wooden ironing board

My ironing board is an old wooden board that I have had about 30 years.  Every time the cover got old or worn out, I would just tie the new one over the top of the old cover.  Well,  I didn't realize how many layers I had until I had got a new cover that uses contact paper to tape onto the board.  I counted 8 layers.  Of course, I didn't supply all those layers.  Just the last 4 or 5.  It's the first 2 layers that caught me by surprise.

This is layer number 2.  Notice the year is 1978. 

This is the 1st layer.  I always wondered why it was so bumpy in places.  It was these old nails that were loose.  What's great about a wooden ironing board is you can take a hammer to all the loose nails.

I was tempted to cut pieces of the ironing board covers and make a quilt about ironing.  Nah.  I did keep the Botan rice bag. It has some brown spots.  I've seen a booth at the craft fairs in Hawaii that makes bags and shirts out of these.  It'll be fun trying to figure out what to use it for.

cotton tree

I was visiting my parents in Hawaii last week.  We were outside in the yard when my Mom told me to "Go across the street and pick some cotton."  Well sure enough, there was a cotton tree that was full of cotton balls.  I picked a handful and here is a picture of it....

 This is the first time I have ever handled raw cotton.  It was full of leaves and twigs and mostly tiny black seeds.  To separate the seeds from the cotton, you have to literally pick pick pick at the cotton.  What a time consuming, labor intensive work.  I thought about bringing it back home to the mainland, but decided to leave it with my Mom.  I didn't want to get stopped by the Agriculture scanner at the airport.  Here is my ten cents worth of cotton after an hours work of separating.

poi dogs

                                                                POI DOGS

In Hawaii  a poi dog is an extinct breed of dog from Hawaii.  I took random patches of bones and images of their three dogs Baby, Piper and Buddy framing the central family portrait.  This was given to my second cousin as a wedding gift.  Christine and Mike love their dogs like their own children.

Here is a close up photo.

Guava patch

Guava Patch is the name of this new hawaiian quilt.  Guava for the color of the backing fabric.  Patch for the patchwork front.  Yes this is a picture of the back.  I had it for about 10 years and have been putting off using it.  Since this is going to be a wedding present for newlywed friends of ours, I thought this was the perfect backing fabric.  If you look at older posts, at first, I was going to use Greek Sakura fabric.  I think this came out much better.

Now for a picture of the front of the quilt.

This came out to 85 x 85.  It is on the floor and I am standing on the chair to take this picture.  Its being wrapped up tonight for the wedding tomorrow.  I'm glad I remembered to take a picture.  The quilting was freehand machine embroidery following the pineapple and monasteria leaf on the back fabric.  I used coral thread on the back and white thread for the front.

Inner City Kids

This is a picture of my latest quilt.  Inner City Kids.  I'm really pleased with the way this came out.  Although, I think I'm done with hexagons for a while.

Inner City Kids

Hooray...  Inner City Kids has been accepted into PIQF.
My blog headline is a closeup picture of the quilt.  the following is the description I wrote when I sent the application in.

"When I finished my flower garden hexagon quilt, I thought what next?  Cut the hexagon in half, make it smaller and hand piece it.  I liked the challenge.  Unfortunately, my wrist complained.  With a new wrist brace, I machine pieced the rest of the blocks.  Time healed my sore wrist.  It also gave me a greater appreciation for hand work."

Sorry, I won't be able to post a picture of it. If you get to go to PIQF, please look for my quilt.  It is # 2050 in the Traditional section.

thread

Recently, my mother in law gave me 2 small storage chests.  After they sat on my desk for a week, I realized the best use for them would be to put my threads in them.  As a quilter, you start accumulating thread.  You never know what you’ll need, so you stock up... just in case.  You start to look for the new and interesting threads and the industry has really come up with some wonderful threads.  Neon, Glow in the Dark, Metallics in all colors 12 wt, 50 wt variegated, silk, monofilament.  Once you start to look at the thread, you start to wonder, how that will look on your quilt.  Anyway, I was storing thread all in different places, wherever they would fit.  When I put them in the 2 chests, I could see what I had and what I was missing.  One drawer fit all the 12 wt, one drawer for the 50 wt, one for polyester, silks, handquilting.  As you see there is one drawer empty.

green sakura

What do you do with 11 yards of green fabric?  Well I needed a backing fabric for the hawaiian fabric quilt, so I thought maybe this would work.  I don't know.  It doesn't match very well with the hawaiian fabric and this green is pretty intense.  I'm going to put this project aside for a while and see if I can come up with a better backing fabric.  I measured the top and it came out to be a surprising 84 inch square.  Much bigger than I thought.

hawaiian fabric

This is the quilt that I am currently working on.   I have a full size batting on my bed and have placed the squares of hawaiian fabric in a simple pattern.  I love hawaiian fabric and this is 100 % cotton.  Amazing. Usually, the fabric with the hawaiian patterns are made in a cotton polyester blend.  The white portions of the pattern will use the polyester and have a waxy feel to it.  I have broken many sewing needles on the hard plastic poly blends.  This fabric sews wonderfully and no broken needles.  Yes the fabric is bright.  Yes it is colorful.  But it feels great.  My sister in law Carol sent it to me in a care package.  I have used most of the fabric and just have some palaka fabric that I am saving.  Thanks Carol