A manatee in Santa Fe

A weeklong collage-quilting class, a new technique for me, was offered in the capital city of New Mexico. Susan Carlson, the artist and teacher of this class, specializes in subjects with faces. There were 15 students, mostly new to this type of quilting. We all came prepared with a giant stash of fabrics, a photo of our subject and a line drawing of our subject on muslin for our collage base.

Each morning began with an interesting lecture from Susan explaining her approach to achieving the best solution to all details including eyes, noses and lighting. After, she spent time with each student guiding and encouraging our project. The early stages include pinning a lot of fabrics to the base, then making a commitment and gluing the pieces together.

Finally, we learned several solutions to adding a background and also many ideas for quilting and hanging the completed project. That part will, for all of the students in this class, be at a later date. The intense week long workshop was filled with laughter, artistic energy and appreciation for this art form. The subjects in the class included dogs, cats, donkeys, spoonbills and other birds, and a manatee. My manatee is named Flora and she is very happy to have seen Santa Fe.