Quilters take on color challenge

A small group of innovative artisans is beginning to weave their work into the social fabric of Marquette County.

They call themselves the Explorers, mainly because they seek new methods for just about every quilting challenge imaginable. Their latest endeavor, which is on display at the Sweet Water Cafe, forced each member to find fabrics that matched a designer paint palate card picked at random.

“We had to pick a theme based off of the name of the paints, which was a real challenge because some of the colors, the names of the colors, are kind of funky,” Judy Parlato of the Explorers said. “We had to stretch ourselves, and we didn’t get a choice. We had to draw out of an envelope, and we bemoaned this because they were not our favorite colors and we did not like the names of the paints, but we stretched ourselves and we were incredibly happy with the results.”

The materials used in each quilting square spanned the fabric spectrum but didn’t necessarily cost all that much.

“Many of us didn’t go shopping; we just looked through our collection,” Parlato said. “We call it our stash because we love fabric. We love buying it, touching it, looking at it. We have a stash of fabric, so if you see a primary color that is showcased, it’s probably because that one sang to us. Our fabric talks to us and sings to us and beckons us!”

If you’d like to see the work for yourself, you can head into the Sweet Water Cafe anytime until February 17th, when the exhibit comes down.