Some Finished Projects- and Animals of Hawaii

I have slowly  been getting back into quilting gear after my vacation in Hawaii.  Here are some projects to show you.

First up is a charity quilt that I quilted for the Capital Quilters' Guild of Raleigh.  It will be a wheelchair quilt.  The maker took a piece of what we call "cheater cloth,"  because it looks like patchwork but is just a print.  She added a narrow plaid inner border and two outer borders.  When quilted, it is difficult to tell that it is not actually pieced and appliqued. 

I used a good blender thread in a khaki color called Baguette by Signature.  This is free-motion quilting with a few bunches of cherries here and there.

The backing is a pale blue solid, but this is one of the ones that I had to extend with a strip of my own fabric to make it large enough to mount on the long-arm machine.

Today I finished a quilt that I thought I had almost finished before I left for Hawaii.  It was made by Tonya May, a blogger who I met at the Carolina Longarm Quilt Show back in September.  I picked up her quilt top in North Wilkesboro at a grocery store parking lot! 

Tonya loves turtles, and this cute quilt has pieced turtles.  The head is pointed to the right corner.  Can you see it?

I had fun stitching the shells with various designs.

Here are the borders.

The backing is a turquoise polka-dot print. The thread is a Signature cotton in a new yellow-green shade called "Bamboo."

This quilt was really fun to work on!  I'll get it back to Tonya on our next trip to the mountains in a week or so.

On the subject of turtles, we actually were swimming with sea turtles or "honu" in Hawaii.  The resort has a "lagoon" with real sea water and sea creatures.  The water was so clear that you could see the fish without a snorkel.  Did not like seeing the eels swimming around, but was thrilled to swim along with sea turtles.  When we visited a black sand beach, there was one lying near the waves, not moving.  Charlie thought it was dead or dying, but I found a sign that said the turtles would come out of the Pacific to "rest" on the beaches.

We spotted another one doing the same thing just below the bridge over the lagoon at the resort.

I was standing in the shallow water, peering through the crystal-clear water at the fish, when a sea turtle went swimming right past me, about two feet away!

In addition to the sea creatures, myna birds and doves at the resort, there were feral cats and, of all things, ferrets at the resort!  The ferrets were imported to Hawaii to keep out snakes, I believe.  We noticed them the first morning from our lanai as they skittered in and out of the shrub borders.  (No pics- they were too fast!)

The feral cats are actually fed by a volunteer group known as "Advocats."  They were all over the resort, and help to keep down the mice.

There are also feral pigs and wild donkeys on the Big Island, but we did not see any.  The wild animal I was most thrilled to spot were the many humpback whales off the coast.  We could look for their spouts and watch them breach while sitting at the resort or sometimes even driving along the coast road.

For a more up-close look at ocean mammals, you could visit the dolphin pool right at the resort.  We had a dolphin encounter in Nassau ten years ago, so we just watched from the sides this time.

More next time!

Happy Doll's Festival Day

Today is March 3, celebrated in Japan as the day of the Doll's Festival, Hina Matsuri.  How would I know?

I mentioned yesterday that there is a heavy Japanese influence in the Hawaiian culture.  The Waikoloa Hilton had a glass display case in the main lobby with a gorgeous collection of Japanese dolls.  They had scheduled a celebration at the Japanese restaurant at the resort today.

From Wikipedia:  Also known as Girls' Day, on March 3 platforms are covered with a red carpet and are used to display a set of ornamental dolls (雛人形, hina-ningyō^?) representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period. 

The custom began in ancient times with the belief that the sickness or ill fortunes could be transferred to paper dolls.  The dolls were set afloat on a boat and set out to sea, supposedly taking the "bad spirits" with them.  Obviously the tradition has changed, as these dolls are exquisitely made and dressed.

Families generally start to display the dolls in February and take them down immediately after the festival. Superstition says that leaving the dolls past March 4 will result in a late marriage for the daughter.

According to a sign at the resort, the collection is added to each year.  Apparently the dolls also need tea sets and transportation.

I was very impressed with the detail in these miniature creations.  Also, it is good to know that the Japanese culture values their daughters!

We did not eat at the Japanese restaurant, Imari, but I often stopped along the walkway to admire their koi pond.



You might like to see some of the other Asian-influenced art at the resort.  I am sorry that I do not know the countries of origin.  Most of the statues on the grounds had no identifying information.

