This quilt is going to my cousin Val. She lives in Jasper, and has done for close to four decades. She works for Parks Canada, originally riding in helicopters counting bears which is the main reason I knew I had to do a bear-themed quilt for her. As well, Jasper the Bear has been a beloved statue, a landmark recognized by all Canadians, standing in the town since 1962. More information on his cartoon creation, which was originally designed for MacLean's magazine in 1948, is at Travel Alberta. I love that his purpose has always been to remind readers of the importance of environmental stewardship. Would that we had better practised that stewardship.
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Travel Alberta |
The post on November 25 explains the process of designing the lower section of the quilt, how I morphed from Lorna's design of a full quilt of bear paw blocks behind the bear to flowing into other meaningful representations of Jasper.
When it came to the mountains, I didn't want to do them as a landscape quilt; I wanted this quilt to be suggestions of the Jasper landscape that flow into each other. So I looked at a lot of mountain quilts on Pinterest, and sketched out some ideas in my graph paper notebook. I loved the quilts that used HSTs and QSTs to create the suggestion, some nuanced, others obvious, of mountains and so that is the direction I went. It took me some time. Yes, there was the Smooches quilt commission, and Christmas, and I fulfilled a couple of Dayna's requests (she still has several more - a good 'problem' to have of fitting them in around my quilt agenda), and of course Project Quilting.
I auditioned many fabrics, several batiks, but others that from a distance evoked mountain characteristics. On two mountains I improv-pieced in some snow on the peaks, but other than those two, the rest are just built with triangles. There’s one that I absolutely love: a grey that, if you look closely, is actually a caribou head. It’s a Michael Miller Fabrics piece, Rustique by Emily Herrick. Can you find it below? I plan to use it up on the back.
Here are all the fabrics I used in the quilt. I think. I may have used up some or forgot some as I’d already ‘filed’ a bunch back in their respective places in my stash. Upon proofreading this post, yep, I did forget a couple, but I wasn't going to restage the photo, ha.
There were several iterations of the various peaks in my range. Lots of squinting and looking at them in the half light of evening or early morning ensued. Here is where I started January 1.
There were several iterations of the various peaks in my range. Lots of squinting and looking at them in the half light of evening or early morning ensued. Here is where I started January 1.
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I had thought of working in a couple of the small trees into the foreground mountains but ended up not feeling it so they didn’t make it. Maybe for a label on the back… |
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January 2 |
You may notice a ground piece placed on the design wall beneath the bear. I had come across this 4” wide strip of batik fabric left over from my niece Sheila’s quilt I made her when she bought her condo back in 2009. This was another one of those glimmers! I loved the First People’s connection in this fabric, the land acknowledgement that my quilt would make: the very ground the bear is walking upon has belonged to Indigenous people and animals since time immemorial. Did I have enough? The quilt was 47.5" wide at that point and the batik was 44". You may notice a hole in the fabric where I had cut out one of the symbols for use in some other project somewhere in the past. I determined that if I cut the strip 2.5" wide then I could piece a 4" to 5" chunk of the 1.5" wide WOF strip left over and add it to the end. It worked beautifully; I was able to blend two similar symbols, so you will be hard-pressed to find it, especially once it’s quilted.
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Pretty close to calling it time to sew mountains together |
You’ll notice I started filling in with dark grey/black triangles for a night sky, thinking the next row or border would have a star or three in it, and then came the idea that I could maybe do the Aurora Borealis in the sky. This is what I adore about designing on the design wall, on the fly, letting the magic happen. Once again, I headed to my stash and found the comet fabric by Maria Kalinowski. It wasn’t exactly what the Northern Lights look like but I thought it could work. I had the idea to use some batiks to fill in between some of the triangles to evoke how they fade in and out and move or dance as is often the description.
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January 8 —time to switch gears for the first PQ prompt |
The Aurora don’t just go horizontally across the sky; they tend to go up and down and spread across in a kind of arc which is why I wanted them to be in a similar shape in this quilt. Hence the flow to the black Benartex marbled piece of Wonderlust by Paula Nadelstern in the corners of the quilt. Again, I played for a few days re-orienting the triangles and cutting out what seemed like the appropriate part of a purple and green batik and a rich black, fuchsia and orange batik that would help with flow. Finally I was satisfied with them and on the weekend I got all the triangles and corner triangles sewn together and onto the quilt. I'd also done the math and cut and pieced the 'ground' and attached it.
Then, I just knew it needed side borders before the last border of sky. Now, I had a wee problem that I'd been avoiding: the mountain section was a full inch wider than the bear section, so I knew I'd now need to trim the quilt. This is because the bear section was 47.5" (six 7" blocks plus five 1" sashing strips) and the mountain blocks were 6" finished. Eight of them meant 48.5". I had previously toyed with the idea of putting a coping strip of ½" on either side of the bear section but that felt weird, so I figured I'd work it out once I had the mountain and sky section complete. Trimming was the right call, despite losing some 'ground' points. Mountains don't care about or end in precise points, so I didn't let this bother me, and it doesn't at all now the quilt top is done.
This morning, Monday, I was up early and sewed on the side borders. On Sunday evening I had found the PERFECT (yes I yelled that) blue/brown fabric (Texture Scapes fabric from forever ago by S&A Fabrics - no clue who that is) in my stash for this quilt. I cut it 2" wide so it will finish 1.5", just a narrow stopping point to frame the quilt. At the top of each border I pieced in a 3.5" piece of the black marbled fabric to blend in with the sky. Now for that final border...
Well!
When I was looking in my dark blue stack of yardage stash on Sunday evening for the side borders, what did I find? This!
