An Alaskan Wedding Quilt: Part 1- Log Cabin
As Christmas break ends, I find myself here in Girdwood, Alaska at my lovely parents' house, taking a break from the frigid temperatures in the frozen north of Fairbanks, simmering with a winter’s worth of new quilting project ideas.
The first project that has simultaneously sparked my interest, and, a fabric buying spree at the Quilt Tree in Anchorage at their year end sale, is a wedding quilt for my dear friends, Trina and Tim, who tied the knot in September. This past summer, I had decided to make them a double wedding ring quilt featuring their wedding colors in a gorgeous array of fall shades of bronze and reds. However, I was at sea all summer on board the USCGC Healy as part of NASA’s ICESCAPE project, and couldn’t very well swing a sewing machine on board. I am actually thankful that I was too busy to get it done, because I wasn’t very content with that design idea. Trina and Tim are both very active people, that love doing outdoor activities in Alaska’s wilderness. Tim is, in fact, an avid alpinist, and Trina is an active hiker. So, in a way, a simple double wedding ring quilt, albeit traditional and classic, isn’t necessarily a pattern that reflects the fun that they have in their lives here in Alaska.
I came across a wonderful design in a quilt pattern book called “Welcome to My Cabin,” by Nancy Smith and Lynda Milligan. I was initially attracted to the book because I saw a pattern that I wanted to do for Nelson and I, to commemorate our year here in our lovely little Fairbanks cabin. When I opened it up, I immediately became inspired for a wedding quilt design for Tri and Tim. “A Mountain Crossing” is a variation on a log cabin block design put into a wall hanging by one of the quilters featured in this book. The quilt consists of a simple log cabin block design to invoke the imagery of mountains, a wide white border, and large applique black bear design with paw prints along one corner.
Interestingly enough, the log cabin block has its roots in ancient Egypt. According to an article I viewed online, which cited many quilting history books and can be found here, the log cabin block that we recognize today was originally found on the geometric patterns of the dressings and coffins for mummified house pets in Egypt during the great cave excavations that took place in this country in the early parts of the 19th century. The British adapted this style, and referred to it as the Canadian Logwork block, subsequently cementing this block's popularity in the quilting history and culture of Canada.
In my view, the log cabin block and its associated mountain imagery in this quilt design is perfect. The color scheme of the pattern calls for a consistent three color design of the sky part of the scene, or, the three upper
left most rows of each block. There are five rows of mountains, which fade from a blue gray row, to pink, medium blue, dark blue, and finally to a deep midnight purple. When I saw it, my mind immediately went to the various shades of colors that the mountains in Glacier Valley takes on during the course of a day when I am skiing here in Girdwood. Seen here is an Excel representation that I made of the wall hanging design featured in this pattern, without the white border and applique black bear. In order to get the affect of centered mountains within their dimensions, the designer used a combination of both 7 inch and 5 inch blocks. As you can see from the illustration, on the far right, there is an extra long strip of blue sky attached on to the three 5 in sq. blocks that are sandwiched between the three 7 in blocks at the end of each row. I added a square of the bottom color in order to center the mountains better.
The only snag in the design presented in the book was its size. The dimensions of the wall hanging are only ~42 x 46- not a suitable size for a bed quilt. I began doing various ratio calculations in my head, and sketches to see what I could add to make the quilt bigger but maintain its current proportions. We just happened to be out of graph paper, my usual weapon of choice for doing quilting calculations, so I simply marked out all of the proper dimensions with masking tape on my mom's, Cindy Shake, large quilting mat to double check my figures. Although this can seem kind of frustrating to most people, the mathematical process of designing quilts is one of my favorite parts of the quilting process.
Since the theme of the quilt is related to mountains, I began to experiment with adding a forest, or, green themed log cabin blocks around this center design. Below is the border for the top:
I added cornerstone blocks at each of the four corners. The only tricky part was trying to maintain the unusual proportions of the center mountain design. On the vertical borders, my mom had the great suggestion of adding in a center cornerstone and to reflect the pattern on either side with a "half pyramid" so the pattern would have better continuity:
Since there are six base colors of the mountain design, I put each color in the center of the six cornerstone green blocks. I think the effect is quite nice. I added two thick rows of a white border, to create a finished size of ~77 x 76, a more acceptable quilt size:
Above is the pattern that I have, created in Excel. Of course, the colors are limited because of the program I was using, but I think the general idea comes across. The dotted lines are simply artifacts from Excel, and have no specific demarcation. At this point, the geometry of the quilt is so beautiful, I am not sure that applique black bears would necessarily add to the design- in fact, they might take away from it. However, I will wait to see what the fabric looks like to make that decision at the end.
