Monthly Archives: November 2012

Kilauea Kreations Quilt Shop on the Big Island

Posted on by
2

Over the Thanksgiving holiday week, I traveled to the Big Island of Hawai’i with my family. I had planned to visit a few quilt and fabric stores, but only had time to visit a couple of them.

One quilt store that I visited is Kilauea Kreations in Volcano Village, very near to the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.

This little quilt store is tucked away and can be easy to miss in the little town. In addition to quilts, there are a number of other hand-crafted items that you can buy here. However, my main goal was fabric!

Kilauea Kreations Quilt Shop

Inside the store, I found a nice selection of batik fabrics. I had a hard time narrowing my fabric choices down to just a few. I picked up 2 fabrics at 1-yard each and 4 different fat quarters. I definitely wanted more but hubby and son were waiting for me!

The store also had a selection of Hawaiian themed quilt patterns and blocks as well as finished quilted projects. I picked up a Turtle Walk pattern for myself since I enjoyed seeing the green sea turtles (honu) on the beach earlier in the week. It’s a small wall-hanging, about 12 inches by 24 inches finished. I’ll write another post when I finish it (hopefully soon).

Inside Kilauea Kreations

The lady at the cutting counter/check-out area was so friendly and helpful! I definitely recommend stopping by this quilt shop if you are visiting the Big Island.

Of course, what trip to Volcano Village would be complete without a look at the main attraction – the Kilauea Caldera! Here’s a great shot that we took at the Jaggar Museum on our last evening. We used a wide-angle lens and a long exposure to capture both the glow from the lava lake as well as a few early evening stars!

Kilauea Caldera during Early Evening

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!
~ Jennifer ~

Snowmen and Santas, Part II

Posted on by
1

In this earlier post, I started working on a fun little mini quilt using 3-inch paper pieced blocks designed by Carol Doak.

I assembled the project and put the finishing touches on it this week.

First, I used 2 of the snowmen blocks and 2 of the Santa blocks and alternated them to make a little square.

Alternating Snowmen and Santa Blocks

Next, I decided to add a larger white print border to the blocks so that it resembled a window frame. The project needed a little more pizzazz, so I hand-embroidered french knots and dashes around the blocks and then added the words “Merry” and “Christmas.” A small darker blue outer border completed the look:

Snowman and Santa Mini Quilt

I used my regular Bernina to do some light quilting – mostly a few free-hand snowflakes around the inner white border. I used brown embroidery floss to make french knots for eyes on both the snowmen and the Santas. I used mini red buttons on each snowman and a larger white snowflake button in the middle.

To finish it off, I used the same dark blue print for the binding and stitched it down.

The mini quilt is about 11 inches by 11 inches finished and fits perfectly into a little table top stand:

Completed Snowmen and Santa Mini Quilt

I’m pretty happy with the end result, but I think I’ll add little embroidered noses to the Santa blocks to separate the face from the beard a bit more.

Here’s a closeup of the finished project:

Snowmen and Santas Close-Up

I hope you enjoyed following this quick and easy holiday project!

Happy paper piecing!
~Jennifer

November Mystery BOM

Posted on by
1

I finished the November mystery block-of-the-month for Carol Doak’s Yahoo group. You can read about my earlier BOMs here.

This month’s block came together pretty well for me, and I really like the star pattern in the middle of the block.

During my lunch break, there were a few small rays of sunshine poking through, so I decided to take a picture of the block outside.

Here’s a closeup:

November Mystery BOM

As I was placing the block for a photo, my Cow cat decided to help!

Here he is enjoying the sun:

Cow Cat Helps with November BOM

He then decided that my toes needed to be attacked!!

Cow Cat Grabs My Foot!

I will say that my cat quilting supervisors certainly keep me on my toes!

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Mini Santa Blocks for Exchange

Posted on by
3

I’m participating in a mini block exchange for the holidays. I’ve come down to the wire as the blocks are due to the swap hostess next week! I managed to carve out a little bit of time after work this week to make 4 mini Santa blocks. These are different Santas than shown in my earlier post here.

Carol Doak designed these as well and just posted them as Christmas Ornament blocks for her Yahoo group.

Here are the 4 blocks together:

Mini Santa Blocks

These blocks actually have a 1/2 inch seam allowance so the can easily be used in these keepsake frame cards:

Santa Card

The Santa faces looked a little blank so I added small brown eyes using embroidery thread. I’ll leave any other embellishments up to the individual receivers. But, wouldn’t the Santa look cute with a miniature white pom-pom at the top of the hat?

Mini Santa Closeup

Since these blocks are pretty quick to come together, I’m sure that I’ll sew a few more before Christmas.

I think they would make adorable holiday gift tags as well.

Happy piecing!
~Jennifer

Saturday Snowmen and Santas, Part I

Posted on by
3

This past Saturday, I spent an enjoyable afternoon paper piecing little snowmen and Santa blocks. I have a idea for a mini quilt for some of the blocks; for others, I may use them in a holiday swap. The blocks will be 3 inches finished once they are sewn together.

Here’s a little grouping of snowmen:

Snowmen Blocks

I really love the contrast between the dark blue sky print and the snowman. Plus, both fabrics appear to have snowflakes falling so I think it looks pretty cute together.

Here’s a closeup:

Snowman Closeup

I used small pieces of orange wool felt for the noses and appliqued them to the snowmen. The eyes and other details will be added after quilting is completed.

This block is designed by Carol Doak and is currently available in the Free Patterns section of her website!!

I made 6 snowmen, but I was only able to finish 2 Santa blocks. I will work on more a little later. These blocks also turned out pretty darned cute!

Santa Blocks

The Santa block is from Carol’s book, Easy Paper-Pieced Keepsake Quilts. I believe she also just designed another Santa block for those of us on her Yahoo Group so go check it out!

My plan is to work on my Snowman and Santa mini wall hanging idea this week so hopefully I’ll have more pictures to share with you soon.

Happy quilting!
~Jennifer