Why Mexico?

 

Quilt No. 145

February 2023

Now here is a serious question.  If you could escape the cold winter, the freezing rain, the snow, the crusted-over windshields, the bitter winds blowing up your skirt, would you not make it so? Now suppose you weighed less than a gram. Travel arrangements to a friendlier latitude would be pretty much mandatory. The Monarch butterflies have triumphed over this, harnessing evolution for a satisfying outcome. While you and I are parting with plenty of cash for fancy resorts in Mexico, the Monarchs fly passport- and red-tape free to the exotic forests of that blessedly warm country.

Each year Cherrywood Hand Dyed Fabrics offers a new quilting challenge.  They chose a theme for the challenge and curate eight of their beautiful hand dyed fabrics to create a kit. Participants use only those eight fabrics from the kit to create a 20x20 inch quilt.  Previous challenges have included Bob Ross, graffiti, Princess Diana, and many more. To enter the challenge, photos of the completed quilt are submitted, and judges choose the finalists. These quilts are then sent to Cherrywood in Baxter Minnesota.  During the fall, the quilts begin journeying to various shows, including the Houston Quilt Market and Festival, Road to California, Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (Oregon) and several American Quilting Society and other shows. 

This year, I was lucky enough to have Blanche, my monarch butterfly friend, juried into the show. It took me quite a few nail-biting months to come up with this concept.  The challenge fabrics sat on my quilting table for an interminable period of no ideas.  Finally, I started to think about why tiny butterflies would spend all that energy migrating 4-5000 kilometers from Canada to Mexico each year. It became obvious.  Who doesn’t love a tropical resort?

Here’s the first drawing I made that became Why Mexico?  Lucky Blanche will get to go to several quilt shows this year and next. She can save Mexico for another year. 

Original concept drawing for Why Mexico?