TBT - Pineapple Blues

Shortly after I started quilting, I had the silly idea that I wanted to make a Hawaiian quilt, using (somewhat) traditional methods.  I found a book about them, took one of the patterns (which of course makes it not a true Hawaiian quilt, since those should be unique for each project), and set to work. At first I considered a 40" square (the largest you can make without piecing seams in the quilt), but common sense prevailed and I went with 20" instead. I figured if I loved the technique I could make a few blocks to create a large quilt.

So I set to work, carefully following the directions - folding my fabric, tracing the design.  I was using a fairly heavy broadcloth for the colour (I still hadn't discovered the joy of quilt shops, way back then, so finding solids to work with was limiting), so I cut each section of the design individually (it was too think to cut in layers).  I carefully marked the background, pinned the applique and needle-turned the whole thing. That part actually went really went, and quite quickly.  Then I mounted the quilt top in a hoop and started the hand quilting. That went not so quickly.  I really did not enjoy the handquilting process at all. In retrospect, I think it was the restrictions of the hoop that bothered me - the next quilt I do by hand will be done out of the hoop. I recall doing that for a baby quilt for my nephew (when I didn't know any better) and I had really enjoyed doing it.

However, in 2010, as part of a UFO blitz, I finally finished this little quilt.  This poor little quilt sat out for so long that the colour in the background faded from off-white to white. I was going to do a skinny binding with the same fabric as the background, but the colour difference in the quilt and the leftover fabric was really noticeable. Oddly, the dark blue hardly faded at all, and fortunately I had some leftover. I decided, as I hunted for a suitable binding, that I had looked at this quilt long enough, and rather than being a wall hanging, it is going to be donated to the local children's hospital. They want quilts about 24" square, so I added a wide binding to bring this one up to size.

I was really happy with the outcome of this quilt. But I do wish it hadn't taken me so long to finish that I was sick of seeing it around. I kind of miss the little thing now, and would like to have that souvenir of my foray into Hawaiian quilting.

Please join me for Throwback Thursday today. The rules are simple (and flexible :) ). Write a post (or revive an old one) about an old quilt or project that you have - maybe something from your pre-blogging days, or just a project you love that you want to show off again. Please include a link back to this post in yours, and when you link up make sure you are linking to your specific blog post, not just your blog address. You want to make sure people can find your post if they drop by the linkup later.

Add your link, and check out some of the other links for some inspiration. See my sidebar for a TBT button you can add to your blog.