Butterflies in January

Before it's light, before I open my eyes, a few minutes of music wake me and then I hear the news [horrible way to start a day. So many dead in Iraq, Americans, Iraqis] then the weather prediction. Today: 1 to 3 inches of snow. Cold, windy. BRRR. The snow didn't happen. Cold and wind did. But I braved both to go again to Bed. Bath and Beyond for more bargain mats for framing some yet to be made butterflies. I just cannot stop making them. I want to have between 6 and 10 matted; plus I've got at least 20 sell-able butterfly postcards.


Butterflies are truly wonderful in January. The matted ones are going to be, I hope, special. The four are done so far and each has some beading to add sparkle. The others may sparkle as well. We'll see.

Why this obsession? I've thought about it as I worked. I'm not prone to introspection about this. I'll take the Freudian way out of a possibly sticky situation and say, if sometimes a cigar is a cigar, sometimes a butterfly is not a metaphor. A very large part of the fasciantion is how I can use various colors, even clashing prints for the wings, put it on top of some other print and wind up with a unified whole. Truth to tell, this is the major fascination of all quilting for me. Combining fabrics that seem unlikely and making it work. It's like life -- the most unlikely people get together, often by accident but they work or play or even have romances together ... so here I go being metaphoric. Oops. I'll be back with more butterflies in the next two or three weeks. Isn't it just nice to look at the colorful little flutterers in the middle of the winter?