Book excerpt: Bethan Ash's rich, colourful quilts are created using improvisational collage techniques. Working instinctively, she simply layers fabric shapes onto a prepared background and fuses them down, then adds stitching later. Each quilt is cut freehand, without the use of rulers or templates. In this groundbreaking book, she reveals the secrets of how she works, from basic dyeing and fusing techniques to design- and colour-awareness exercises and mixed-media experiments. In clear, easy-to-follow text, she gives the reader invaluable information on method, materials, technique and composition, and shows that improvisational quiltmaking is not merely 'messing about with fabric', but instead can form the basis of working freely and is the optimal way of broadening the reader's artistic talent. Illustrated with the best examples of fused quilts from around the world, this book is a visual feast of colour and pattern, and allows the reader to discover how the boundaries of traditional quiltmaking can be expanded through the use of imagination, inspiration and fusion.