Creating Small Quilts

It's about time, I settled down to making quilts. Currently I'm quilting a beautiful blue piece, but you'll have to wait to see it.

Because I travel so much, my studio time is very limited. If I'm staying in a motel, I pack a small pair of scissors, 1 or 2 pieces of fabric for backgrounds, and a baggy full of scraps with Wonder Under on one side. After spending all day in class I may be tired, but I am also inspired and energized by the students and their projects! I need to design something too. So this is a small piece from my "Motel Series."

This little piece is called Buds and Beads. http://www.annfahl.com/ann2/quilts.php?key=140 is a link to a short description and a larger image.  To create these pieces, I just start moving pieces of fabric around, cut and trim the scraps until I find something interesting.

This is a very improvisational style of designing. If I have quite awhile to work, I can create and fuse several pieces in an evening. When I get home, I  have some small pieces to embroider, bead and quilt. This makes my time on the road a little more enjoyable and productive.

At home, in the evening, I love to hand bead, so this is a satisfying way to use my motel pieces. I hand bead using Nymo thread after the embroidery is complete. This way all the knots and messy stuff aren't visible on the back of the quilt. I baste the piece together, machine quilt, bind, and the quilt becomes a little beaded wonder.

Ann Fahl