Aloha

No, I'm not in Hawaii, although I wish I were.  We spent 2 weeks there last year just before Christmas, a few days in Honolulu and the rest in a condo on the beach in Maui.  It was a wonderful vacation.  We lived in Hawaii many years ago when Mr. T was in the Navy, and have been back several times on vacation or business.  I've come to dislike Honolulu for its traffic and crowds and even the North Shore of Oahu is no longer quiet and sleepy.  Maui, on the other hand, was fabulous.  Of all the islands, Kauai is my favorite, although I haven't been back in many, many years.

Our last day in Maui was Christmas Eve, with an afternoon flight back to Dallas that got delayed until quite late.  We had to be out of the condo by noon, so after some last minute sight seeing, we went shopping.  I made the family take me to the Maui Quilt Shop in Kihei before it closed.  It's a wonderful little shop, filled with lots of Hawaiian patterns along with fun and contemporary fabrics.  I picked up a couple of traditional Hawaiian applique patterns -- I might even make them some day.

My real find was a packet of Hawaiian bark cloth charm squares.  Bark cloth is the traditional fabric of aloha shirts.  These were lovely florals in reds, blues, greens, and yellows.  I just had to buy it.

When I got home, I found some white on white cotton with a floral pattern that looked like plumeria, a popular flower used in Hawaiian leis.  I didn't want to cut the charm squares so I decided to just sash them in white.  I started the quilt last spring while on a retreat at Quiltagious Quarters in Celeste, TX.. Several people said it needed cornerstones, so I raided a dark blue batik from another project (still WIP) and used that.  I finished it a couple of months ago and it's now hanging in the DMQG exhibit at my library.

Maui Aloha
58"x58"