New Mexico's AMB Give-Away

You've arrived at New Mexico's stop on the American Made Brand Blog Tour.

Here is the New Mexico block, license plate sized.

This 12 X 6 inch block was made to honor Clothworks' new American Made Brand cotton.  The great thing about this cotton is that it is grown, spun, woven, and dyed in the United States. Of course, it is wonderful that it comes in a wide range of colors, has a lovely hand that makes it perfect for quilts, clothing, and a wide range of little projects, and is available at a great price. In exchange for creating this block, I was provided with an AMB color card and a swatch of each color.  I'll be sending this block back to AMB so it can become part of a quilt that will be seen at the 2014 Fall International Quilt Festival.

About New Mexico

New Mexico was the 47th state, admitted to the union January 6, 1912. One hundred and two years later, many people who should know better think we are part of a nation to the south. This link on Ask.com, accessed today, claims we are a state in Mexico rather than part of the United States of America. Of course, you can glean more information about New Mexico on Wikipedia. I'm going to share some additional, more personal, information about the state where I've lived for nearly 26 years.

As a very young reader, I became intrigued with New Mexico when my family visited Rosemary and Ray Satterfield in El Paso, Illinois. They had a huge stack of New Mexico magazines they had subscribed to for many years. I loved reading the magazines while the grown-ups talked--and dreaming of a future visit.  (Of course, my classmate, Jane Panther, had already visited 47 states, so I knew it was possible.)

When I was in college, one of my former roommates enrolled in a master's program in TESOL at UNM in Albuquerque, and I flew out to spend 10 days visiting her and exploring Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and other nearby sites.  My experience was that New Mexico was living up to its reputation as The Land of Enchantment. (That phrase became part of our license plates in 1941 and our state's official motto in 1999.)

Although most people driving across New Mexico along an east-west route travel via I-40, they encounter constant reminders of Route 66; although various portions of the original Route 66 have been renamed, portions of the original route are still in existence.  When I arrived, I first lived in Gallup and taught on the Navajo reservation. While our state is a "majority-minority" state, meaning Anglos are in the minority,  my teaching jobs for the Gallup-McKinley Schools (the district covers more land area than the entire state of Connecticut) and on the Zuni Pueblo, gave me not only a deep appreciation for those cultures but also new personal experiences being a minority.

While outsiders often assume New Mexicans speak Spanish,  the most common languages are English, Spanish, and Navajo, in that order.  In addition a variety of other languages are heard, including a variety of Native American languages, including seven Tewa dialects.  The Zuni language is not related to the other languages.  In fact, Zuni was an unwritten language until the 1970's when Wycliffe Bible translators arrived on the Pueblo. While some people assume we have some kind of amalgamated Native American Culture, the fact is that each tribe and pueblo is quite distinct. Our state constitution is written in both English and Spanish, both official languages of the state. It is fairly common for citizens to be bilingual or trilingual.

There are countless incidents of otherwise bright people failing to recognize that we are one of the 50 states of the United States.  A couple decades ago a bureaucrat at the IRS called our Senator Domenici reminding him that he needed to fill out his tax return as a resident alien (a failure of reason on several levels)!  Each month New Mexico Magazine publishes several anecdotes of such incidents.  And yes, despite the fact that the New Mexico Territory included portions of present day California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, I have seen a map that acknowledged the other states and omitted us!

A few years ago, the state began adding "USA" after New Mexico; I was glad.  I know that the officer who stopped me in Topeka, KS before the USA was added probably thought I was in the country illegally.  (I've often wondered if he was surprised to see that two of the occupants were Chinese?!)

Aside from sunshine and blue skies nearly every day, one of the things I value most about New Mexico is our diversity and the fact that our citizens value that diversity.  Therefore,  I used  many colors in this block to represent our diversity.

My blog will publish directions for making the New Mexico block on Saturday, June 21 at noon Mountain Daylight Time.

Readers can register for two give-aways.
The first is a bundle of fat quarters from American Made Brand.

A second drawing will be for a kit of strips that are used in the New Mexico block.

Earn entries to the drawings by leaving a comment on this post and following my blog by e-mail or a feed such as Bloglovin (links in column to the right) or other format.  (If you subscribe by the e-mail subscription link to the right of this column, you will need to check the e-mail address with which you subscribe and verify your subscription or you will not be subscribed.)

1. You may earn one entry by leaving a comment that includes the name of the state where you live.

2. Earn a second entry by leaving a comment that lets me know how you are following this blog. 

Please note that this blog does not allow anonymous comments and that I must be able to e-mail the winners (so if your profile does not include your e-mail address, please include it).  For this drawing, winners must have a U.S. mailing address; this is a condition required by AMB due to the expense of foreign postage (very sorry, world-wide readers).

If any spam gets through, of course I will delete it.

The winners will be drawn on Wednesday, June 25 and will be notified via e-mail. Failure to respond will result in another winner being drawn on June 27. (While I usually reply to comments, that's probably not going to happen this time; however, I rejoice in every comment and in every opportunity to make new friends.)

      As of 8:39 PM Wednesday, June 25, 2014, comments are closed for this post.

Good luck!

You can find links to the other 49 blog stops here.

Happy quiltmaking and knitting.....,