I’m back to work on my Island Trails quilt this week. Yesterday, I was able to do quite a bit {thanks to my “sick” monster who kept us home all day}. First, I attached the border. I know that was really jumping ahead, but I was so over working on the small details. I decided to do a patchwork border incorporating the solid green colors of the appliqued island and some fun Hawaiian prints. {I know, what’s up with me and patchwork lately?} Two of the Hawaiian prints are full of “I spy” sort of stuff. There’s octopus {or maybe it’s a jelly fish}, crab, turtle, bento plate, bonsai tree, fish, surf board, ice shave, hula dancers, etc. My hope is that it’s a fun border to search for things that open up story time full of daddy’s memories. Yes, I’m a sentimental sap! I was instructed that the overall color be green, so hopefully I’ve added a bit more. The vast ocean is VERY a tad overwhelming. I was so nervous about the turquoise color, so I reeled in dad to help out! {NOT MOM, THIS IS A SURPRISE}. He said, “It looks like an ocean to me”! Gosh, I love the way guys think. Okay moving on…
Patchwork Boarder: 3 1/2" Finished Squares
After I finished stitching together the border, I was inspired to get back to the small details. I started by hand stitching craters on the mountain tops. THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED AND WILL BE TAKEN OUT! It looked so cool on the map, but not so much on fabric. My hubby got home and wondered why I put spiders on the mountains, not good! After I was done, I had to laugh at myself. It’s sort of a bummer because I was just certain that would make the mountains more mountain looking, but it doesn’t and now what? My hubby thinks it looks better with nothing and that I should leave out literal images from the map. He’s right. Just cute stuff and not bung hole looking stuff, ick! Can’t wait to rip that out! I can’t believe I am showing you, but here it is…
{Insert Sheepish Grin of Embarrassment}
But not to worry, I shall fix it and not sweat the waisted 30 minutes of finger breaking work, kidding! Next, I stitched up quite a few locations. Here’s a few…
East Shore
Technically, Richardsons is slang. If you talk to anyone around here, you’ll hear them reference Richardson Beach Park as Richardsons, so I decided to forgo the formalities and just keep it real. I’m happy about that decision.
Lava Flow
Puʻu ʻŌʻō has been erupting continuously since January 3, 1983, making it the longest-lived rift-zone eruption of the last two centuries. {Thank you Wiki} Pretty cool right? I need to add the ʻ and – to the letters.
South Point
All the hand stitched locations are in off-white embroidery thread. I chose to use a color that can’t be seen from a distance so that the quilt will look simple. Once you get up close you can discover a map full of fun places to imagine. Plus after years and years of wear the lettering won’t look as good and won’t be as noticeably worn in off-white.
So that’s it folks. It’s a special project for a dad that wants to share the wonder of his childhood with his first-born child. I think that’s pretty darn special & am really stoked for the challenge.
♥ R
Ps. Proof these places are FULL of memories…for my family too!:
4 Mile & Richardsons
What’s so interesting is that these two beaches are neighbors and have different colors of sand. 4 Mile has white sand and Richardsons has black sand? I guess it’s just one of those mysteries!
