An Anniversary Trip to Kauai!

Hello quilty friends!

My husband and I recently celebrated our 15th anniversary and decided to visit Kauai to celebrate. We went in December and brought out 10-year-old. It truly was a wonderful trip, and we had some really great family time together.

We took Captain Andy’s sunset dinner sail along the Napali coastline. The weather was perfect! Sunny, clear, rainbows! We saw early whales migrating to Hawaii for winter, spinner dolphins, a green sea turtle, and magnificent scenery!

We also enjoyed a very muddy ATV tour with Kipu Ranch Adventures. We went on a rainy day for maximum mud puddle splashing!

I’ve always wanted to hike the famous Kalalau Trail along the Napali coastline. The full trail is 11-miles one way and requires backpacking in for an overnight stay. We decided to do the more popular 4-mile round trip section, starting at Ke’e beach and turning around at Hanakapi’ai beach. Someday, I would love to do the whole trail!

Our son had the most fun just boogie boarding at the beach. The joy on his face will stay with me for a long time!

I also squeezed in a stop at a quilt store and purchased some beautiful fabric for myself, my sister, and my mom.

Kapaia Stitchery

Kapaia Stitchery

I really loved visiting Kauai. It is a beautiful island with a laid-back pace of life. I hope to visit again some day.

Double rainbow near Hanalei

Double rainbow near Hanalei

Mahalo!

~Jennifer

 

Batik Play Day!

Originally, I had planned to work today on a snowman block-of-the-month program that I started more than a year ago. I have all the blocks pieced, but I needed to add on the inner and outer borders before prepping it to quilt.

Then, Carol Doak surprised us Yahoo groupies with a special paper pieced project since we have reached 8500 members. Usually, we get a great block when we reach milestones, but this time she wowed us with a mini quilt pattern called One Sunny Day – yippee! A little bit of sunshine and springtime is most welcome!

I’m going to do this mini quilt in batiks. I spent a good hour or so this morning sorting through my batik stash and loving the rich, warm colors. I’m picking the fabrics out as I go along and selected a few for the top portion of the quilt.

Here’s a look at the first row:

One Sunny Day Top Row

One Sunny Day Top Row

I just love the beautiful rays of sunshine and the gorgeous rainbow colors in the flying geese!

These flying geese are quite small, and Carol recommended that we use the add-an-eighth ruler rather than the usual add-a-quarter ruler for paper piecing and I did take her advice.

Here’s a close-up of how tiny those flying geese are as compared to my finger (picture compliments of my adorable 7-year-old son!):

Flying Geese Close-Up

Flying Geese Close-Up

I only had time today to finish this top row. I hope to be able to work on this fun little quilt some more next weekend.

If you’re interested in making this quilt, please join Carol’s group by clicking on the Yahoo Groups button in the right-hand column of my blog.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer