Crocodylus Smylus

2015, 21 feet 6 inches x 70 inches

In my quilts of animals, I try to portray what makes each individual or species special or awe inspiring. Years ago, reading nature encyclopaedias to our son (his choice of bedtime reading), I was awed and inspired by the shear size of a saltwater crocodile, averaging 20 feet, making it earth's largest living reptile. It seemed that the thing to do was to create a fabric version to share those facts with others. After years as only a thought, and a few more years of collecting my eclectic palette of "crocodile" fabric, I've created my own 20 foot Saltie. She is nicknamed Stevie, in honor of the late Australian wildlife conservationist Steve Irwin, another icon of our son's childhood. Saltwater crocodiles are native to Australia and I have worked in some Australian Aboriginal fabrics of other native animals such as kangaroos, emus, witchetty grubs, and a lizard onto Stevie's abundant body. "Crocodylus Smylus" has fulfilled my wish to spread the awe of a creature such as this existing on this planet, with us, at this moment in time. Pretty cool.

For more images and information about the quilt, including a time-lapse video of her creation, click here.

Here’s a story my husband wrote for our local newspaper: October 24, 2015

Crocodile Leaves Maine for Wisconsin
by Tom Allen
After a short period of habitation on Lookout Point Road, “Stevie” the saltwater crocodile has gone to Cedarburg, Wisconsin for a three-month visit. Usually a native of Australia, “Stevie” is twenty feet long but weighs only about 25 pounds. She traveled by FedEx.
The croc in question is the latest creation by Susan Carlson, a quilt artist and quilting teacher of Harpswell. Carlson is known for her fabric collage depictions of endangered or extinct animals—an Indian rhino, a dodo bird, a coelacanth, a Costa Rican golden toad—but none of her quilts have been this large.
Carlson says “Crocodylus Smylus” (the quilt’s official name) was inspired by her son’s nature encyclopedia, which was a favorite bedtime read.
“One article on salties said that these crocs grow to an average of twenty feet long,” Carlson says. “It was a fact that always stuck with me.”
She says that ideas for quilts often need a good long time to “gestate” before she begins to work, but when the time came to start on “Stevie” there was no question that the croc would be life-size.
“In my quilts, I often try to do something unusual. Something that catches peoples’ attention,” Carlson says.
For example, her quilt “Tickled Pink” of an Indian rhinoceros is done in hot pinks. In “Million to One”, the thumbnail-sized golden toad is two and a half feet long. Her dodo bird in “Polka Dodo” is done all in polka dot fabrics.
“For Stevie it’s her size that makes her amazing. That’s what I wanted to get across. I want people to stand next to the quilt and be awed that an animal that size exists,” Carlson says.
In fact, the quilt was so large that her already oversized 14-foot-long pinning wall wasn’t big enough to accommodate the croc. The styrofoam surface had to be extended by ten feet, covering windows and a door along one wall.
“When we built my studio and assembled the pinning wall, my husband, Tom, said ‘There. That ought to be big enough for you.’ Oh, well,” Carlson says with a grin and a shrug.
The quilt’s nickname “Stevie”, is an homage to Australian wildlife expert Steve Irwin, whose kids’ television show The Crocodile Hunter was also one of her son’s favorites. According to Carlson, despite being named after Irwin, “Stevie” is definitely a girl.
“Just look at those red claws, or rather toenails,” Carlson says.
She is adamant that the red is polish—not blood.
Begun almost two years ago in January 2014, work on “Crocodylus Smylus” was interrupted by travel for work and “life”. It really gained momentum when Carlson was invited to contribute quilts to a show at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts entitled “From Insects to Elephants,” a show of quilts depicting animals. They had seen Carlson’s work and requested she display “Tickled Pink.”
“I was on the phone talking to the curator and Tom nudged me and said ‘Ask if they have room for a twenty-foot crocodile’,” Carlson remembers.
At that point, in late January 2015, the quilt was less than a quarter done. She had eight months to complete the quilt.
“I work better with a deadline anyway,” Carlson says.
Once she had a space big enough, the scale of the quilt wasn’t a problem, Carlson says—at least not in the collage piecing phase of construction.
“From the beginning I didn’t really know how I was going to quilt it,” Carlson says.
Quilting—stitching through the top layer, inner batting, and backing—is an integral and indeed defining step in the construction of a quilt.
“It isn’t a quilt if it isn’t quilted,” Carlson says.
But how does one fit a twenty-foot long quilt under a home sewing machine? There just isn’t room under the arm to squash all that fabric, Carlson says. In the end, Carlson rented time on an industrial-sized “long-arm” quilting machine. The quilting took four days.
Finished just under the wire—shipped second-day air to the museum—“Stevie” has arrived safely in Wisconsin. The quilt will be on display from now until early January.
In April, “Stevie” will visit her homeland, accompanying Carlson when she teaches in Melbourne, Australia. Where the quilt goes from there, Carlson isn’t sure. She has disassembled the extensions to her pinning board, so it no longer fits in the studio. One idea is for “Stevie” to travel around a bit before she settles down. There are national quilt shows year round, from Houston, TX, to Paducah, KY, that may find they have room for a twenty-foot crocodile with red toenail polish.

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