There are collaborations… and then there are the ones that stay with you.
Our debut partnership with Terri Vanden Bosch (Lizard Creek Quilting) has been exactly that. From our very first conversations, we were deeply moved by the heart behind her Missing You collection — a story rooted in love letters exchanged across oceans, in devotion, in hope, and in the kind of connection that endures through time. Terri is as warm and generous as the story she tells, and working alongside her throughout this process has been nothing short of inspiring.
To accompany Missing You, Terri has personally curated a coordinating collection of 10 Small Spools of Aurifil’s 50wt Cotton — thoughtfully selected to complement any project featuring the collection. Whether you’re stitching your way through her Mail Call BOM, working on her Linen Letters pattern, or creating any of the stunning quilts designed to showcase the Missing You fabrics and threads, this set was chosen to move seamlessly from piecing to appliqué to those final, meaningful finishing stitches. Each hue enhances the palette she so carefully created, bringing beautiful, subtle cohesion to your work.
And because Terri believes in giving makers something extra special, she’s designed Love Always, an exclusive pattern available only with purchase of her thread collection. If you order through Shop Aurifil, the pattern (Lap Sized Quilt + Table Runner) will arrive as an automatic download. Purchased your set elsewhere? Simply email us a photo of your collection, and we’ll happily send the pattern your way.
We’re absolutely delighted to share our conversation with Terri below— a closer look at her story, her inspiration, and a peek into her creative process. It’s an honor to celebrate this meaningful collaboration, and we can’t wait for you to experience it through every stitch.
For readers who may be discovering your work for the first time, can you tell us a little about how you first found your way into the creative industry? What initially sparked your love of quilting and design?
There are two events that led me into the quilt industry… the first one happened over 30 years ago, I was a stay at home mom with 2 kids under the age of 5— the youngest one was quite a fussy baby until the age of 2. A couple friends had seen that I needed a day out so we took a trip on snow covered roads to the quilt shop Country Threads in Garner, Iowa where I found quilting and never looked back. I had always been creative trying many things from tole painting to doll making, scrapbooking to country style wood working, but finding quilting in that shop changed directions for me. Eventually I convinced my husband that I needed a longarm machine. Lizard Creek Quilting started in 2007 with a $10,000 dollar loan and prayers that clients would trust me to finish their precious quilt tops. Customers came and the loan was paid off in 1-½ years. I loved working with my clients, bringing life to their projects and together we won many ribbons both locally and nationally.
In 2016, I entered an original quilt block design into the AccuQuilt barn quilt contest that won first place. There were several prizes that came with this win— one of them was a 48 Large Spool 50wt box of Aurifil threads that I still use today! This win gave me the confidence to put my designs out there into the quilt world through many magazine projects, over 100 patterns with AccuQuilt, and led to an ambassadorship with Island Batik. It has been an amazing 30 years in this industry to get to this point!!!
Who or what has been your greatest creative inspiration over the years? And today, what continues to motivate and energize your work?
Love of life and family has always been and continues to be my biggest inspiration. Telling our family stories through color, design and fabric.
How did you transition into fabric design, and how has designing fabric become an integral part of your overall creative process?
I had developed an amazing work relationship with Island Batik as an ambassador and 7 years of creating original quilt patterns for their biannual catalogs, so when they asked me if I would be interested in designing an original fabric collection for them–the answer was absolutely YES!!! I can remember going into that first quilt shop seeing all those bolts of fabric and thinking to myself that someday I am going to design one of those. Now this stay at home mom/farm wifes’ dream has come full circle. I used to design quilt patterns only based on color–now I think seven steps ahead at all times–what color palette should I use, what feeling do I want to portray, what memory is the inspiration, how will the finished fabrics look in quilt patterns. So many things..but oh so rewarding.
When makers work with your fabrics and patterns, what do you hope they feel or experience? Is there a message or emotion you aim to communicate through your artwork?
I hope makers feel the love. Each tjap is hand-drawn from my heart or as I like to say “heart-drawn” batiks. Life is full of joy if you only take the time to look for it.
