They are all here, in this quilt, Bushfire 4 , 2000.
This large irregular shaped quilt is designed to express the fightening speed and intensity of bush fires experienced by one part or another of Australia every summer. It is another good example of how I mix hand dyed fabrics and commercially printed ones. Some commercial fabrics now look like hand dyed, so they fall into a “look-alikes” category.
and PS – although these two quilts I have posted today are in hot fiery colours, I do work with other colours and neutrals ! a large variety of which are on my website, www.alisonschwabe.com 
English
The challenge (for me) as far as art seems to be how to use commercially printed fabrics in a way that doesn’t scream out the year they were purchased (or the year they were meant to reproduce) unless you intentionally mean to invoke a date. A good quilt historian will always be able to give an approximate date based on print, but Jolene Schmoe shouldn’t be reminded of the sofa she purchased in 1987 unless that’s the artist’s intent.
I suppose in 10 or 15 years people will be able to spot trends and patterns in painting and dyeing as well; we might be too close to it right now.
From all the quilts I’ve seen, only a few stay in the memory and this is one of them! I’d love to see it in the flesh.
Meet me here in Uruguay, , or Australia next month, or the USA in november…..
Hi Alison
I am not a ‘quilter’ but I think you’ve certainly captured the essence of a bush fire and the use of commercial and hand dyed fabrics work together in your piece.
Oh, dear! Does this mean you are heading for Australia very soon? We ARE heading to Montevideo in two weeks! I just wrote you an email regarding that!! And I really want to meet you and see your work up close and in person…
Dear anonymous – don’t panic – yes I got your priate email and yes I will be here when you come, and look forward to meeting with you, since I don’t take off until the end of the month. We’ll have plenty of time.
That’s such a perfect name for this piece. Fantastic! Felicity, I’ve seen Alison’s work in person, and trust me, photos do them no justice!!!