Hawaiian Appliqué

Almost two years ago I was blessed to take a class in Hawaiian Appliqué and Hand Quilting taught by Jean Brown, who is a gem! She is one of those women who is determined to preserve the dying art of both hand appliqué and hand quilting! As quilting is growing, many are using only machines to piece, appliqué, and quilt with nary a hand stitch in site! (A sad state for those of us who view hand quilting as the epitome of the form! Although I do use a machine for piecing, I do the rest by hand)

We began the class by choosing our pattern - I chose the "Sweetheart" pattern, a nontraditional pattern, but I loved the hearts and it is to eventually be a wall hanging in Miss Pear's room!

Once I cut it out and basted it I was left with what looks like this:


While traditionally the hearts should have been pointing into the corners, it looked better this way as the pattern is basically round rather than the traditional square.

In appliqué it is important to work from the middle out. And as many students found out to their horror, because of the size of Hawaiian appliqué it is even more important - my square is actually about 2 feet square!

By the way, the women who found out the hard way had only one way to fix it - frog it. As in rip-it rip-it rip-it out. Truly one of the most horrifying things in crafting to see all those little loving and carefully placed stitches disappear!

Jean then taught us the art of the quarter turn method of appliqué, and made certain that every woman in the room was comfortable with it!

After lunch she also taught us her method of hand stitching which I cannot possibly do justice to in trying to explain! However, I now understand how she can quilt and intricate king size quilt in a month all by hand!

What I loved about the day is that I left enthusiastic and confident that I could do it! And I had finally found thimbles that fit! (like many quilters I wear two - one on my middle finger and one on my thumb.)


I had put the project away for a while but then pulled it out. And Jean had taught me so well that I did not even pause in launching in!

You can see in the next picture how far I have made in the equivalent of about 2-3 days work using the quarter turn method.


Not exactly impressive, but who said I actually did 2-3 days of work in long stretches??? We moms take time as we get it!

Here is the view from the front:


I folded back everything that was not done so that you could see what was done. The last two points of the leaf on the right are not compete yet.

While it may take me forever to finish this project, and all the other ones, that is fine. I plan on putting a border on it that matches the middle, and then hand quilting the entire thing using the traditional method of the width of my index finger tip as a guide.

I love to craft, but I love my family more. Eventually the crafts will be complete, but my family changes and grows every day.

If you ever have a chance to learn Jean's hand quilting methods, I cannot recommend them enough, she is such an encouraging teacher! She is a quilt show circuit regular, and is happy to demonstrate her methods and answer questions! In fact, I think she would be down right insulted if you walked past her without letting her share what she knows, she is that passionate about quilting!

Are you a quilter? What are you working on now?

Are you one of those lovely women who wants to be a quilter? Let me encourage you! It is a wonderful, creative and meaningful art and we quilters love to share what we know of the art! What is stopping you from learning? What project tempts you to learn?