Missing You (Island Batik/Lumin) is rooted in such a moving and personal story. Can you share the inspiration behind the collection and tell us more about your in-laws’ love letters written during the Korean War?
As newlyweds my husband and I lived on the family farm. Seeing his parents was a daily occurrence— either Dad doing chores or Mom coming to check up on things in her golf cart. Always leaving us our space, but building a great relationship. Over the years I had heard the sweet love story how Mom and Dad wrote each other a letter every day for three years while Dad was stationed in Germany for his service during the Korean War. Sweethearts waiting to see each other again, get married, farm, and raise a family. Dads’ core values—faith, family, and freedom— always shown. Mom had battled Rheumatoid Arthritis since she was 12 years old. After her passing, I saw Dad throwing the letters into the farm dumpster. I made my husband dig them out and promised Dad that I wouldn’t read them, I just couldn’t let him throw them away. The letters then stayed in his house for 20 years following him into an independent living apartment, then finally ending up in the farm office as Dad entered into nursing home care. After Dads’ passing the family put them in the trash and once more I asked if I could have them. With their approval I retrieved the letters— never reading them— just keeping for something someday. Those cardboard shoe boxes filled with letters in chronological order, tied shut with cotton string then lived in my storeroom waiting for their story to be told.
Why did it feel important to you to tell this story through fabric and quilting?
The deep unending devotion of this love story needed to be celebrated— not because it is more special than anyone elses— but to inspire others to write their own stories. The letters were daily accounts of their normal everyday life but so sweet to read now. Ordinary everyday life is what makes family so important. Dad was very special to me. He entered the nursing home 6 weeks before the world shut down in 2020. Due to strict rules allowing only family, no in-laws, I was only allowed to see him 3 times before he passed away in January 2022. Three months later I was diagnosed with breast cancer (all is well now). So when Island Batik asked me to design an original fabric collection, the love letters were the only choice!! The creative journey from concept to finished product has been such a blessing by healing places in my heart I didn’t even know were broken.
Many of the prints carry symbolic meaning. Can you walk us through some of the motifs in the collection and what they represent to you?
The letters had to be first and foremost in design, then love, and finally hidden messages. We found a blue spiral notebook mixed in with the letters which became the starting point for both a color and motif inspiration. The notebook, letters and other mail motifs make up the main novelty tjap.
The letters have Mom and Dads’ initials written in Morse code in the address area. Many of the letters had lines and lines of XOXO so they became heart shaped symbols of love expressed tjap. Designing for batik fabric is different than print fabric as the front and back look the same— so in thinking of ways to add “words” without the word reading backwards— Morse code came to mind!! A hidden message of words!! Sweetheart, darling, and love were always used to sign off in the letters. Such a deeply personal yet artistic way to tell the love story.
As a longarm quilter, I am always thinking in “quilting lines”, so the shoeboxes tied with cotton string became a bow-tied ribbon meander tjap. The circles and splats of the Ink Splats tjap capture the tender emotions written in pencil on tablet paper. Air Mail Love tjap represents the daily letters traveling back and forth across the ocean. The wavy lines between the envelopes and heart spell sweetheart, darling and love in Morse code, weaving their tender love directly into the design.
The color palette feels both gently patriotic and beautifully soft. How did you approach developing these hues, and what emotions were you hoping to evoke?
The airmail envelopes with the soft aged tablet papers were my biggest inspiration. I wanted the collection to portray Dads’ deep honor to have served his country yet keep the love story first. So the tjap designs tell the love story while the palette reveals the colors of honor.
Your booth at International Quilt Market last fall left a lasting impression, especially with the display of your in-laws’ original mailbox and letters. How did you conceptualize and create that installation, and what was it like sharing such a personal love story with the quilting community?
A couple weeks before Quilt Market, while helping my husband clean out an old shed on the farm we found Mom and Dads’ rusty old mailbox. What a God wink to find this!! I could instantly visualize the box filled and overflowing with letters. Which led to creating the letter pages and envelopes stitched onto twill tape banner around the booth top. Together they created quite the talking points!! What we weren’t prepared for was how seeing the letters and hearing my husband tell their story would affect those who heard it. Quiet tears would appear, shoulders would shudder and hugs would be given. Memories of their own letters would be told.
