This quilt was entered into the 2020 QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge held and shown in Austin, Texas, February 20th to 23rd. The colour palette (black, white, grey) and theme of "Text" was dictated by the QuiltCon organizers in the winter/spring of 2019. The other criteria dictated was that it must be a group effort of at least 4 people and that the quilt (once returned) must be donated to a local charity to raise funds for a worthy cause. At the time I was a very new member of the Niagara Modern Quilt Guild of St Catharines, Ontario and I wanted to participate in this challenge.

The idea came to me late last spring... ironically, shortly after my very first attendance at the Friday evening portion of the long-running Mennonite Relief Sale. My idea was to make the quilt about colour, but without using colour in the quilt, as per the given parameters. At our June quilt guild meeting, I briefly told the group about my idea and they said I should make a full presentation at the July meeting - the last one before a summer break - to see who might be interested in participating with me. That presentation was scheduled for July 11th.

Very sadly, my husband Robert Jantz died suddenly on July 10th from a massive heart attack - so needless to say, I could not follow through with the presentation on the 11th.

In August, the guild was not going to be meeting at all and many were away with their families for vacation time. But I came to the decision that I still wanted to go ahead with the idea if possible because Robert had been so supportive of my hobby, always encouraging me through every step of my learning curve, and he always loved the idea I had about the 'colourful' quilt without using colour.

So I posted on our guild's Facebook page that I would be holding the idea presentation at my home in St Davids (NOTL area) in mid-August and wondered who might be available and/or interested in participating. I had nine women respond that they wanted to be a part of this project and I hadn't even been a member of the group for a full year yet, having only attended about 6 meetings, so I was really still a newcomer to the group. I was amazed that I had that many respond! As it turned out, because of timing and summer vacations, two of the nine could not attend my presentation but that meant that, including me, we had 8 of us to work on the charity quilt challenge project.

We met in mid-August and divided up the blocks to be made individually then got together again in September as a big group (held in one of the ladies' apartment building's party room) with sewing machines, ironing boards and a makeshift "design wall" and put the blocks together to make the quilt top. A few tweaks and it went to one participant to quilt it, which was completed in October, then back to me to add the facing style of binding, labels and hanging sleeve. The quilt was finished in time to show the entire guild at the November meeting, with photos sent off to Austin, Texas in order to save room in their display for "Theoretically Speaking". The title not only refers to Colour Theory terms but also to other things that all quilters must consider when getting ready to make a quilt, whether following a pattern or designing something totally unique.

There's a bonus block of the Piano Keys - but it also fits with the "Text" theme when you substitute the letters for the notes: A<B<C<D<E<F<G.

The Charity quilts are not given awards - it is simply an added section of the show that gets many quilters involved when they might not otherwise be able or willing to enter one of their own quilts to be judged. And, it promotes two of the main driving forces in the quilting processes in the first place - both Charity and Community - which have been a very rewarding part of quilting from the very beginning of when quilting had begun.

With the group's heartwarming approval, we would like to donate this quilt in memory of Robert Peter Jantz (Sept 1, 1939 - July 10, 2019).

Final sale price $275.