While I had been quilting for years, I had never made a quilt for keeps. I love making wedding quilts and baby quilts for others, or just because quilts as gifts, but never for myself. My husband and I had an amazing opportunity to spend several years in Alaska, and were lucky enough to be able to see a lot of the state in our little fiberglass camper. I decided that I really wanted to make a quilt that represented the northern lights to use in our little camper. However, what I needed for our tiny camper was a pattern that was horizontal, since we approached the bed from the side instead of the foot. I looked long and hard but could not find a horizontal pattern. I have always loved the look of bargello quilts, all that movement and beautiful flow of colors, and decided one would make a perfect Northern Lights quilt. So, I designed a pattern, purchased fabrics from a local quilt shop, and started sewing. Once the quilt was finished, we had one final summer left in Alaska to enjoy it in the camper.
My father, like many men of his generation, is not forthcoming with complements. But he kept mentioning to my mom how much he liked my northern lights bargello, and how nice of a quilt it was. He also kept trying to talk me into giving it to him, so I made him a deal, if he purchased the fabric, I would make him his own north lights bargello quilt using the same pattern as my own. On my parents’ next visit to Alaska we all trekked to the local quilt shop to purchase the needed fabric. In the meantime he kept making comments about how I could give him the already finished quilt and make myself a new one with the newly purchased fabric. In his sneaky way he even asked me “Is there anything you would do differently if you make this quilt again?”, I answered “Of course”, to which he replied “Good, then you can give me this one and make the changes on the next one and keep it.” I held firm and kept insisting that I was keeping my first northern lights bargello, the first quilt I had ever made for myself, and that he could have the second one when it was finished.
In the meantime, my husband and I were preparing to put everything we owned into storage for a year in order to move abroad with my husband’s job. We would be moving with only a few duffel bags of cloths, and of course sewing supplies, all of our other possessions would be put into storage. This meant that my treasured bargello quilt, that had only seen a single Alaska summer of camping, was headed to the dark confines of a storage unit. My parents would be taking our little camper back home to Washington with them for the duration of our time overseas. Therefore, my dad even tried saying “Its the camper quilt so it should stay with the camper” as an argument for me to give him this quilt.
I didn’t have the heart to keep telling my dad “No” knowing I wouldn’t be using the quilt for the foreseeable future. Therefore, I made my dad the deal that he could have my first northern lights bargello quilt while the second was under construction, with the understanding that I had “take back rights” if I didn’t love the second as much as I did the first. And that is how my much loved northern lights bargello quilt made the trip down the Alaska Highway in the camper with my parents, while I moved overseas with all the fabric needed to make a second northern lights bargello.
