Quilt of the week

What better time of year than freezing cold January to feature my Hawaiian quilt! It makes me think of beaches, suntans, sunsets and pina coladas! We went to Hawaii, the island of Kauai to be exact, with Heidi and Eric back in October of 2001. Colton turned 4 while we were there and Cory was 2 1/2 and Quincy was 6 months old... it was quite the adventure! We had so much fun spending every day on the beach playing in the waves and digging in the sand. Paul & I did a scuba diving trip one day and the adults even got to work in a helicopter flight over the island -- my first and only time in a helicopter! Loved it!!!

While driving around the island one day we came across a quilt shop! And a really good one too! I bought all of the fabrics in this quilt and the pattern for the little Hawaiian shirts. It was so fun to make tiny little re-creations of those wild aloha shirts that you see everywhere over there. I whipped the shirts up very quickly after we got home but then it took me a while to create the layout I wanted. This is one of the few quilts that I have designed myself. I knew I wanted to use as much of the fabric as possible and not cut it up into tiny pieces especially since the prints are so cute and depict whales and surfboards and tropical flowers ... even aloha shirts. Finally in early 2003 I figured out a layout that I liked and finished piecing it all together. The little shirts are folded like origami and then hand stitched to hold them together. I hand appliqued the shirts to those blocks but I machine pieced the rest of the top. I finished it with hand quilting.

One of our employees loves Hawaii so it hangs above her desk at our office. She likes the "Aloha Spirit" it brings her every day. Coinsidentally, "Aloha Spirit" is the name of the quilt. I hope this quilt made you think of your favorite beach and warmed you up for just a minute or two!