The Quilting Course I took with Susan Carlson on June 20-22 was marvellous - eleven of us (one woman flew down from Inuvik, another was an 86-year-old grandmother from Oakville visiting her family!) and the instructor, sequestered for two evenings and one full day in the workshop room of Quilters Getaway.

Susan Carlson is internationally known for the collage quilts she is showing us here (check out her website at http://www.susancarlson.com/Welcome.html).

 In essence, Susan paints with fabric - snippets (and we are talking some seriously small snippets here) arranged impressionistically to create a stunning image. She had us going full tilt within the hour, in my class creating turtles (a few more experienced women insisted on doing fish), in the second class creating sun or moon portraits. Janet created a stunning fish out of silk she dyes herself, and Pat was including some wonderfully googly felted eyes on hers. All of the creations were unique and entirely stunning.

My - as yet unfinished - turtle is pictured below, with a close-up. I had thought I would call it or him or her "Psyche," as a tribute to our own multifaceted beings. But after reading The Globe and Mail today I am leaning towards "George," to honour "Lonesome George" who recently died at 100 in the Charles Darwin research centre in the Galapagos. Turtles are wonderfully mysterious creatures linking us to ancient life forms beyond our ken - and I'll have to reflect on whether my creation does that ancient wisdom justice.