I could have died. Where were you, my lovely, when I was agonizing over the aurora?! But then I thought, no, a straight 6" strip of this might have looked weird on top of the dark grey/black triangles between the mountain peaks. And, to be honest, I still was happy with my triangles-made Aurora. However, I really really wanted to use it somehow. Could it work for the final sky border? I had pulled out the Benartex Wonderlust from the stack of quilt fabrics and was about to cut it, but stopped to see if this aurora fabric might work.
So, after my yoga practice and breakfast (no daily walk today: at -14C and a wind I did a hard pass!) I ironed the .5 metre I had, looked at it and thought where it was cut from the bolt might be a perfect spot to blend in because of lots of deep midnight blues along there that could flow from the dark grey/black fabrics and the black background comet fabrics. Below you can see how the northern lights fabric evolved from a rectangle in the centre with black on the edges, to across the whole quilt, to this long edge up or this long edge, to final iteration before pieced and then attached.
Have I mentioned how much I love my 2' x 8' styrofoam sheets design wall? I folded that half metre of Northern Lights fabric and pinned it into the styrofoam so I could get the placement as close to perfect as I wanted. In the bottom two photos that half metre is pinned in place. 😉 Normally, when I do borders, I mitre the seams but here it needed to be straight along the deep blue area, to ensure its near invisibility, much like the ground strip.
Now I have to set it aside for a week as I'm off to make my Project Quilting 16.2 project. The prompt is ombré or gradation. Next to shadows and layers in quilts, it's my favourite thing!
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Three random drawers from my Sterilite plastic drawer system where I store hunks of fabric that are less than half a yard |
Once the quilt is quilted, you'll get the whole story behind it.
Speaking of quilt stories, I did my first Zoom presentation of 'Quilt Tales for the Heart and Mind' on Saturday to Copper Valley Fat Quarters Quilt Guild in BC, so there was a fair amount of prep this past month revamping my slideshow from an in-person to a virtual presentation, and then practising it again, ensuring I knew and then remembered how to share my screen in Zoom (thank you Dayna and Brady). The guild really enjoyed it, and it was another learning and growing experience for me. I said to Joanne, the guild member (and blog reader😊) who asked me last summer if I would consider doing a Zoom for them, that there may well be a Part 2 as my first two quilts of 2025 have quite the heartfelt stories behind them. Cathy (in Port Perry, ON, another blog reader and Postcard from Sweden QAL participant) the one who started me on this presentation journey, also had said to me in a recent conversation that I will have more quilts to add!
Again, I am bowled over by where this blog has taken me. Thanks to Cathy and Joanne, I do guild presentations. Wow. I'm not looking to do a lot or turn it into a business: two or three in a year is plenty, but it does amaze me that this has evolved! I wrote fewer posts last year, but you know what? That may change. This is where I feel I can be truly authentic. I don't have to think about who to tag, who may promote a quilt, what horrible policies a platform now has, etc. I just write my thoughts, for me. But then wow, so many of you read these musings, and respond, and I've found so many friends here, met up in person with many of you. So a heartfelt thank you! PS I did a first post on TikTok. I think (lol) I'm SandraJaneQuilts. (I can hear my family chortling.) It's much like Instagram so I may migrate there rather than Bluesky.
Amazing, Sandra! Fabulous flimsy and always so interesting to read how your brain works as you create :-) Have fun with the quilting! (I too have started that quilt - mine is following Lorna's pattern exactly and I just have the pieced borders left - how fun to personalise yours so much.)
ReplyDeleteLoved reading how you created this work of art, it is absolutely fabulous!! Anxious to see it quilted and read more about the story behind the quilt. Thanks for sharing! o diane 79 @ yahoo . com
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful journey you took with the bear quilt. The mountains worked out so well. It has to feel good to reach a finishing point and feel good at how it all worked out.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love how the quilt has evolved, Sandra. The mountains and aurora are the perfect cap. I hope you have fun with this week's Ombré challenge and, when the time is right, a lot of joyous delight when you quilt up this beauty!
ReplyDeleteWOW! Just WOW! That's absolutely stunning! I love all the different bits and pieces that you've incorporated into this quilt, and I'm eagerly looking forward to hearing the "behind the scenes" story.
ReplyDeletenice designs !
ReplyDeleteI love how you made the mountains and aurora borealis, what a great idea using HST's. They look fantastic!
ReplyDeleteAs I said on IG, what a labor of love. Your devotion to getting things just right is amazing. I wouldn't have the patience. Your friend is going to love this.
ReplyDeletePat
Such a wonderful quilt Made "your" way. And that is the most important way to have it. I love seeing the iterations and reading about the different thoughts you had while creating the quilt. And the "find" at the end! Isn't that a mixed blessing? You might have just used that instead of making those different triangles that give this quilt so much life. Can't wait to see it quilted. Loved the view of your drawers of fabric. It will be interesting to see what you come up with for Challenge 2 of PQ
ReplyDeleteI love it so much. It's the perfect Jasper quilt. I started a big bear quilt and it went into UFO pile... oy
ReplyDeleteLeeAnna
Stunning! Another quilt made with and deep meaning and love. I'm sure it will bring hope and comfort to Val as they continue to rebuild in Jasper. Cathy
ReplyDeleteThis is so stunning and gorgeous! I love it and all the great stories that accompany it -the design process and finding the perfect fabric. You are amazing! I am sure Val will adore this quilt - so meaningful and so blessed with your loving stitches.
ReplyDeleteThis quilt is a treasure. Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteIt is brilliant. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteWonderful quilt and I really enjoyed your description of how the design evolved. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThis is quite the quilt with lots of meaning. You knocked it out the park. Well done!
ReplyDelete