For those of us who live in places where quilting enjoys a long history, widespread interest, and a healthy infrastructure, and where fabrics, tools, expert teachers, and the camaraderie and inspiration of other quilters are easy to access, it may be difficult to empathize with those who do not.

 

That was the situation in Mexico until just a few years ago. As we all know, once quilting fever gets a toehold, it spreads rapidly, and that’s what is happening in Mexico today.

 

Trudi Kerslake, an avid quilter from the United States moved to a small village in north-central Mexico in 1998. She shared her skills with others in the village, but she still felt isolated and wanted a larger community with which to share her passion.

 

In 2009, she launched an invitation via Facebook in the hope that there might be other quilters in Mexico who would join her in staging a quilt show in Zacatecas City. She received responses from Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Mexico City, and Nuevo Leon, and the first quilt show took place in an open-air city market.

 

Delighted with that first success, Trudi joined with Rosy Garnica, Lourdes Cruz, and Wendy Amoore in putting on additional shows in Zacatecas in 2010 and 2011, under the name Expo Patchwork and Quilt.

 

In 2012, the Expo was held in Puebla, in the southeast part of the country.

 

“Each year the show got bigger and bigger, with more exhibited quilts, more vendors, and more visitors,” Amoore says.

 

In 2013, Carolina Flores, Lourdes Cruz, and Eduardo Ramírez took over responsibility for the Expo, and they eventually formed Quilters de Mexico®, “an initiative that promotes quilting in Mexico and the Mexican expression through quilts,” according to Ramírez.

 

Although Quilters de Mexico is the organizing group behind the Expo, it is not an association. It draws support from the three quilt guilds in Mexico, quilt shops, and independent quilters who come together to participate in the seminars, contests, workshops, international quilt exchanges, special events, tours, fashion shows, and exhibits available at the annual Expo.

 

Now, people come from all over Mexico and from all over the world to share their love of quilts and quilting and to learn from master teachers.

 

The group’s next Expo will take place February 26-28, 2015 at the World Trade Center in Mexico City on. For more information, visit the website www.quiltersdemexico.com, or on Facebook at Expo Patchwork & Quilt.