The theme for our Finish Line post this week is fabric collage quilts that have used my patterns as their design or inspiration. It just knocks my socks off to see the beautiful uniqueness of the finished images—the results of each artist’s interpretation and imagination—such as Kathy Pierce’s, “Metamorphosis,”above.
My patterns are purposely very straight forward, giving basic shapes to get started and guide lines to use as desired. However, the intent of the fabric collage project is that if a fabric “speaks” to you with it’s colors or patterns or “flow,” you go with what inspires you at that moment—and color outside the lines to your heart’s content.
I certainly enjoyed getting carried away into the art and beauty and stories of the following fantastical fabric collages—I hope you do too.
If you have a finished fabric collage quilt and story that you too would like to share, please consider sending in photos and descriptions for future Finish Line posts—and thank you!
Submit Quilt for "Finish Line"
Learning resources referred to in this post include: this blog (in general), my website, my patterns, Fantastical Fish eWorkshop, Serendipity Quilts, 5-Day Live Online Classes, and the Fabric Collage Online Master Class.
Click on any of the smaller gallery photos in this post to view them larger and to scroll through the photo gallery.
Cheri Artz
To see more of Cheri’s amazing artwork, click here.
From Cheri Artz of Taylors, South Carolina:
This quilt began as the sun portrait at Susan’s Serendipitous Fabric Collage workshop in Citta della Pieve, Italy. As I was walking around this delightful town one morning I came across a terra cotta door decoration of a sun and moon, and then right after I got home, I was behind a car with a decal of the same thing. Serendipity for sure! So I decided to add the moon to my sun, and this was the result. The background has sparkly black tulle over the whole thing (thanks for sending the tulle, Cathy H!), which perfectly fits the celestial scene.
Patterns used: Sun Portrait and Moon Portrait
Barbara Mordue
From Barbara Mordue of South Carolina:
I first discovered Susan in 2024 while searching for ways to finish a sunset collage art quilt I made using Laura Heine’s fusible technique. Susan’s work blew my mind! The colors! The size! The whimsy! Oh my, I was hooked. I subscribed to her blog and purchased Serendipity Quilts. Since I’m not really a quilter, I didn’t have much of a stash, so I began to collect batiks and bold printed fabrics. As suggested, I started by completing the spiral exercise, focusing on blending fabrics as I moved from light to darks. It was fun and I wanted to do more.
When Susan’s July 2025 Fly on The Wall Bella Luna sun class was announced, I signed up and made plans to follow along with her to create my own sun and then a moon. But it’s not as easy as it looks! The forehead and right, lighter side of the sun face came together without too much trouble, but the left, darker side was more difficult to blend. There are several layers of fabric on that side, and it stayed in the messy, scary phase for quite a while. Taking pictures and converting it to black and white was helpful in seeing the values and made problem areas more noticeable to me. When the sun was finished, I moved on to the moon. Partly because it was smaller and partly because I had a better idea of what I was doing, the moon came together much quicker.
My idea from the beginning was to place the sun and moon together with a diagonal separating them. It was now January and I happened to read about the meaning of the Chinese Yin and Yang symbol. They represent interconnected forces constantly cycling and balancing each other. Yin is associated with cold, darkness and the moon, while Yang is associated with light, warmth and the sun. Now my idea became “Yin and Yang”.
I auditioned background fabric on the floor and saw that the diagonal would work. I knew I wanted to add some stars to the night sky, but it took a surprising amount of time to collage. I noticed how brighter “stars” were starting to frame the moon face and began to intentionally add more. Again, taking pictures as I worked was very helpful. Some areas of the night sky had too much purple, others needed more blue or bright stars. My husband said the quilt needed a flying saucer. Of course it did, why not? As Susan says, “more is more” and an iron-on patch was soon on its way from Etsy.
One mistake I made was completely glueing the edges of the sun and moon to the foundation fabric instead of leaving them free. It meant I had to glue the edges down again to the background fabric. Lesson learned. Other than the spiral, this was also my first attempt at free-motion quilting. Getting the tension correct on my 50-year-old domestic machine was a challenge and I went through several quilt sandwiches before I was brave enough to start quilting. I took a final look at everything. The sun chin and flourish by the left eye bugged me. “You’re done! No one will notice. You’re DONE!” I told myself. But my hand involuntarily reached for a Q-tip and water and I was soaking the chin and flourish before I knew it. A new, lighter star was added to the chin and a different flourish was fussy cut for the left eye. Much better, now I could quilt.
Patterns used: Sun Portrait and Moon Portrait
Maria Valdez
From Maria Valdez of Picayune, Mississippi:
I purchased the eWorkshop Quilters Fantastical Trophy Fish and Flora was the end result of that workshop. I had purchased the book, but the workshop helped give me that push to actually start a collage using Susan’s technique. It was a wonderful workshop. She’s as great a teacher as she is an artist.
It was very inspiring to learn how to cut and use fabrics in a new way. I had to learn not to overthink each piece of fabric as if my life depended on it and free myself to make the ugliest fish on the planet. I learned to just trust the process. I did have a hard time auditioning fabrics for the background, so I ended up just cutting the fish from the base. I throughly enjoyed the eWorkshop and look forward to doing another one.
Patterns used: Winged Butterfish
Kathy Pierce
From Kathy Pierce of Vashon Island, Washington:
Many years ago, Susan came to Block Party Quilters Guild in Sammamish, Washington. Her class inspired me on my journey in Collage quilting, my favorite form of quilting. I refer to the ” Serendipity Quilts,” and from the Fabric Collage Master Class Manual.
My butterfly started out as our class project, jokingly in class I said, “My Mother is calling me I need to go home!” It was all overwhelming deciding on fabrics to choose. The process interviewing the fabric was fun. Now I look at fabrics to buy very differently. It took me awhile to complete my butterfly but was very pleased with the finishing results! It truly went through “Metamorphosis” from start to end. I dedicated it to my good friend who was going through cancer treatment and is now climbing mountains.
Patterns used: Sinuous Swallowtail