Quilt Block Collections - 1

Updated 12/15/07 14:27

Elspeth's Alaskan Adventures Collections

Being a series of quilt block collections suitable for either a lap quilt (lap- rug), or a full sized bed quilt.

As Elspeth's travels to Alaska, with William, she observes this new and adventurous land and records her impressions, feelings, and experiences in her letters. Although the letters are sent by various methods and over the many days of her journeys, she is filled with the wonder of the new land.

Elspeth's Quilt Blocks

She tires to capture this wonder and awe by the creation of a quilt blocks as she travels along the trail in the wagon. Thus the blocks she creates become a very special log of her new life and adventures in Alaska.

Elspeth's 11 Quilts

1. Elspeth's Alaskan Honeymoon Sampler Quilt
2. Life in Fairbanks & gold mining in the Creeks
3. Gold mining on the Goodpasture
4. Icelandic Christmas in Alaska
5. Life with Jake – Alaska Babies
6. Alaska Wildlife Babies
7. Native Life with Brown Eyes
8. Alaska Interior Native Lifestyles & Crafts
9. Alaska Wild Flowers
10. Alaska Highway of '42
11. Alaska Native Stories

Elspeth came from America

Born in America's heartland

  Elspeth (b. 1901) in Calloway County, Kentucky west of the Tennessee River.
   Elspeth came from a large family. She was a middle child with two older sitters, both married, and two older brothers. There are two much younger sisters, Dauphine and Cleopatra, and two little baby brothers, the twins Jonathan and Benjamin.
   Her oldest brother, Seth Lloyd, is a mining engineer some where in South America. The second eldest sibling, her brother, Daniel James is a sailor in the U. S. Navy. He is serving as a gunner's mate on one of the old-line battleships, out of Norfolk, Virginia.
   Dawn Elise, Elspeth's oldest sister, lives on a cattle ranch in the west Texas hill country. While her closest sister and friend, Margaret Sarah lives in Chicago and is an aspiring artist and 1920s feminist.

Family was old New England stock

  Her family originally came from New England. They were from old stock that come over on one of the first boats and suffered through those first brutal years. According to her great-great grandfather, her bloodline also includes some Native American Algonquin or Iroquois.
   Her great great grandma came from the Connecticut River Valley (b. about 1825).
  One of her grandfathers was a whaling captain out of New Bedsford. He had sailed Alaskan waters during the time of the voyages of the Cutter Bear. (he U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear was active in Alaska waters from 1885 to the 1920s).

Grandparents met in Oregon in the late 1880s

  Elspeth Martha Walker (Elspeth's grandmother) came to Oregon in the late 19th century.
   She also was a quilter and a letter writer to her "Dear Friend" who lived in that mythical land "Back East".
   She met and married the whaling captain. Who later became a maritime revenue agent in Astoria, Oregon and eventually a dairy farmer Linn County.
    She observed the trip of the Calliope up the South Santiam in 1871
   Some of Elspeth's (Walker) letters were later collected (over a hundred years later).
   The letters were used in a quilt show and historic homes tour, and mystery quilt contest (see attached proposal).

William had done some time on the river

  William, Elspeth's husband. came from a family in southern Missouri. Originally his family came from the Georgia seacoast. William has done some mining in Colorado and Utah before coming back to Kentucky and meeting Elspeth.
   William has also worked as a boy on the Mississippi as a deck crewman on the paddle wheel freighter Col. John Germain. Working the lower river down to New Orleans.

BOGGS — WARREN Wedding Announcement in Murray Times & Ledger Newspaper

Going to Alaska... Sidetrip to California

  Before coming to Alaska, the young newlyweds had traveled to meet William's uncle in the gold mining country of the Sierra Nevadas in northern California. There they also visited with Elspeth's very old aunt (she was in her late 80s) who worked in a house on the Barbary Coast in San Francisco during the California Gold Rush (c. 1849-1860).

Elspeth's Journeys Book One

Quilt 1. Elspeth's Alaskan Honeymoon Sampler Quilt

Quilted during Elspeth's Adventures with William as They Traveled the Richardson Highway from Valdez to Fairbanks In the early 1920s

In Elspeth's first letters to her friend she describes her journey from Valdez to Fairbanks in Alaska. Along the way she is making a quilt with blocks representing some of the sights she and her new husband William encounter.

Elspeth was a traditional young woman from America. She came west with her you husband to seek adventure and a new life in Alaska.

Elspeth's Letters

Letter One... The beginning...William and I Arrive in Valdez, Alaska

Dear Friend,
   It is Friday, the 6th day of our journey to the North. Aside from the storm at sea the voyage went without incident. It has been a new adventure to be aboard ship so long and William and I have fared well. Today begins the hardest but most exciting part ... The Valdez Trail. June 11, 1920 is the beginning of our new life on the frontier and our quest for riches from the land.
  Now begin also my journey quilt. As William loads our new wagon and hitches the animals, I must remember to organize our supplies so that I can reach my needles, spools and cloth. I wonder what I shall see and what memories these tools shall help me make as we travel this long road?
  It is just before dawn and the farrier has warned us of the difficult trail over the pass. We have strapped the load well and are headed up the pass, bidding farewell to the ocean waves and the smell of the sea. My needlework shall continue once through these frosted peaks of delectable mountains.
Your dear friend

Elspeth

Letter Two... Steep Going

Dear Friend
   Can it be mid week already? This road is hard and so steep I fear we shall roll head over bottom all the way back to the ship from whence we came! So weary have we been each night we have stopped to make camp, that I have quickly prepared our meal while William tends the team and soon thereafter slept soundly 'til morn with no time to write nor stitch.
   The sites have been beyond magnificence and all the more wondrous because it is the land of the midnight sun. We must be careful to plan a time to rest, lest we go on through the night and not realize. William says that we shall soon be out of these peaks and if the wagon wheel holds. I shall be able to spend more time with my needle. For this, I shall be glad. My dear friends, quill and needle, have I missed dearly.
Your dearest,
Elspeth

Play the Quilt Mystery Game

While at the same time, as a quilter, you will be able to modify the blocks to record your own, special Alaskan journey.

