Creative Quilt Challenges: Take the Challenge

About Pat PeaseWendy Hill

Wendy remembers dreaming of colors when she was very young. Her first sewing projects were doll quilts and clothing. In high school Wendy created a vinyl bikini bathing suit and waterproof raincoat using bread wrappers. When her sewing teacher insisted it couldn't be done Wendy made a faux fur coat with perfect bound buttonholes to prove that it could. In 1971 Wendy made her first big quilt: a replica of the floor of the Taj Mahal in corduroy for a king-size bed. Creative work with fabrics and fibers by both hand and machine has been a steady force in Wendy's life. An incident in a Dansk Outlet store a few years ago made Wendy appreciate the power of imagination. The sales person insisted Wendy couldn't use the steeply discounted saucers as plates- for appetizers. The salesperson patiently explained the difference between saucers and plates as if Wendy grew up in a cave and didn't know any better. But Wendy and all quilters know that saucers can become plates and a pile of fabrics can become a beautiful quilt- by letting imagination lead the way. Wendy follows her ideas wherever they may take her from a reversible chicken/egg doll (Housewife Hen/Rietta on the Town) to thread-web quilts to bed quilts and more. In the past few years Wendy has gotten carried away (okay obsessed) with Tyvec circle patterns zippers and new variations of log cabin blocks. The abundance of products and information can be overwhelming. Wendy reminds us that it's easy to make a quilt- it just takes a lifetime to play with our imagination and learn from experience. Wendy's work has been in print in some form since 1992. She has contributed projects to several books and authored magazine articles and four books (On the Surface: Thread Embellishment & Fabric Manipulation (1997) Two-for-One Foundation Piecing: Reversible Quilts and More (2001) and Fast Fun & Easyr Incredible Thread-A-Bowls (2005) Easy Bias Covered Curves Create Quilts with WOW Appeal (2006) with C&T Publishing).