GUILD CHALLENGE FOR 2025

This year the Guild challenge will be Local Author Lois Ehlert

NSQG Quilt Challenge for 10-2025 Quilt Show
The Quilt Challenge for the 2025 Quilt Show is to create a 12″ finished square by
interpreting the creative style of Wisconsin artist Lois Ehlert.

Lois used simple shapes, bold/bright colors, and many types of mediums to create her collage illustrations.
Lois Ehlert was an artist and an illustrator born in Beaver Dam, WI in 1934. Her mother was
a seamstress and her father was a carpenter. She learned to sew at age 8 and used her
mother’s fabric scraps to create art. Her father would also give her wood scraps to use.
Cutting and pasting things into a collage was her favorite technique. Her parents gave her a
card table to use as her space and she said she continued to work on this same table thru her
later years. She received a scholarship to Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, graduating in 1957.

She began her career illustrating children’s books. Her designs are unique because of the
bold colors, crisp shapes and amazing creativity. Lois won the Caldecott Award for her book
Planting a Rainbow. She went on to write and Illustrate 38 children’s books, many of which are
nature related. She died in Milwaukee at 86 in 2021. Among her most recognizable books are
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Pie in the Sky, and Color Zoo.

The challenge is to create a 12″ square finished block which can be inspired from one of her
books, or a random idea using her style of geometric shapes, collage design, colorful fabrics-you
choose. You can use any technique, among them pieced, appliquéd, woven. Be creative!
We can’t wait to see how you’re inspired by Lois Ehlert! If you have
any questions, please contact Marlene Deutsch
(marlenejerhaj@juno.com) or Cynthia Mohsenian (cywm2259@aol.com)

(Sample of a block inspired by Lois Ehlert’s bold colors and geometric shapes)

Ideas : Lois Ehlert’s website

Due: Quilt Show October 16 to be displayed in the Guild Quilt Show 10/17-18, 2025. Note: you will need a registration form for your entry. Form is due September 30, 2025. (Link to form coming soon)