Tatum

"Tatum"
Size: 8 1/2” x 28”
Pattern: original design
Completed: September 2007
Made in: Hawaii
Given to: Tatum Erickson

Machine pieced and quilted on a Pfaff Hobby 301

.

The story: A little background first. About a month before we moved to Hawaii I saw my dad's cousin Marylou at a family gathering. She mentioned that her son Will and his family were also moving to Oahu that summer. He would be attending nursing school and they were hoping to live near his school on the windward side of the island, which is about an hour from where we were moving.

I hadn't seen Will in close to 10 years, but had spent some time with him and his siblings while were growing up - holidays, family reunions, etc. Well, I went to church on my first Sunday in Hawaii and about 1/2 way through Sunday School I realized that the guy sitting a few rows away was Will! Now it's not like my church only has one meeting house and on congregation on the island - there are tons - so the chances were pretty slim that we would run into each other at church.

After class I went up to him and he recognized me right away. Not only were they at my church, but they had moved into a condo on the same street as us and were literally minutes away. Crazy! Anyway, I met his wife Kristy and their 3 girls, Mariah, Brinlee and Asia. They lived here for three years and just moved back to WA last May. We miss them and try to keep up with them on their blog. Hopefully we'll see them again one of these Christmases.

Anyway, while they lived here they added one more daughter to their family, Tatum (and have since added another - yes, that's 5 girls!) So for Tatum's 1st birthday I made her this wall hanging for her room. Kind of hard to see, but it has the cutest fairy fabric. It was fun to make and I learned a lot doing it. It was only the second word I had done and I would do the "M" differently if I ever did it again and the "T's" turned out a little wider than intended. Oh well. It's all about learning and having fun, right?

Caitlynn

"Caitlynn"

Size: 8" x 41"

Pattern: original design

Completed: August 2008
Made in: Hawaii

Given to: Caitlynn

Machine pieced and quilted on a Pfaff Hobby 301

.

The story: This past summer my mommies group (honolulumommies.com) was holding a silent autction to raise money for a local charity. They were soliciting donations for the auction and I volunteered to donate a custom wall hanging of a child's name. The winner was Molly and she wanted one for her daughter Caitlynn. So, just knowing that Caitlynn's room was done in shabby chic and with a few ideas from Molly I went fabric shopping. I found these prints from Moda (one of my favorites) and thought they worked really well together. I finished it in about a week, including design time - should have only taken a few hours, but with a toddler everything takes 5 times longer!

Here are a couple of close-ups to hopefully see the fabric better. Sorry they are a bit blurry.

Noel

"Aloha Noel"
Size: 10" x 23" (I think)
Pattern: Original Design
Completed: December 2008
Made in: Hawaii
Given to: Mary Bennett
Machine pieced and quilted on a Pfaff Hobby 301


"Noel"
Size: 8" x 21"
Pattern: Original design
Completed: December 2008
Made in: Hawaii
Given to: Ric and Lori Packard, Mike and Billie Bennett, Mike and Stacy Bennett, Irene Thor, Jake and Maggie Liljenquist and one for us
Machine pieced and quilted on a Pfaff Hobby 301
.
The story: This past Christmas I decided to make quilt gifts again. Since I had done Leif's name (and a couple others) I thought I could do a Christmas word for our parents and siblings. Since I would be making 7 of them I needed a Christmas word that wasn't too long or too complicated. I settled on "Noel" and went fabric shopping. The top one was for Cory's mom, Mary, and we wanted to do something a little less traditional for her. She loves all things tropical so when I found the red and green print with turtles and palm trees I knew it was perfect. For the rest I just chose a simple subduded green and red with a tree-ish patttern. It was a lot of work to finish them all, but once I got going with an assembly line strategy it went fairly quickly. This was the first time I had made more than one of anything, and some definitely turned out better than others.

Leif's Name

"Leif"
Size: 7 3/4” x 20”
Pattern: original design
Completed: January 2007
Made in: Hawaii
Given to: Leif Kalama

Machine pieced and quilted on a Pfaff Hobby 301

.

The story: Cory and I took a pretty casual approach to naming Leif. We both would throw a name or two out there during the pregnancy and I guess we sort of had a list. But we didn't share any of our ideas with anyone and we only ever called him "Boy" (which we still do quite frequently.) Toward the end we both had a feeling we knew his name but still weren't sure. Then, the night before my due date I dreamed of this wall hanging in great detail. I had never made anything like it before and it wasn't something I had seen anywhere or considered making or been working on in my head or on paper. The dream was the first thought of it.

The next day, January 2, 2007, I designed and made it - pretty much exactly as I dreamed it. We still weren't 100% sure, but I figured I didn't have anything else to do that day. He didn't arrive for five more days and after he was born it was still about 3 hours before we decided for sure. It helped that he came out super blonde!

Cory found the driftwood stick at the beach and sanded it down. The fabric was all scraps from Leif's two baby quilts I had finished in December. I just quilted it in the ditch, but sometimes I think about going back and stippling the dark blue background - maybe when I have nothing else I'm working on.

Now, sometimes when Leif is going to bed he'll point to his baby quilt hanging on the wall and say, "Mama made that quilt for Leif." Then he points to this wall hanging and says, "Mama made that special quilt for Leif."