The BIG Hawaiian is DONE

93" x 94". Cecelia, an experienced quilter, pieced this quilt. This is the fourth or fifth of these quilts that I have done from a local quilt class given at the Ramona Senior Center about 3 years ago.

The pattern is wonky so the medallion always has some fullness. The blocks were a snap to quilt and fun to design the elements for them. The intersections were a bit tricky so I went slowing into those. But my hopping foot still got stuck so I would hit the STOP button and use my had to wiggle the foot out of the intersection. This meant, of course, that the first stich out of hte corner is a l-o-n-g stitch but those spots were not noticable.

My previous post detailed my plan to use Hobbs 80-20 and QD Puff for faux trapunto under the medallion. The QD Puff coupled with a lot of Rebecca Segura's 3s and Es bacgkround fill pounded down the excess fabric. There were two stragetic tucks in there. I was disappointed because I wanted to use some motifs (hibiscus) in those big light blue spots. It would have been fun to fill up that space with some artistic quilting. I'm not saying that the 3s and Es are not artistic, I just prefer to have "less" background fill in a quilt. I don't like the difference in the density from the rest of the quilt either and if I didn't know that it was damage control background fill, I would just think that the quilt lacked either imagination or the proper tools to fill those areas with something different. Everybody that has seen it has been wow'd by it. People love those 3s and Es. The rep from Immaculate Heart of Mary picked up the quilt yesterday and was very happy with it. I asked that she let me know how much the quilt makes at their raffle. I'll post an update after their spring even coming up later this month.

Well, here are the photos. The first two photos show the issues with fullness that I had with this quilt. The 2 batts, faux trapunto and background fill took care of those issues. The setting and side triangles all have freehand feathers but they really blended in so much they were invisible. I used some Isacord silver thread to outline parts of the feathers just to draw the eye to those sections of the quilt.











The fabric has some stars and some bubbles. So I quilted some pebbles in the center of the medallion. (the pebbles are homage to Adam, th Prince of Pebbles over on MQR).

Another big Hawaiian

We had a quilting class at the high school and the senior center about 3 years ago. The pattern was for a Hawaiian sampler. I think that the pattern is not correct because every single one of these samplers that I have done has lots of fullness in teh middle. The center is a 36 inch Hawaiian flower. Here is a photo of one that I did over year ago. I was still pretty new at longarm quilting and it just about drove me crazy.

So a friend, Marilynn, put the binding on one of my quilts and I told her that I would quilt one of her quilts. We all meet up at sit and sew one Friday night where she will be giving me the quilt that I am supposed to quilt for her. I working on my project and what does Marilynn pull out of her bag? The BIG Hawaiian. I almost cried but a deal is a deal.

Well, she still had to assemble the sampler blocks with the medallion. She was having problems so we all gathered around, put it up on the design board and tried to make it work. Marilynn is an exceptional piecer and she finally decided that the quilt was not going to be up to her usual standards. She decided to donate it to her quilting group (Prayers and Squares at the Lutheran church) and see if somebody else could make it work. I think that the medallion would make a lovely lap quilt but that's just me. So I was so relieved to not get this project but I had to refrain from dancing around with Marilynn close-by.

2 days later a friend, Judy calls about a raffle quilt for the Prayers and Squares group at the Catholic church. After making sure that the $$ went to the church, I said that I would quilt it for her. The group was still deciding on the pattern, yada, yada. The next day Judy called and told me the good news. One of the seniors, an accomplished quilter, donated one of her quilt tops. The Catholic church group did not need to piece a new quilt for their raffle. Judy brought the quilt right over. I need to get it done before MQS.

I almost died when I saw the quilt. It was yet another of those BIG Hawaiian quilts. I just can't seem to get away from these quilts. And does this one have issues? Oh, yeah.

Here are some links to some of the Hawaiians that I have done in the past:

Brenda's Sampler with Celtic Knot

Marys Hawaiian

Paulines Sampler

Saint Bernard Quilt Raffle

For those of you who regularly visit my blog, you will remember a big scrappy plaid quilt with a life-size (almost) sleeping St. Bernard.

I quilted it for my friend, Allison, who is passionate about Saint Bernard rescue. She donated the quilt for a raffle for Saint Bernard Rescue and the quilt earned....(Can I get a drum roll, please).....

$1,126. Yup 11-hundred smackeroos and all for a great cause. Thank you, Allison.

See more about this quilt

Circle Lord ZigZag/Waves

I need a new avatar

Just before I go to a quilt show, I like to update my avatar so my online quilting buddies will recognize me. I tried taking my own photo with less than wonderful results. See if you can guess which one I chose?

2 Cuteys from LA Law