Chris Ellis, a member of the Stikine Stitchers, shows one of her smaller quilts at the "Bears in July" quilt show, honoring the upcoming BearFest. The show at the Nolan Center is open to visitors until July 31. Ellis uses small fabric scraps to illustrate landscapes, animals and geometric designs.
From formidable black bears to cuddly teddy bears, from luxurious queen-sized bedspreads to tiny, hand-pieced landscapes, the Stikine Stitchers' BearFest quilt show - "Bears in July" - displays the skill of Wrangell's quilting community.
The show is on view in the Nolan Center's classroom during regular hours until July 31.
The quilts on display at the quilt show are "very diverse," said event organizer Janet Buness. "Some are a lot of patchwork, a lot of smaller pieces. Some are done with a panel in the middle, some are very large and some are very small."
The show also features a combination of previously completed quilts and quilts that were designed specifically for this year's celebration. "Some were made specifically for BearFest and some were just quilts that people had that had bear designs on them," she added.
To have the show ready for the festival, quilters started piecing their fabrics together about six months ago.
A quilt by Linnea Brooks features a large, central black bear panel surrounded by a checker design and a bear print border. She's been quilting for 10 to 15 years and was able to finish her BearFest quilt in just 10 days, without using a pattern. Then, she sent her work off to a mail-in machine quilting service for finishing touches.
"It's very relaxing and it gives you something to do," she said of the activity. She turns to quilting to get her through Alaska's long, dark winters - in the summer, when it's nice outside, she's often too busy. Quilting also provides her with a supportive community of fellow enthusiasts. "There are some really fabulous quilters here in Wrangell," she said, and they meet regularly to motivate each other and share their skills.
Brooks' quilt isn't for sale - she plans to donate it to the Wrangell's Cancer Care Foundation.
Chris Ellis has six quilts hanging at the show, some as small as postcards. She specializes in "paper piecing" - a style of quilting that uses small, geometric fabric scraps to create patterns and images. One of her quilts is comprised of 14 hexagons, each with a tiny bear in the center. "Each of the individual bear pieces ... took a day," she
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