Alice's Travel Quilt--Norway

The Hanseatic Wharf, Bergen, Norway

Two different cruises to Norway were dreams come true for me.  Ever since as a teenager I read the trilogy KRISTIN LAVRANSDATTER by Noble Prize-winner Sigrid Unset, I have been fascinated by Norway.

The cruises were different, though there were a few duplicate ports.  During both, we feasted our eyes on deep-blue fjords, majestic mountains, charming villages with wooden houses and public buildings painted in all the colors of the rainbow.  One such colorful port was Bergen, where we spent hours wandering in the shops and open food markets of the Hanseatic Wharf.

My quilt depicts this part of Bergen.  I based it on a photograph, but I simplified and changed the building colors.  I fused the buildings and dock to pieces of hand-painted sky and water-look batik.  I embellished the wooden buildings with perle embroidery thread, using the chain, running, couching (on the boat masts), and back stitches, stitching through to the batting.  Because penetrating the layers of batiks, Wonder Under, and batting took much effort (I even resorted to a pair of small pliers to pull the needle through on occasion!) I inked in many of the details (windows, doors), rather than embroidering them. I drew the two sailboats with ink, as well, and added details on the freehand-cut swans (which look more like ducks!) and the buoy.   Though I was hoping to embroider sky and water, I ended up doing some simple and random machine quilting.  And I thread painted the white lines that represent the furled sails on the two boats.

I learned a lot with this quilt about what NOT to use, when attempting to use Laura Wasilowski’s wonderful methods (in FANCIFUL STITCHES—COLORFUL QUILTS)!  I even emailed her, telling her of my frustrations.  She suggested wool batting (I had used 100% cotton) and being careful not to “over fuse” the appliques until the quilt was completed.

This quilt was finished with a Wonder-Under fused binding, and I used the same fabrics that appeared at the edges of the quilt to make it less obtrusive.

P.S.  This quilt is now two-sided!  I took a page from Nedra's book and fused my first Travel Quilt to the back of this one!  That quilt I called Postcards from Norway.  I printed favorite photos from my two cruises to June Taylor photo transfer fabric.  Then I constructed a background that replicated the Norweigan flag.  I then fused the 4 mock "postcards", as well as the back of a postcard (made from a stamp), to the background.  I inked a message and an address on this back, to make it look more authentic.  I frankly loved this quilt, but after listening to advice from several, I decided to use #2 (the scenic one above) as my "reveal" quilt.  I still think I like the postcard one the best!