Hibiscus I, II & III comparison shots! Vote on your favorite by leaving a comment!

Amazing how news travels.

One of you already asked to see 

comparison shots of the Hibiscus quilts, 

so here you go!  Enjoy!!

Hibiscus I, from Kauai:

Hibiscus II with local batiks:

Hibiscus III (featured in an earlier post today) with Maui fabrics:

Which one do you like?!  They're all pretty much the same, but with slight differences.  Can you find them?  Hibiscus I doesn't have as much contrast going on in the border fabric, something I like but couldn't find on Maui or home when I wanted to make the quilts.  It's a very simple pattern made of half-square triangles, but it has impact especially if the fabrics chosen have a translucent effect, such as can be found with Hibiscus I and II, not so much with Hibiscus III.  These fabrics translate a solid, brick wall effect instead of a 'balloon-behind-a-balloon' type of feel found in I & II.  It's a great lesson in contrasting fabrics, not so much the piecing.

Aloha, and thank you for reading!

A Hawaiian needle-turned pillow - another restoration

 Welcome back!

It took me three months (though there certainly wasn't a rush) to get this beauty done.

Needle-turn is supposed to be entirely enjoyable and not rushed.  Earlier this spring my husband and I went to Maui for our 40th wedding anniversary.

While there I picked up another Hawaiian pillow kit, a refresher course on traditional Hawaiian needle-turning, and BOOM! I was relaxing to the sound of surf months after we returned home via quilting this project.

There is quilting in the ditch of the appliquéd design, around it, in it, and echoing it several times.  Lovely pastime!  My only complaint was in their not using colorfast red material for the floral design.  When I tried to spritz the water-removeable pen marks used for stitching lines, it bled.

No bueno.

I plan on buying a Shiva ink pen to permanently cover this faux pas.  I sincerely hope this works.  But I'm still thrilled with how it came out and plan on doing another two - but with fabric I have purchased and KNOW is colorfast.

Until we meet again, aloha from the Pacific to you!

 

Hibiscus II - A Restoration

As promised, a couple of *restored projects are featured in this and in an upcoming post (*items I used to have but were consumed in the Black Forest Fire 6/11/13).

It is no coincidence that Hibiscus III is pictured in our new forest on the Pacific coast.

Restoration is, after all, what this post is all about.

Did I say Hibiscus III?  Wasn't this supposed to be about Hibiscus II?  Well, I was so excited to find the pattern of my original Hibiscus quilt we lost that I made two.  This one is a duplicate of the restored one hanging in our home.  I prefer the one hanging.  I was too lazy to get it down, so Hibiscus III gets all the fame.  Come on over sometime to see Hibiscus II!

Here's a closeup of McTavishing background fill around the needle-turn appliquéd hibiscus. You can also see ferns quilted in the light blue triangles.  As I've said, even though I have a Statler computer-guided machine now, I drop the belts for hand-guided custom work simply because I love doing it.

 I caught the sun behind this quilt in the next two shots.  Very illuminating...

A bit more hand-guided detail in the borders.  I used King Tut variegated threads.

 Usually, I match or near-match threads to the fabric, like the center of this quilt.  But I wanted them to pop out in the border.

From the Pacific coast to you:

see you next time with another restored project!