Thus, this is the template that I will use for my first Alaskan wedding quilt. Looks like I have my work cut out for me!
The first project that has simultaneously sparked my interest, and, a fabric buying spree at the Quilt Tree in Anchorage at their year end sale, is a wedding quilt for my dear friends, Trina and Tim, who tied the knot in September. This past summer, I had decided to make them a double wedding ring quilt featuring their wedding colors in a gorgeous array of fall shades of bronze and reds. However, I was at sea all summer on board the USCGC Healy as part of NASA’s ICESCAPE project, and couldn’t very well swing a sewing machine on board. I am actually thankful that I was too busy to get it done, because I wasn’t very content with that design idea. Trina and Tim are both very active people, that love doing outdoor activities in Alaska’s wilderness. Tim is, in fact, an avid alpinist, and Trina is an active hiker. So, in a way, a simple double wedding ring quilt, albeit traditional and classic, isn’t necessarily a pattern that reflects the fun that they have in their lives here in Alaska.
I came across a wonderful design in a quilt pattern book called “Welcome to My Cabin,” by Nancy Smith and Lynda Milligan. I was initially attracted to the book because I saw a pattern that I wanted to do for Nelson and I, to commemorate our year here in our lovely little Fairbanks cabin. When I opened it up, I immediately became inspired for a wedding quilt design for Tri and Tim. “A Mountain Crossing” is a variation on a log cabin block design put into a wall hanging by one of the quilters featured in this book. The quilt consists of a simple log cabin block design to invoke the imagery of mountains, a wide white border, and large applique black bear design with paw prints along one corner.
Interestingly enough, the log cabin block has its roots in ancient Egypt. According to an article I viewed online, which cited many quilting history books and can be found here, the log cabin block that we recognize today was originally found on the geometric patterns of the dressings and coffins for mummified house pets in Egypt during the great cave excavations that took place in this country in the early parts of the 19th century. The British adapted this style, and referred to it as the Canadian Logwork block, subsequently cementing this block's popularity in the quilting history and culture of Canada.
In my view, the log cabin block and its associated mountain imagery in this quilt design is perfect. The color scheme of the pattern calls for a consistent three color design of the sky part of the scene, or, the three upper
left most rows of each block. There are five rows of mountains, which fade from a blue gray row, to pink, medium blue, dark blue, and finally to a deep midnight purple. When I saw it, my mind immediately went to the various shades of colors that the mountains in Glacier Valley takes on during the course of a day when I am skiing here in Girdwood. Seen here is an Excel representation that I made of the wall hanging design featured in this pattern, without the white border and applique black bear. In order to get the affect of centered mountains within their dimensions, the designer used a combination of both 7 inch and 5 inch blocks. As you can see from the illustration, on the far right, there is an extra long strip of blue sky attached on to the three 5 in sq. blocks that are sandwiched between the three 7 in blocks at the end of each row. I added a square of the bottom color in order to center the mountains better.The only snag in the design presented in the book was its size. The dimensions of the wall hanging are only ~42 x 46- not a suitable size for a bed quilt. I began doing various ratio calculations in my head, and sketches to see what I could add to make the quilt bigger but maintain its current proportions. We just happened to be out of graph paper, my usual weapon of choice for doing quilting calculations, so I simply marked out all of the proper dimensions with masking tape on my mom's, Cindy Shake, large quilting mat to double check my figures. Although this can seem kind of frustrating to most people, the mathematical process of designing quilts is one of my favorite parts of the quilting process.
Since the theme of the quilt is related to mountains, I began to experiment with adding a forest, or, green themed log cabin blocks around this center design. Below is the border for the top:
I added cornerstone blocks at each of the four corners. The only tricky part was trying to maintain the unusual proportions of the center mountain design. On the vertical borders, my mom had the great suggestion of adding in a center cornerstone and to reflect the pattern on either side with a "half pyramid" so the pattern would have better continuity:
Since there are six base colors of the mountain design, I put each color in the center of the six cornerstone green blocks. I think the effect is quite nice. I added two thick rows of a white border, to create a finished size of ~77 x 76, a more acceptable quilt size:
Above is the pattern that I have, created in Excel. Of course, the colors are limited because of the program I was using, but I think the general idea comes across. The dotted lines are simply artifacts from Excel, and have no specific demarcation. At this point, the geometry of the quilt is so beautiful, I am not sure that applique black bears would necessarily add to the design- in fact, they might take away from it. However, I will wait to see what the fabric looks like to make that decision at the end.Thus, this is the template that I will use for my first Alaskan wedding quilt. Looks like I have my work cut out for me!
You are amazing!! I couldn't believe you figured out all of the MATH for the quilt, THEN designed it up in EXCEL!!! Very cool :o) xox
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