Betty MacDonald's Moving Threads class was the original spark for these two years of OIDFA/USA east workshops. 
     I came absolutely blank.  Not one creative juice was flowing.  I had my usual terror of Color (always a capitalized word in my mind), and had no idea what I was supposed to be doing.  I had brought a couple of designs, but didn't think they were much help. 
     Fortunately, Betty did see something in one of them, so that was the one we tackled.  It is a photograph of bare winter tree branches, all black against a white sky.  No color, right?  I was safe! 
     But Betty taught me about color in threads, something no one else has ever been able to do.  She didn't start with rules and paint and color theory.  Oh no!  She just said, "Black is lots of colors.  Here: try this and this and this."  And I did.  And it worked!  I spent all week making plaits and braids (tree branches, remember?), and used all colors and all threads.  I didn't have to worry about The Right Thread, or The Right Color--I could just go with the flow.  Pins? some.  Pattern? just the photocopy.  Results? the process was enough.

     Betty really does pull out of the student what lies dormant and unrecognized.  For this I am eternally grateful.