Lazy weekend

     Well, the Toronto ladies have gone and are at home.  Seems a bit empty without them.   I did finish a lap quilt for Kent's sister's birthday, but boxed it for mailing to the mainland before taking a picture.  Oops!  Guess I need to keep the camera in the studio so it'll remind me to take more pictures.
     I volunteered to help with a holoku gown for my Aunty Faith.  She's a really nice local lady.  Very stately and beautiful.  She's going to be in a fund raiser at the new St. Regis up in Princeville on July 3rd.  She's having a traditonal holoku gown made and she asked me to quilt some montsera (philadendron) leaves on the train.  I'm not a dressmaker but I couldn't turn her down.   So, I'm going to give it a shot.  I bought raw silk in cream to go on her hunter green satin gown.  I'm going to make a pattern, and use Steam-a-seam to fuse it to the train.  Any advice?  I'm a little concerned about fusing it to the satin.  I need to do either 3 or 5 leaves.   I should get the train from the seamstress, Aunty Vicky, this coming week.  Please feel free to send advice and/or prayers.  I want it to look great.  The kicker is that I won't be able to go to the event since it costs $125 for a ticket and Kent's cousins will be visiting us from the mainland.  I will take pictures to post here when it's done.

Vicki's Quilt Tops

This is the quilt top that Vicki worked on first.  She brought it along from Canada to work on here on Kauai.  The blues are all batiks and the brown is Kaufman's Fusions,  in Expresso.  Looks great.  Gives me some ideas on another quilt to make for myself, in green, of course, my favorite color. 

This is the next quilt top that Vicki did.  It's the disappearing 9-patch I've been doing.  Looks good too.  She's going to use the floral focus fabric for the backing and trying my "flip" method instead of doing traditional binding.  This is a quick one to do and fun pulling colors together.  Change the colors and you have a totally different quilt and look.  

The ladies, Vicki and Bernice will be leaving to go back to Toronto on Thursday.  I'll miss them.   I enjoy their company and the exchange of ideas.  It's been a very nice 2nd visit and I hope the 3rd doesn't take two years to happen.  Bon Voyage!

Headache relief

After that headache with my website, Margie came over and finished her quilt.  That replaced the bad feelings about the website problem.   I love seeing my quilters finish their work . . . and really like what they've done!  Margie is  learning a lot and will soon have the confidence to do a quilt all by herself, from start to finish.  But, I do hope that she'll continue to come over and sew with me.   Her company is appreciated.  Keep quilting Margie!

Computer headaches !@#%@!!

   Just had the phone surgically removed from my ear after talking to my web host about a major problem with our website:  quiltinparadise.com    After finding out the the online store was "accidentally" deleted, we find out that the site used to update/modify/restore/build/change the website is down until tomorrow!  So I'm feeling a bit frustrated.  Good thing I spent the morning quilting and finishing another special order quilt.  I'm now caught up with my business orders so I get to do something fun for the inventory.  I enjoy going though the fabric and pulling out different ones to preview.  Problem is, I usually find way too many beautiful combinations.  The age-old dilemma:  So many fabrics and so little time!
  

Just another day in Paradise

    Well, here we are again.   Bernice has finished the top for her quilt and it looks great!  The back is finished too.   It has the same brown Hawaiian "swirls" with two stripes of the turquoise fabric you see on the front, going down the center of the back.  Going to be a nice memento of a Kauai vacation.

     The quilt that Vicki brought over to work on is coming along nicely too.  I'll post a picture of it as soon as she ready to have me show it.

      We've had some sun today and a few clouds.  Nice breeze coming in the studio window to keep us cool. I'm blessed to have east facing windows so we get the trade winds and can see the ocean from the studio.

    My neighbor, Margie, came over to sew for a bit.  She's working on a quilt similar to Bernice's but using more of the browns and yellows that are in the Hawaiian fabric.  Margie started quilting in January and has finished 4 quilts since then.   The bug has bit!  

    She's also been a driving, and I do me driving force, in getting me to rearrange and organize my studio more efficiently.  Mahalo, Margie.   You're making me a better man.

     I've been working on some special orders for my business,  some hot pads and place mats for a lady who bought some from me at a craft fair and then decided they would make good Christmas gifts.   They'll get mailed out tomorrow.

     I'm anxious to start some new quilts using a pattern I've just begun to use.   It's the disappearing 9-Patch.  A relatively easy pattern that works well for my business.  It lends itself to different color ways and fabrics. Bernice's quilt above is an example.   You'll see more later.

    So that's it for today.  Time to fire up the barbie and get dinner going after a nice day quilting with friends.  Sure beats anything I've done before.  Aloha!

First Post Sunday, May 30, 2010

Aloha from Kauai ! This is my first post to the blog and I'm feeling my way as I go. I want to thank one of my favorite quilters, Vicki, from Toronto, Canada for her help in getting me started here. (check out her blog, http://felinesandfibrearts.blogspot.com/ Right now Vicki and Bernice, here sewing. We're having great fun with the fabric and the machines. I run quilt vacations to Kauai and it seems like it has turned into a friendship circle since everyone who's come over to quilt has ended up becoming friends. You'll hear about others in future posts.
Julie Yukimura, the late owner of the Kapaia Stitchery, here on Kauai got me started quilting back in 2001 to help me deal with the stress of teaching in a "year-round" school in Southern California. The "cure" has since become an addiction. Yes, hello, I'm Joe and I'm a Fabriholic. . . and I don't want to be cured. I'm having too much fun!
After buying my first sewing machine (another story, another post), I taught myself to sew and quilt by looking at the pictures in magazines and books. . . Hey, I'm a guy, I don't read directions! Then, I discovered fabric and was totally hooked! It's hard to believe that I started out buying only fat quarters, but that soon changed. Now, with my quilting business, I buy bolts. Sewing on the dining room table has become sewing in my studio. Making quilts for family and friends has turned into selling my quilts and other quilted items at local craft fairs and in my online store over at our website: quiltinparadise.com
Living on Kauai has been a dream since my first visit here in 1988. Now I'm living the dream and loving it! The dream continues. Aloha for now.