Hawaiian Vacation 2010 - Part 5

I've been back from Hawaii for a few days and still recovering from jet lag.  Yesterday I did manage to get the stitch in the ditch quilting done on my Hawaiian quilt so now I have to decide what I'm going to do in the rest of the quilt.  I have some ideas and will be sorting through them over the next few days. As you can see I decided today to do a face lift to my blog.  I've now installed the new editor since it now has spell check and it now comes with new features including some new page designs that you can customize. I think I'm going to have to either find or capture a new header picture for my blog.

So below are some more interesting plants from Kauai.

This is a Heliconia Rostrata.

This one is a Heliconia Psittacorum.

Banana tree.

Papaya tree in bloom with young papaya fruit.

Soursop.

Lychees, they were just coming into season and boy did they taste great.

Cacao tree, where chocolate comes from.

Jade Vine Flower.

Another Jade Vine Flower.

Coffee bush (or small tree).

Passion Fruit Flower & Vine.

Hawaiian Vacation 2010 - Part 4

Well I've only got a couple more days left of the Hawaiian vacation since we leave on Thursday afternoon so I'm trying to make the most of it.  I've been taking a bunch of pictures of the wonderful plants and flowers.  I still have a bunch more to take.  Below is a picture of a breadfruit.  It apparently is a starchy type vegetable that is used like potatoes or rice in the tropics.  I haven't had the opportunity to try some since the ones on Joe's tree aren't quite ripe yet.

Joe and Kent also have an amazing collection of orchids.  Unfortunately quite a few have finished blooming or have yet to start blooming.  The one below is called Lady of the Evening and apparently it gives of a lovely perfume at night.

Here is my Hawaiian quilt project.  It is a disappearing 9 patch pattern with a Hawaiian print as a focal fabric.  From that focal fabric I selected a green, yellow and turquoise that matched the leaves and hibiscus flowers to round out what I needed to create this pattern.  So I now have to piece together a back.  I'm thinking I may use some of the Hawaiian print with the yellow and turquoise.  I should be able to get the back put together today and then can at least start the quilting tomorrow.

Hawaiian Vacation 2010 - Part 3

This is  view from the second place we are staying at in Kauai in the town of Kapaa.  The time share is right on the ocean and we can hear it from our lanai.

These are a couple of pictures of the actual beach area.

I also have finished sewing the back for the sarong fabric that I'm planning on doing the whole cloth quilting on.

The sarong fabric will be placed width wise for final display.

Hawaiian Vacation 2010 - part 2

Yesterday was a trip to Kapaia Stitchery an amazing quilt shop in Kauai. I took a few pictures of some of the new quilts that are hanging in the shop. Some of the quilts that I showed on my blog 2 years ago are still hanging up in the shop because they are either traditional Hawaiian quilts or landscape quilts of the area so I didn't both to take them again but you can see them here: http://felinesandfibrearts.blogspot.com/2008/09/hawaiian-inspiration.html




I also found some fabrics for the back of the whole cloth quilt that I'm going to make from the hand painted sarong.


Here is a picture of a turtle batik fabric that is custom designed exclusively for Kapaia Stitchery. It is gorgeous.

And here are some pictures of lovely Hawaiian fabrics.



Well off to enjoy the weekend. I hope my friends in the US have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I'm taking a hand turned applique course on Monday which I'm looking forward to and will fill you in on how that went.

Aloha - Hawaiian Vacation 2010

Aloha from Kauai Hawaii. We arrived Sunday evening after a very long plane flight, very tired but very glad to be here. This picture was taken Monday morning from our balcony where we are staying at The Cliffs on the north shore of the island.


We had our breakfast on the balcony and were joined by the Brazilian cardinal. They are not afraid of people and are very polite little birds unlike the brassy Magpies that tried to horn in on breakfast.

Below on the grown were a couple of Hawaiian Nene. It is the state bird, it is a goose and it is actually related to the Canada Goose.

On Tuesday we had a 10 minute downpour in the morning and then the sun came out and I got a picture of this beautiful rainbow off our balcony.

I've already done a little shopping at a local place that sells high end hand painted sarongs. They are done on much heavier rayon than the usual ones which are light wight and very lose weave. I'm planning on turning this into a whole cloth quilt.

So today it's off to Kapaia Stitchery, an amazing quilt shop to do some fabric shopping.