Susan Carlson Fabric Collage: This Week In My Studio—Online All Week!
November 14, 2026
Susan Carlson Fabric Collage: This Week In My Studio—Online All Week!Susan2026-11-14T00:17:49-05:00
It sure seemed like I was online all week with more Zoom meetings than usual—and if not online, then still on the computer preparing for the meetings. It was a good week though—collage-filled with no dull moments. The days involved different ways of teaching: individual and group coaching, and a weekly presentation of my newest monthly follow along—always kept company by my Djinni Cat.
After wrapping up the week with this post, I do believe I’ll be ready to focus on other things this weekend, before returning to my studio to finish up the Captivating Cats Follow Along for next Thursday. Keep scrolling down for a new 5-minute time-lapse video of Suki the Captivating Calico—made for this week’s Thursday presentation.
A reminder that the live presentations of my new Captivating Cats Fabric Collage 4-Week Follow-Along will be finishing up this coming Thursday, November 19, 2026, 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Live sessions are recorded and links emailed the next day to view again, or whenever you can—join me anytime and previous weeks’ presentation videos will be emailed directly to you
Captivating Cat Portrait pattern and Follow Along email will be sent to all registrants.
Monday:
Online collage coaching with student Linda Kearns. Linda and I were revisiting the collage portrait of her granddaughter she began in my Bar Harbor, Maine class in September. From Linda: “I was so frustrated I was ready to put my project aside but decided to sign up for a coaching session with Susan, it made all the difference! I am now making great progress, the video of the session is invaluable in my continued progress.”
Tuesday afternoon:
Coaching with Mary McKay and Grace Crocker, two long-term students, each of whom is deep into fabric collage portraits. They met and became friends in one of my online classes and pretty much drop in every week for a check-in of whatever collage project they’re currently working on—and for a bit of social time as well. Mary is getting closer to finishing a portrait of a young friend of hers, below left. Grace is also nearing completion of another collaged family portrait—this one of her in-laws—seen peeking over her shoulder in the Zoom screenshot above. Detail photos of this week’s annotated coaching are below.
Mary McKay
Grace Crocker
Grace Crocker
Grace Crocker
Tuesday evening:
This past Tuesday, I joined patrons for my monthly Patreon Show and Share. The second Tuesday of each month I invite subscribers to send in images of their projects, either finished or in-progress. Patreon is a platform where donors can become “Patrons of the Arts,” supporting artists with monthly donations. For my part, donations help to keep this blog running—allowing Tom and I to keep these weekly posts free to all, as we have for more than eleven years. And in return, among other perks, I provide feed-back and support to their collage artwork. Thanks to all our Patrons over the years!
Grace Crocker
Grace Crocker
This week, Grace Crocker Zoomed in for the second time in one day, sending in her finished (and award winning!) fabric collage quilt of the amazing “Crocken” (above). Fresh from her quilt guild show, she wanted to share it with our very supportive Patreon community. We’ve all seen this fantastical piece come together over many months, and there were many ooohs and ahhhs of appreciation from this great group of collage artists.
Judy Breneman
Judy Breneman
Judy Breneman submitted an in-progress photo of her sweet cat collage: “I’d like to have Susan’s thoughts about my attempt to soften his face a bit. I think it’s been 2 or 3 months. It’s great to be getting back to collage.” Her collage is getting very close to being done—a few tweaks as annotated, above right, and she’s just about there.
Wednesday:
Wednesday was spent taking my two Captivating Cats Follow Along portrait samples to the next level of completion—in preparation for Thursday’s presentation—part 3 of 4. I created a video of the process—taking about five wonderfully immersive hours—I’m having a great time getting into these portraits. When I got to a good stopping point for the week, Tom reduced the video to an hour time-lapse to be emailed to Follow Along participants. Below is the (further time-reduced) 5-minute teaser. Enjoy! Click here for further Follow Along info.
Sometimes it’s not worth the effort to move Djinni out of the way when I’m working on a collage—as long as she’s relaxed enough to not be pulling the pins out of the board.
Thursday:
This week was the third session of my Captivating Cats Follow Along. Each Thursday evening for a total of four weeks, I’ve been inviting folks into my studio via Zoom to watch and ask questions as I work on my cat collages. Followers can choose to make their own Captivating Cat (from a free pattern) or simply watch and take in the presentation and information.
For the last couple weeks, Tom has found sharable on the internet cat music, to play as attendees wait for the meeting to begin—”Stray Cat Strut” by the Stray Cats and “Year of the Cat” by Al Stewart. Remember those tunes?
Thursday morning I went through in-progress photos from the week to set up the evening’s slide show portion of the presentation—catching viewers up to the point where I continue with a live demo. Djinni is usually featured in a couple slides, and sometimes appears in the live demos as well.
This week’s session included a pumpkin fabric stripped background idea and a second-draft checklist for Spooky (a.k.a. Punkin), above—and a completed first draft (foundation fabric covered) of Suki the Captivating Calico, below, along with a few second-draft facial details and another couple background fabric ideas.
The fabrics are piling up behind me as I work, as they usually do. Tidying it all up will be left for another week in my studio, after these cat portraits are finished. As I went to turn off the video lights, I discovered where I had placed a cuppa tea I had brewed to sip on earlier this evening.
Friday:
Friday was reserved to put together this blog post. The Captivating Cats were temporarily covered up for protection from my own Djinni Cat—who has been pleased to have her crocheted coverlet back in place—much more comfy than nestling between pins. As I reviewed photos from this week in my studio, I found reminders of the days outside my studio—of some interesting lighting. The sunrise glow on my studio gingko tree’s leaves before their last gasp, dropping golden to the ground. A cloudy sunrise, a weirdly glowing afternoon, and an epic sunset at the shore, a half mile down the road.
