imbued many of her fabric collage quilts with an energy of color and her impressionistic approach. At his meeting she showed us her newest work based on my sun pattern, for a piece full of fun and play.
Here I used the Zoom annotation tool to show how simply darkening the corners of the mouth can give more dimension and “smile.”
Janice Morrow-Siebenhaler created this collage quilt on her own and also shared a few in-progress photos to show her creative journey. A woman at her local quilt shop gave Janice the great feed-back to add linear perspective to the landscape—the perfect background for the trotting gait displayed by her, “Good Morning,” horse.
Brenda Carter has attended a few classes with me and is know to all for several “funky” and colorful collage quilts. This week she shared her newest creation, “Funky ‘Keenu’ Catfish”—a smile-inducing tribute to her dearly departed fur baby. “How did you make the whiskers?” was a question Brenda was asked.
Nancy Bonkowski’s portrait of her brother’s Russian Blue cat is her first completed fabric collage, though she has more equally eye-catching collages in the works. At this Zoom we were celebrating Nancy’s accomplishment. Using annotation (the white lines), I wanted to point out Nancy’s outstanding use of patterns in her fabric to provide dimension and textural interest to this portrait.
We finished the meeting with another funky and fanciful fish, this one by Anita Liberman-Lampear. Anita took a dive into a box of lace sent by a cousin, adding touches of sparkle and dimension to her collage—including the unusual use of lace as binding—that Anita dyed to match the ombre colors of the background, using various bags of tea!

Upcoming Live Online Class

There are still spots open for our June Live Online Class. This class will be held via Zoom over five consecutive days, June 23-27.

June 23-27, 2025
Live Online Class—All Levels, Animals Only
REGISTER HERE
Maximum Class Size: 12
Price: $995 $895

Through our online classes each student receives:

Pre-Class Coaching
Individual coaching sessions live with Susan to get you better prepared for class and to familiarize you with the Zoom platform.

Daily Class Videos
Pre-recorded videos of daily class demonstrations on the process of fabric collage are yours to keep and review both before and long after our week together has ended.

One-on-One Feedback
The bulk of the day is taken up with one-on-one feedback. I use Zoom to annotate photos that you send to Tom throughout the day.

A Fabric Pack for Fabric Collage
I have been curating special 10-fabric collections—mailed to every Live Online student since the week-long classes began in 2021—colorful and helpful designs that may come in handy during the week, or to horde for a later project if not.

Pre-Class Meet and Greet
Meet your classmates in a pre-class Sunday evening social. This meeting also serves to further familiarize everyone with our Zoom classroom format.

Mid-Week After Class Social Hour and Show and Share
On a chosen evening after class, we kick back with beverage and food to relax and get to know our classmates better. Usually everyone sends us extra photos to share some of their past work in fabric.

Daily Walkthrough of Student Progress
At the end of each class day we go back and visit the beginning and ending photos of everyone’s subjects—oohing and aahing at the great progress and lessons learned as we worked together.

Fabric Collage Online Master Class—Updated

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.

Click here for more information about the Fabric Collage Master Class.

Price: $199
Lifetime Access
Suitable for all levels, including beginners

BUY NOW

Interested in attending a 2025 Fabric Collage class with Susan? Both in-person and online classes are scheduled and open for registration. Click the link below for more information, including dates, fees, and descriptions.

2025 Live Online and In-Person Fabric Collage Classes

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Further Susan Carlson Learning Resources include: Facial Features eWorkshop, website, Serendipity Quilts, patterns, blog (in general), YouTube videos, Sea Turtle eWorkshop, Fabric Collage Online Master Class, Patreon. , and our February Fantastical Fish and Summertime’s Fascinating Bugs and Butterfly Work-Alongs

NOW AVAILABLE!

Susan Carlson Fabric Collage: Fantastical Fish eWorkshop I

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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.

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.

CLICK FOR MORE INFO

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.

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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.

Read more about Serendipity Quilts!

CLICK FOR MORE INFO

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