Make Your Own Alaska Travel Quilt

This sampler includes many different blocks. Thus you can try to discover the ones that Elspeth chose or you can select blocks to represent your own trip through Alaska.

Come To ACQC & Win

For some added fun, every one should try to discover the block and order in which Elspeth make her quilt. If you discover the correct blocks, in the correct order, stop by the real ACQC (Alaskan Chocolate Quilting Company)in Delta Junction, Alaska and we will give you a small prize.

Letter Three...  Copper Valley Pioneers

Dear Friend,
   William and I spoke with a gentleman, much gnarled in his appearance from his life here in this rugged land I suspect. He lives in a small log cabin in the hills below the pass. Having lived here long before this road was in; he is a true pioneer of this land. He says the beautiful mountain blooms I have gathered are called lupine. They are similar to what Mama grew along the porch rail in Kentucky.
   Already my hands must whirl as I piece together my ninth block. My imagination needs no prodding to supply my needle with its task. This land the old man calls the Copper Valley looks to stretch forever and we are just following a wanderer's path in the wilderness. I must remember to thank Mama for extracting from me such quantity of handwork that makes me proficient at my skill. I shall have a cover of beautiful memories for William and me to lie beneath by journeys end.

Yours dear one
Elspeth

Letter Four... The Black Bear... Salmon Spawning... and Fireweed

Dear Friend,
   Much excited were the animals this day when we came upon the sight of a huge black bear, slapping spawning salmon onto a bank for its young with huge bear paws. We gave it wide berth and continued on through the bent and broken black spruce. Odd isn't it that in this land of such grandeur it's trees are so small and corrupted. "Ugly" William says. Above us today the sky was full of geese in flight. They, like us, on their way north to a better life. This land is wild and fraught with untamed life.
   No longer do I see the beautiful lupine, now it is a taller stalk of pink blooms, fireweed I am told by the keeper of the Sourdough Roadhouse. So short are the roofs of these dwellings I fear my towering William shall strike himself senseless on the door lintel. It is good to take food with in this day.
   Square number fourteen was added to my precious pile this eve. Tomorrow I start another.


Good sleep dear friend,
Elspeth 

Letter Five... A Windy Mountain Pass

Dear Friend,
   We have come through another mountain pass. To our left and our right, beautiful peaks covered with snowflakes, it seems I can see forever. Earlier there was a vicious wind from which I sought shelter inside the wagon as poor William sat along in front, wind blown and anxious. For soon we come to a ferry crossing at Rika's landing.
   I have finished my sixteenth square...one for each year of my life before William and I were betrothed.

Fondly,

Elspeth

Letter Six... Frontier Folk at Big Delta

Dear Friend,
   With the help of new friends in Big Delta, we and our team have come over the Tanana aboard a cleverly contrived crossing ferry. The tenacity and ingenuity of these wilderness folk is inspiring. We are proud to be among their number. Reports from the Fairbanks gold fields have been promising. William is anxious to stake us a claim.
   Two more travelers we met here. Not trodding the road as we but have crossed canoes lying ashore behind Rika's Roadhouse. They were trappers dressed in beautiful skins and with fur trim. Their talk was rough and striking to the ear and their adventures worthy of a volume itself.
   On through the flat lands of water and moose. The creatures are towering and odd looking at best. We have heard they can be deadly though ones we have seen ignore us or cantor off. The mud on the trail is covered with moose tracks hence William has tasked me to keep watch for any that may encumber our way.

For now dearest,
Elspeth

Letter Seven... A Thieving Raven Brings Laughter

Dear Friend
   It has been fifteen days since we last saw Valdez harbor. We are nearing our destination. I have been watching the bold black birds that resemble crows from home. They have been brazen in their ventures toward our wagon. This morning as we loaded up, one landed on the wagon rail and stole a thread and needle. I was indignant. William laughed aloud and explained these were not enormous crows as I had thought, but ravens. He pointed out that raven's feet are black unlike crows. It was good to hear him laugh even at the expense of a precious needle. I must remember to keep my thread and needles hidden. I know not what supplies can be had in Fairbanks though I hear it is a booming town.

Excitedly,

Elspeth

Letter Eight... The End of the Trail...Fairbanks and the Gold Fields

Dear Friend,
   We have arrived! Fairbanks! It has been a long journey to our new life. Today I finished my last block. I have twenty now which will make a wonderful quilt. Once we have staked and established our claim I hope to have time to join the squares and begin the quilting. There will be much work to do, but never were two hands more happy in their work. Now on to our search for the golden nugget.

Farewell for now dear friend,

Elspeth