PIECING IT TOGETHER Somer Hahm and the Far North Quilt Trail by Addie Studebaker
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hen thinking of a hand-sewn quilt, you might think of grandmas, aunts; family heirlooms passed down. A feeling of hominess, coziness, comfort, caretaking; a sense of the old-fashioned juxtaposed with timelessness. Quilts are ubiquitous across several cultures, but at the same time incredibly personal and unique to the individual creators, with the designs tailored to their specific experiences and heritages and even becoming historical records and artifacts over time. Somer Hahm of Fairbanks, Alaska, has dialed into all of these themes in her eyecatching geometric quilt paintings, part of a larger project, The Far North Quilt Trail Project. Though the project is rooted in her home community of Fairbanks, it is now gaining traction and visibility statewide, joining a number of established quilt trails in the Lower 48 and Canada. Barn quilts and self-guided “quilt trails” began and first took off in Ohio in the early 2000s and it works like this: Colorful geometric patterns reminiscent of hand-sewn quilts are painted on large wooden squares. Those painted squares are placed as long-
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A L A S K A H U M A N I T I E S F O R U M FA L L 2021