This cool dragon is reflected in the water of the canal in which the shuttle boats transport guests around the resort.

The resort is basically built around a cove, with two points that jut out into the sea.  On the right is Buddha Point, a grassy area where we enjoyed the sea breezes and sunsets.  So, I am assuming this must be a statue of Buddha, although he does not resemble the grinning, fat-bellied Buddha often portrayed.  At sunset, there is a tiki-torch-lighting ceremony at the resort.  A runner starts at one end of the resort and runs barefoot all the way to the other end at Buddha Point, blowing a conch shell at the beginning and end of the run.

In addition to being a great location for watching the sunset,

Buddha Point is a great spot to observe humpback whales.  I was so excited whenever I spotted a spout or whale flukes in the water!

Okay, here are a few more statues on the grounds.  I really enjoyed seeing them in unexpected places.  Often they brought smiles to our faces!

Some "Quilty Things" From Hawaii

Aloha!  I am back from a fabulous vacation trip to the big island of Hawaii.    We had the laptop, but the hotel did not offer free Wi-Fi.  So, we took hundreds of photographs and just took ten days off from Internet and e-mail.  I'll start catching up today with some quilt-related pictures.

We arrived at the Waikoloa Village Hilton in Kona at night after about nineteen hours of travel.  The resort is enormous, encompassing over sixty acres.  After we checked in, we took a tram ride to our room in the Palace Tower.  As tired and jet-lagged as I was, I couldn't help but notice THIS at the first tram stop at the convention center.

Of course, I did not take the picture until later, and the glare from the glass case obstructs some of the view.  This is a beautiful example of Hawaiian applique.  That style generally uses only one or two fabrics, and are silhouettes cut in circular patterns in four or eight sections.  Think of cutting paper snowflakes like we did in elementary school.

This particular quilt won a major award...and look at the ribbon!  It looks like a flower lei!



The first night that we went to a shopping center near the resort, I stumbled across the delightful Hawaiian Quilt Collection. 

This shop features quilts, bags, tableware, and lots of other items celebrating Hawaiian textiles and designs.  What caught my eye was this fabulous quilt on the wall.  It features the Hawaiian applique in an intricate four-section design.

They were getting ready to close, but the lady working in the shop said that it took two years to make.  She said the owner of the shop designed the quilt, and hired women to do the sewing.

Here are more quilts adorning a fabulous carved wooden four-poster bed.

I was drawn to this collection of soft-sculpture dolls in Hawaiian dress.

And look at the attractive wall of handbags to choose from!

This shop also sells patterns and kits for some of the Hawaiian applique designs.

Back to the resort...I mentioned the glorious quilt on display in front of the convention center.  Actually, there is a "Museum Walk" along a covered promenade from one end to the other.  If you don't want to ride the tram

or one of the wooden boats that run on a track through a man-made canal

to your destination, you can hoof it on the walkway and enjoy a multi-cultural display of sculpture, pottery, paintings, marionettes, and textiles on your way.

There were several examples of Asian tapestries that I admired.  There was no accompanying signage to explain the origin of these pieces.  Most of them appeared to be black and beige or gold, with trapunto stuffing and a staggering amount of beading and gold thread work.

Here is a detail of one piece. Look at all the pearls!

This detail shows how the stuffed trapunto elements make the piece three-dimensional.

There is more sculpture generously sprinkled throughout the resort. 

This towering fountain is in the lobby of our building in the resort.

As is this lovely objet d'arte.

Of course, the Big Island of Hawaii offers spectacular scenery from beaches to rain forest to mountains and volcanoes.  I have enough inspiration to keep me busy making art quilts for the rest of my life!  I will leave this post with one of my favorite scenic views we happened across on one of our excursions.

Perhaps I will sneak in more photographs from time to time, or construct a slide show.  Meanwhile, I have six new customer quilt tops coming in this week, and still have to finish a few that I have had for awhile.  And finish Lessons Three and Four from my Pamela Allen art quilt workshop.  Better get busy!

For those of you who have been checking in on my blog only to find no new posts, I will say my new Hawaiian word that I love:  "Mahalo," meaning thank you, gratitude, respect, esteem, all of the above!  And here is the most well-known and used Hawaiian phrase, written in the unique island graffiti of white coral on dark lava rocks.