Hawaiian Sampler Finish

I am so happy this quilt is finally finished!  I’m not sure I can even pinpoint when I started it.   I do have a list of events that I remember happening that led to it getting made:

  • I saw a Hawaiian sampler quilt that was the inspiration in a quilt store in West Des Moines, Iowa at some point when I went back home to visit my parents.  My mom hasn’t lived near West Des Moines for over 10 years, so that’s a data point. Probably weird to get inspiration for a Hawaiian quilt in Iowa, but it was a really cool store!
  • My mom bought me a book of Hawaiian quilt block patterns when she and my dad went to Hawaii – again, must have been over 10 years ago.
  • Gary and I went to Kauai for our 1st and 3rd anniversaries and I bought more patterns and the bundle of batiks I used to make these blocks.  That would have been either 2009 or 2011.

So I’m thinking it’s been around 10 years.  Making the blocks really didn’t take that long – it is all hand appliqué but I like having hand work to do – I just couldn’t decide what kind of fabric to use for the setting and then I was really scared to quilt it.  I’ve done other Hawaiian quilts, and I’ll probably do another post about all of those with an upcoming finish,  but I hand quilted all of them.  I knew I didn’t want to hand quilt this one as it is so large.

I did go back in my blog to see how long I had this on my finish list.  Looks like my first ever FAL goals post was in Q2’16 and this quilt was on that list.  Ugh.  I bought the grey sashing in Q4’17, but then didn’t think the grey alone would work.  I finally bought the purple for the other sashing in mid-2018 and finished the top last June.

 

Anyway – YAY!!  I finally finished it, and here she is – my Hawaiian Sampler photographed with snow!

The grey framing fabric and the purple sashing fabric are both solid batiks.  I knew I wanted something plain and not busy so it wouldn’t compete with the blocks.  As I said, I started with just the grey for the sashing, but thought that was too muddy.  I think the purple works well.

I echoed all of the appliqué motifs both on the inside and outside.  This was part of the reason it took me so long to get up the courage to quilt it as hand guided echoing is not my strength.  I finally just decided to to it and just do my best.  I used a ruler to help me out a bit at the beginning, but by the end I really got a lot better at it.  Some close ups, though I will say I’m having problems getting the photos to show the quilting detail:

 

 

I did kind of an arrow/chevron design in the purple sashing and just framed the grey around the blocks with straight lines.

 

the back (with Gary’s head poking out at the top 🙂 ):

 

 

and Maggie helped again with the photos:

 

Final details:

Hawaiian Sampler:  62″ by 82″

12 hand appliquéd blocks

10 colors of So Fine 50 used on the top, Bottom Line #623 in the bobbin

246,081 quilting stitches

 

I’m linking up with:

Let’s Be Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter – I think this quilt is the epitome of ending the Wait!  🙂

This was also on my Q4’18 FAL list, and I’ve made it just under the wire to post it as a Q4’18 finish!

 

 

8 thoughts on “Hawaiian Sampler Finish”
  1. Yay on finishing this Hawiian applique quilt that’s been in the works for 10 years. The combination of purple and grey for sashing works beautifully. The quilting is awesome and so is Maggie.

    1. Yay! Thanks so much for your kind comments. I don’t know why that sashing was so hard but I’m happy with how it came out. Maggie appreciates your kind words too 🙂

  2. This is so beautiful!!!!! I’ve had a Hawaiian quilt on my quilty bucket list forever and have not gotten to it. It’s possible that we’re going to Hawaii this fall (cousin’s destination wedding) so maybe I’ll be even more inspired. You are right about the purple sashing really helping to set everything off nicely and pull it together at he same time. I love your quilting!!!

    1. Thank you! They are really not that hard to do. Which island are you going to in Hawaii? I’ve been to the Big Island, briefly to Oahu, and then two long trips to Kauai as my brother-in-law lives there. All places were great and had a lot of Hawaiian quilt inspiration. Just doing the blocks, which are 18″ blocks, is a good way to try out the technique. I clearly have found it to be addicting!

  3. What a wonderful job you did! Sorry that this took so long to make, then so long to quilt. But in the end you had no reason to fear. The result is gorgeous! Love the choice of mixing purple and dark grey for the border/sashing. They are the perfect combination for setting off these blocks! That purple really compliments the block colors.

  4. What a great quilt, and I love the frames around the blocks, as well as the wonderful quilting! Thank you for participating in the FAL, on behalf of the 2018 FAL hosts!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.