Hawaiian Sunset

It's summertime and we are treated to some gorgeous sunsets. This is the view from my sister-in-law's house in Kula, Maui. They call this a bi-coastal view, since you can see both the north (right) and south (left) shores from her house on the side of Haleakala (the House of the Sun).

Bruce's Grandma Lanning once gave us a picture with the following saying: "May you have enough clouds to create a beautiful sunset."

Grandma, you must have had this in mind.

In the Trenches, Literally

How is this quilt related, you might ask? Well, you're looking at the open area for our new room addition, part of which will be my studio. Bruce and I live in a small studio in his mom, Barbara's, house. This will give us both some stretching space, and I will have my own working space. When I closed my store in 2001, I lost my lovely 1,000 sf classroom/studio. Since then I've been working where I can, mostly on folding tables, requiring me to "clean up" often.

The "trenches" title of this post refers to the 50ft long trench you see in the left of the picture. Bruce dug most of the 2ft deep trench himself for a new drain line and sprinkler system, but I helped finish the last 20% or so and filled it all back in. When you are doing building projects on a tight budget, you do as much of the work yourself as you can. Thank heaven my darling husband, who is a carpenter, knows how to do it all.

Quilt in a Few Days-Part 2

"Kona Sunrise" is coming along! I finished the borders, tree and leaf applique, and started adding the beans. This is the quilt I started last week for the Kona Coffee Quilt Contest, the entry deadline of which is June 30!

My husband, Bruce, and I spent the weekend searching Maui for the best beads for the coffee beans, but came up empty handed. So, hand-dyed silk to the rescue! My friend, Robin Ferrier, is dyeing beautiful silks these days and I was lucky to have the perfect piece. I spent last night cutting out a bunch of little beans and will fuse them on today so I can quilt it tonight. You can see Robin's blog at www.quiltantics.blogspot.com.

I've decided that I like fusible A LOT, especially when you have a ton of applique to do on a last minute quilt. I started out with Wonder Under, which I like the best so far. I ran out of it half way through and switched to Steam-a-Seam, which I don't like nearly as much. For some reason, it doesn't stick too well to the silk.

On to the quilting...

First Place!

My quilt, "Night Light" came home today. The First Place ribbon for the Wall Quilts - Mixed category from the National Quilting Association show was wrapped up inside.

I was so surprised to see my name listed on the NQA website the day the show opened in Columbus, Ohio. Today, when the show booklet arrived, I saw that there were 36 entries in this division, which makes the award even sweeter.

I worked hard on this quilt and feel that it is my best "technical" effort. It is square, hangs smooth and straight, and the binding has nice, mitered corners.

I am flying high!

Quilt in a Few Days

This is an exciting moment...my first post! My poor blog has been languising for months, waiting for me to do something, so I thought I'd start out by posting a pic of my latest quilt, "Kona Sunrise," in progress.

I have to finish it by Monday, so I can photograph it and send in my entry for the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival quilt contest (see the details at www.konacoffeequiltcontest.org. I just found out about it last Tuesday and got right to work.

Thanks to my friends on the QuiltArt list, it will be embellished with coffee bean beads as a final finishing touch. I still have a ways to go, though, including borders and quilting. I always love a challenge and seem to work well under pressure, so I'll post more when it's done. Aloha!