The time has come to wrap up my report on September’s art-filled fabric collage class with MISA—Madeline Island School of the Arts, at their Bar Harbor campus on the beautiful coast of Maine. It’s my fourth year teaching here and the location continues to grow on me—feeling familiar and comfortable. An early morning walk along the eastern edge of the town—known as Uncle Steves Point—gives a pretty nice view of the sunrise, above.
As this year’s week-long class ended, I posted “Fabric Collage Dispatch: Greetings from Beautiful Bar Harbor!” Last week I began sharing the wonderful work created by my students in: Part 1—Catching Up with September’s Class in Bar Harbor, Maine! As I wrote then, “It’s been fun to review the work that was accomplished, and very satisfying to be finally sharing this event with you.” The same goes for this week, as I finish with the collage work from the second half of the class.
A reminder that my new Captivating Cats Fabric Collage 4-Week Follow-Along
Begins next week on Thursday, October 29, and continues on Thursdays, November 5, 12, and 19, 2026, 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Live sessions are recorded and links emailed to view anytime.
Check out the Follow Along class details in this post: The Captivating Art of Fabric Collage—New Learning Opportunities in 2026 and 2027
Cat Portrait pattern and Follow Along email will be sent to all registrants.
I’ll begin this post as I like to begin days wherever I may be teaching—with an early morning walk. I admit it doesn’t always happen—I tend to be a fair-weather walker—but I’m never disappointed when I do make the effort. In Bar Harbor, that eastern edge along the shore has a nice walking path and one morning I joined my students, Lizzie and Ann, in their pre-coffee shop walk.
The path led us past the Balancing Rock—left behind from the Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, as the plaque (above) says. Pretty cool thinking about all that time that’s passed and the generations upon generations of people that have looked out at the same sight.
And then we arrive at the here and now, the Bar Harbor Inn, that contains one of my favorite places to have a simple and luscious dinner. But that will be for the end of the week, and the end of this post. For now, we continue on to pick up the coffee orders from the class, which Lizzie and Ann have been doing every day for us, and head back to the hotel, fueled to begin our work day.
Meet My September 2026 Class at MISA in Bar Harbor, Maine!
I thoroughly enjoyed spending the week with the women in my class, but then I always do. I’ve been quite fortunate to have classes filled with those who are as fond of playing with their fabrics and making creative messes as I am, and we part as friends. This year, half of the students were returnees from last year’s class, which gave a bit of a September homecoming feel.
For this week’s and last week’s posts, I broke the class into two groups—the Bar Harbor First Timers, and the Returnees. Each post introduces you to seven of the fourteen students in this class of open subject matter for all levels.
Check out last week’s post featuring the work of the Bar Harbor First Timers here. In today’s post I’ll be showing off the fantastical and color-full artwork by the Bar Harbor Returnees. A few returned with collage quilts they had begun in last year’s 2-week Bar Harbor Retreat—click here for this year’s show-and-share treat. You’ll read below, that many of the Returnees used the week to continue with collage work they had begun in a previous class or on their own.
Enjoy it all!
Be sure to click on the smaller photos to view them larger and to scroll through the photo galleries.
Student Work Gallery
Below, you will see each student’s end-of-week collage, followed by in-progress sequence photos.
Barb Grant
Barb traveled with her husband Irv, from their home in Pacific Grove, California, to one of my Maine classes (for the 3rd time in a year!). Barb’s goal this week was to work on her octopus “Waverly’s” many arms—to add a contrast of values to create more dimension and definition.
Waverly’s nickname is Cheeto, due to her color, and as a nod to Irv’s father’s employment with Nabisco where he, “approved the first Oreo against all objections.” And the rest is history.
Nan Sorenson
Nan is from Denton, Texas. Nan’s goal for the week was to continue collaging portraits of her three grandchildren with bright and playful fabrics. Her plan is to eventually place them onto a single background, similar as we see them placed in photo, above.
Liz Warters
Liz traveled to Maine from Williamsburg, Virginia. Liz’s goal was to continue with collages she had begun in two other classes in the past year: a loving pair of orangutans, and a background for her precious little owl.
Sandi Bond
Sandi drove down to Maine from Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, Canada. Sandi’s goal was to create a “not boring face” in a collage she had started on her own—one of her husband and his encounter with a falcon.
Darlene Determan
Darlene is an Ocean Park, Maine, resident in the summer and migrates to Sanibel Island, Florida in the winter. Darlene’s goal for this summertime class was to continue with the octopus she began at the end of last September’s class in Bar Harbor. Specifically she wanted to concentrate on blending her octo-colors, especially within the lighter values.
Ann Carr
Ann traveled to Maine from Taunton, Massachusetts. Ann has taken many classes with me, giving herself a different challenge with each one. For this class it was to depict the variety of visual textures presented in a long-legged Roseate Spoonbill and her chick.
Lizzie Stebbins
Lizzie spends her winters in Key Largo, Florida, but returns to her long-time home in Maine for the summer. Lizzie’s ambitious goal for this class was to finish the first draft of not only one, but two, galloping baby goats—and she almost got there! The grey-scale photo below, was a test to see how she was doing with choosing fabrics to define their various color values.
See last week’s post with the other half of this group of talented artists and lots more fabric collage art in the post: Part 1—Catching Up with September’s Class in Maine!
And Then There Were Four
Most everyone hit the road when class ended on Friday afternoon, though there were four of us staying overnight heading home on Saturday. Remember the photos of the Bar Harbor Inn at the beginning of this post? Well, that’s where I suggested we go for Friday dinner at the Inn’s Oasis Club Lounge. Arriving late afternoon and leaving at sunset, we all enjoyed my recommended fare of butternut squash bisque and garlic fries. They all agreed it was a yummy dinner worth coming back for.
A leisurely hotel breakfast and the last of us parted ways—good memories and friends—a good week in Maine, again.
Future class listings: The Captivating Art of Fabric Collage—New Learning Opportunities in 2026 and 2027