Mother's Day Treat

Trillium in the Sun, quilt by Ann Fahl, 43 x 43 inches

 This weekend I was going to treat myself to a gardening weekend.  This means no household stuff, no family history research, just playing outside in the dirt!  All winter I look forward to this time of year and now it's here.

It turned cold last night, a new front came through and it rained all night.  There will be no gardening today while the temperature is in the 40s.

The good news is that the trillium are blooming and they are wonderful. My woods is full of these lovely white flowers. When this happens I try and design another trillium piece in my head.

Ann Fahl

A Puddle in the Basement for Inspiration

You never can tell when an event might trigger some inspiration or a memory.  In Wisconsin yesterday, we had terrible rainstorms with tornado warnings.  Late morning when I returned home from errands I saw I had a small leak in my studio.  This happens when either the sump pump or the down spout near the door is clogged. 

I ran to the basement and got my basket full of rags, and threw them down to soak up the moisture on the carpet. Then proceeded to look outside for the cause of the problem.  When I finished with all my delightful tasks, a threw all the wet rags in the washer and dryer. 

This isn't just a rag bag

I'm done mopping and everything has dried out. It's time to put my studio back in order.  It might look to you just like a basket of junk but as I was folding up the cleaned rags I found the most interesting things:

A piece of a t-shirt with some experimental embroidery
My son's t-shirt from college
An old Case IH shirt that they gave away at company picnics when my boys were young
My very first T-shirt purchased at Paducah when my flamingo quilt won a prize
A pair of my husband's underwear
Pieces of my first flannel sheets
The striped towel my grandmother got free in a box of detergent. This is a true relic.

This isn't just a rag bag it is full of family memories!

Ann Fahl

Fun and Inspiration with Mary Ellen Hopkins

Back in the early 1980's I was a new quilter. My husband was watching the children while I spent a Saturday at a WQI meeting (Wis Quilters Inc.) At the time, the members had to bring their own lunch to eat between the morning lecture and the afternoon speaker.  This particular meeting, Mary Ellen Hopkins was the speaker for both time slots.  I had no idea what was in store for me that day.

Mary Ellen Hopkins

What a treat, she was a stand up comedienne/quilter.  This was the first day I was ever hit with a big idea, inspiration that kicked off my own colorful quilting career.  Mary Ellen was so funny, her entire talk was lots of fun.  She started to talk about finding a colorful splashy fabric that could be cut up into half squares; arrange the pieces and sew them back together! Just one fabric, not 5, 10 or 20! This is when the inspiration hit.

Only the day before I had been shopping in a local chain store and seen a red, blue and yellow print that I loved, but couldn't figure out what to do with it. You can guess what I did. The very next day, I drove to that store and purchased some of that fabric*.  I set the triangles in a black border and was absolutely thrilled with the result and ready to create another. This quilt led to another, and another, and you get the idea. 

Closeup of a similar quilt, using one fabric and sewing it together.

Mary Ellen has recently died.  She taught, lectured, and wrote books and articles that entertained and inspired quilters around the world.  I was one of them.  Thanks Mary Ellen.

Symphony of Color by Ann Fahl

*Ann no longer has the quilt that was inspired this day.  It was called "Fun with Triangles."  There is no photo of it, but it is in the collection of Wheaton Franciscan Hospital in Racine.  The fabric scraps, if there were any, were all cut up into triangles and used up! Some of Ann's more recent triangle pieces can be seen on her website. Half squares will always be an important part of her quilts.