I recently completed a small quilt for an international challenge whose theme is “A World of Fairy Tales” featuring 30 fairy/folk tales from Japan, France, and the US. There are thirty quilters from each country with one quilter from each interpreting the same tale, resulting in three variations of the same theme. The tale I chose was How the Rainbow Was Made, an Ojibwe nation creation tale. In this story Nanabozho notices all of the flowers in the field are white. He decides to paint them one of six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. He brings his paint pots out and begins painting. Two bluebirds arrive on the scene and begin chasing each other back and forth. As they do so, their wings dip into the paint pots, creating a rainbow in the sky. Interestingly enough, the actual rainbow has a seventh color–indigo–but it doesn’t appear in this tale. I chose to follow the story and left indigo out.
The exhibition opens at International Quilt Week Yokohama in November. After touring in Japan, the quilts will travel to France and finally to the United States in 2017. I can’t wait to see how the French and Japanese quilters interpreted my theme, but I must be patient. At this point, the US venues have not been finalized. When I know more information, I will post it. Detail shots are available on my gallery page–Special Exhibits.
