"Hawaiian Memories"

Quilt is 24” X 30”

The artist’s comments on this quilt

I loved working on this view of the Royal Coconut Coast in Kawai, Hawaii. First of all, it's a stunning picture; secondly it was from a very special trip. A daughter and her husband celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in the same year that her parents celebrated their 50th, so the four of them took a memorable trip to Hawaii to celebrate the occasions. The quilt was a Mother's Day gift to the mom but is also a great reminder of fun times for the daughter and her husband when they visit and see it hanging in the living room.

The client wanted to add more color than was in the picture and also wanted an outrigger included because they had enjoyed seeing them while on their trip. The touch of red from the outrigger turned out to be just what I needed to draw the eye from the colorful foreground into the rest of the quilt. That's the great thing about making quilts from photos -- you can add, subtract and revise to get exactly the view you want while still being true to the place you're depicting.

I used a batik with lots of variations of blues and purples for the water and then painted the waves using white fabric paint. I frequently use fabric markers and tiny touches of white fabric paint to get the details I want in a view, but this was the first time I'd used paint so prominently. It was scary actually. Except for the foreground plants, it was the last thing I did so if I didn't like it, it meant I was re-doing the entire quilt top. Fortunately, I think it turned out great. To be honest, my plan was to cut the waves out of white fabric but when I tried it, it was too solid. The paint gave me the variation in transparency that I needed. I cut the pink flowers on the left out of a floral fabric but the flowers and plants on the rest of the quilt were fun to create. The colors I chose in the plants and flowers complement the burgundy border that matches the client's decor.

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