Butterfly Swarms Quilt

The Story Of The Butterfly Swarms Quilt

Fay Risner remembers back to summer days when beautiful Monarch butterflies were so plentiful they flew over her flower beds in swarms. Sadly, those days are in the past. Many of the butterflies die before they reach their destination. Each summer at different intervals, I'm lucky if I see a solitary Monarch dining on my flowers. More needs to done to make the butterflies migration successful from south to north in the summer and the repeated trip back in the fall. As it is now, we have only our memories of how it was to see swarms of Monarch doing ballet dance like movements as they traveled across our yards. With that in mind, Fay gifts you this quilt of butterfly swarms to remind you of the real thing, butterflies in flight. If you want to help, do what Fay did. Plant as many flowers as you have room for to give the butterflies food for their trip. As for the Butterfly Swarms quilt, butterfly patterns are numerous on the Internet. They come in different sizes and shapes. The pattern Fay Risner used wasn't her pattern but copied from the computer. However, the way she set the butterflies on the quilt was her design. A swarm of large and small butterflies with butterfly quilting stitches in the pink panels. The queen sized top was made in 2004. Fay stitched the quilt together in February and March 2018. The pastel border that frames the butterflies represents flowers – white for Shasta daisies, blue for for-get-me-nots, yellow is for black eyed susans and green is for the foliage. The pink panel represents the milkweed plant blooms, a plant that is so vital to the survival of the monarch. Fay Risner hopes you enjoy this poem as much as you do using the quilt she made for you. The poet, Mr. Wordsworth, put from pen to paper his thoughts on butterflies so many years ago. He must have truly loved to watch butterflies to capture them so well. To A Butterfly By William Wordsworth I've watched you now a full half-hour, Self-poised upon that yellow flower; And, little Butterfly! indeed I know not if you sleep or feed. How motionless!---not frozen seas More motionless! and then What joy awaits you, when the breeze Hath found you out among the trees, And calls you forth again ! This plot of orchard-ground is ours; My trees they are, my Sister's flowers; Here rest your wing when they are weary; Here you lodge as in a sanctuary! Come often to us, fear no wrong; Sit near us on the bough! We'll talk of sunshine and of song, And summer days, when we were young; Sweet childish days, that were as long As twenty days are now.