Journal Entry

Since my return from Fairbanks and the PolarTREC Orientation, it has been a whirlwind of tasks to accomplish and people to contact. I have been a bit neglectful of my art studio and the time I enjoy spending there. The long Memorial Day weekend afforded me the extra time I needed to complete a photo art quilt I started a couple weeks back. I have been working on it fifteen minutes at a time and making rather slow progress. However, it is now officially hanging up and I am quite satisfied that it is “Alaskan” enough.

The pictures were transferred so that they look rustic and weathered like the frontier of Alaska. The border fabric was purchased in Alaska at a nice quilt shop in Fairbanks that Kristin Timm was nice enough to drive me to on a busy afternoon. It is a Tlingit art style batik which is a traditional Native Alaskan art form. And the shed caribou antler buttons that dot the photos were purchased at the Museum of the North gift shop during one of our field trips.

Photo Art Quilt of Fairbanks Field TripsDimensions 21 inches X 24 inches

The photos were taken in the following locations around Fairbanks:

Top left – The Large Animal Research Station (LARS)
Top right – The Alyeska Pipeline Visitor Center
Center – Creamer’s Field Forest Trail Alaskan Paper Birch Forest
Bottom left – Outside the Permafrost Tunnel
Bottom right – The Pumphouse Restaurant

Photo Art Quilt Creamer's Field PictureThe photo transfer method I used gives the images a rustic feel. The caribou buttons are a terrific Alaskan touch.

Photo Art Quilt Alyeska Pipeline imageThe colors of the border fabric were a great match to the center of the quilt and helped keep that stylized folk art look.