Lake Moraine is located in a valley inside Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies. Melting glaciers create the breathtaking azure blue color of the water. The lake is surrounded on all sides by 10 jagged peaks towering over 6,100 feet tall. It is a sight to behold!
My husband and I visited Lake Moraine in 1988 just before the area was "discovered" by attendees of the 1989 Winter Olympics in Calgary. With only 3 or 4 visitors in sight, we rented a row boat. As the sun was beginning to set, we rowed to the far side of the lake where we looked straight up to view the giant peaks. The tops of the mountains were covered in snow, and the water was so pure that we could see the pebbles resting on the lake's bottom.
My quilt is a salute to our visit to Lake Moraine. I used numerous scraps of hand-dyed, batik and cotton fabrics. The technique is raw-edge applique using Wonder Under. To create the water, I used a strip piecing method by Cathy Geier described in her book, "Lovely Landscape Quilts." The peaks are varying shades of hand-dyed fabrics with white tulle added for snow. I used a wide variety of drawing pencils and inks to add shadows to the mountains and to highlight the large stones surrounding the water. The green areas on the quilt represent wooded areas with trees packed closely together. I used a lime green pencil to achieve that effect. The tiny canoe with two people and a paddle were cut from left-over fabric from my stash.
To stitch the water, I used a technique described in Geier's book. For water she advises quilting long horizontal, slightly wavy lines. The lines toward the horizon are quilted very close together which adds depth and distance. The lines gradually get bigger as the water gets closer to the foreground. I used 3 different thread colors for the water.
It is said that Prince Harry upon visiting Lake Moraine for the first time said, "Why travel to Switzerland when you can go to Lake Moraine!" It is my hope that this little quilt will entice you to visit this magnificent treasure.