Alongside the fabric collection, you’ve designed Mail Call, a stunning 10-month Block of the Month program. Can you tell us more about the concept behind the BOM and what participants can expect from the experience?
Some quilts are designed to be snuggled and loved in, while other quilts are designed to tell a story, have meaning behind the blocks and create a new family treasure. Mail Call is one of those story telling meaningful quilts. Each of the blocks have been colored and designed to coordinate with a story found in Mom and Dads’ letters. For example, in one letter, Dad tells Mom about an afternoon PT baseball game where he hit a ball that went foul and broke a barrack window. The quilt block “Broken Window” represents this story. The monthly blocks have the letters’ story written into the instructions and are each placed inside an airmail envelope to complete the Mail Call theme, giving the maker an experience of opening an air mail letter sent especially to them. Hoping this builds the anticipation each month of what the story will be. Inspiring the makers to think of their own stories while finishing Mail Call.
How can quilters get involved in the Mail Call program, and what makes this BOM especially meaningful to you?
Ask at your local or online quilt shop for the Mail Call program, or the pattern is available on my website. Reading some of the letters to design this quilt revealed many things about Mom and Dad–like how being detail oriented was always a part of Mom. In her letters she would tell Dad how many items she packaged at her small town bakery job. Later she became the farms’ accountant where the books were always correct right down to the penny. The stories are what makes this quilt special to me and I am honored to share them with the quilting community. My prayer is that this quilt will help makers remember loved ones who have passed, build relationships with other quilters and bring community to the quilt shops running it across the country.
Why was it important for you to develop a coordinating Aurifil thread collection to accompany Missing You, and how does the thread set help complete the storytelling experience?
While color is the best part of my job, that is not always the case for everyone. Having a thread collection to match a fabric collection helps the makers complete their project effortlessly. Red and blue both have a dark, medium and light spool. White has two light spools that can be used for both piecing and applique. The dark gray and variegated spools were chosen specifically to be used when quilting projects. As a longarm quilter I know that the thread color used in quilting is the last and sometimes hardest part of the project. Projects with high contrast like a red, white and blue quilt make it difficult to decide what color thread to use. I have found that by using a medium neutral or the soft neutral variegated helps the quilting lines blend into the high contrast fabrics better for a much softer pleasing to the eye look.
You’ve also created a brand-new complimentary pattern available exclusively with the purchase of your coordinating Aurifil thread set. What inspired this design, and what can makers look forward to when they start stitching it?
Love Always was designed to showcase how the threads and fabrics work together seamlessly. The red threads work great on the blue fabrics and vice versa. Quilting with the variegated thread is just the right finishing touch. Love is “written” in fabric Morse code sashing rows. The pattern is meant to be a jumping off point pattern where the maker can create a QOV for their favorite service man or a table runner to remember someone they have “always loved”.
How do you personally use Aurifil 50wt Cotton threads when working with your batiks, and what makes 50wt your go-to choice?
The batik process uses a tightly woven high thread count fabric. The strength of Aurifil 50wt cotton is the perfect choice when piecing with batik fabric. No fraying of the thread along with little to no lint is why it is my thread of choice for piecing and raw edge applique.
For quilters who may be new to Aurifil 50wt, do you have any tips or advice to help them get the most out of these threads?
To all new quilters, invest first in a nice medium taupe-gray medium for piecing. I like 5021– a grayish green that blends into seams well. Next, consider a curated collection in colors that work with your favorite fabrics. Having a collection of small spools that coordinate will make choosing color for raw edge applique so much easier.
Looking ahead, where can we find you in the coming year? Are there events, shows, or projects you’re especially excited to share with the quilting community?
The calendar for 2026 is looking happy and full! Workshops and trunk shows at several quilt guilds and quilt shops. H+H spring and fall trade shows. Keep up with all the new and exciting things on my socials– Facebook– where my biggest supporter and farmer husband has agreed to be the social media manager, Instagram and YouTube. Blessings and have a joy filled day to all!!