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Monday, October 31, 2016

Check out Karen's Oregon Souvenir!

Karen's Oregon Souvenir
Karen from Karen's Korner emailed me last week to let me know she had finished her Oregon Souvenir. I love her version of the souvenir! She made into a mug rug. I adore the pink cactus for her tree!!!

I love how creative my travelers are becoming in making the souvenirs their own. Each one of us will have a slightly different memory of our trip, which is how we all are in real life. Ask any two people about a trip that they took together and they each will have different memories of it.

Now, unfortunately I have spent about 18 hours on our next souvenir only to decide this morning that it just isn't working for me. What was in my head did not translate out into something that I am happy with so I'm starting over. I don't want you to make something that I'm not in love with. Now I could be seriously upset about it, and I am disappointed but I'm trying to learn from my mishap and bump up my skill to the next level. What I hope you will take from my lengthy going around in circles is that you must sometimes just take a step out into the unknown. As Charles Kettering once said "You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance you have of stubbing your toe, but the better chance you have of getting somewhere." Creating art takes movement! We may not always love each piece of art we create, but we will learn from the experience and that is just as important.

Here is the result of my painting with fabric and trying to get what was in my head into fabric. I'm not sure what to do with it. This is just the top and I have not stitched on it yet. Maybe I should just cut it up and recycle it into something else. I'm not sure yet. I am attributing it to my Picasso side, which by the way all of our great painters have paintings underneath their paintings. Can you only imagine how wonderful it would be to be able to see what they thought was unacceptable art. So, I have hope for myself yet!

Stay tuned for our next souvenir. I need to regather myself and do a do-over!






Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Yikes! I spilled it everywhere

Working on future souvenir
I spilled paint fabric everywhere! Okay, it started off all pretty with tiny little piles of fabric but as I got on a roll with decision making, it....well....it just went everywhere. That little clean spot was where my butt was sitting as I was auditioning.

Now I gotta pick it all up because I need to get some other work done that pays the bills and of course, I was playing right in the middle of my work path.

Get some color therapy today! It's good for the soul.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Woop, Woop -- My first traveler's Oregon Souvenir Revealed

Andrée's Wonderful Mountain!
This morning while I was waking up and sipping my coffee, I was so excited to receive an email from Andrée, one of our World Quilting travelers. She finished her Oregon souvenir and posted about it here. I was so excited to see her souvenir and read about how she took my pattern as her inspiration and created her own, unique masterpiece. I loved reading about her process and you will too.

To date we have 24 travelers that have joined us on this quilting adventure. Let's increase that number so we can have the plane all to ourselves. So who's going to be number 25!!!

Become a follower of my blog and post a comment below letting me know you need your passport. Email me personally if you don't want to leave your email address in the comment.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Peak of Next World Quilting Adventure Souvenir -- Passport required!

It's a rainy Sunday in Oregon. Yesterday, we were hit with some strong winds and the weather folks had us worried with the threat of hurricane force gusts. Thankfully, the storm had split centers and we were spared the worst. Unfortunately, several coastal areas had significant damage because of tornadoes.

I have drafted the next souvenir and thought I would break with tradition and share my draft. This one will be approximately 39 inches wide by 26 inches tall.

Attached below are some larger pictures for the Hawaii souvenir. The pattern has these pictures but I like seeing BIG pictures and thought you might as well.

The next pictures shows how unappealing the flower looks before adding color with paints and free motion stitching. Amazing difference, Yes?
Before paint and stitching.
 After paint and stitching.
It's so comfortable to wear and super absorbent. I love it and hope you enjoyed making one for yourself.







Friday, October 7, 2016

Welcome to Hawaii! World Quilting Travel Adventure

jojohall.blogspot.com
Hello & Welcome!
Oh how I love Hawaii. My husband and I have visited twice; once to Maui and the second time to Oahu. We hope to return to Maui again someday and stick our feet back into the warm sand. I also enjoy listening to Hawaiian music thanks to a very good friend of mine! Hi Syl!!!  ;)

In fact, allow me to share one of my favorites with you right now:
Now onto some little known tidbits about Hawaii that you may or may not know:

  1. Spam is BIG in Hawaii - #1 in consumption. HI has an annual Spam festival. Portuguese flavored Spam can only be found in HI because of Portuguese sausage that is also a big thing in HI.
  2. Poke (pronounced poke w/accent mark on the "e") is BIG in HI too. It is raw ahi tuna (most popular). It is also done in salmon, mussels, clams! I understand it is yummy! If you live in California, poke restaurants are popping up like crazy thanks to local Hawaiians coming to California. A build-your-own bowl is very popular. "Sylvia, I think I must schedule another visit--do you think you can stand me visiting again so soon? LOL"
  3. Shave ice (not "shaved"--that's wrong). The best is found at a little old wooded building in the McCully/Waiola area hidden amongst houses/apartments. The ice is ground very, very, very fine. I have not found anyplace in Oregon that even comes close to the shave ice I've had in Hawaii and California. Oh yes, I love shave ice flavored with papaya/mango or mango/lime! 
  4. When you visit in person, make sure to climb Kokohead Crater. It is an uphill battle over old trestles with no carved out trails. Your effort will be rewarded with a sunrise you will never forget.
  5. Hawaii state's nickname is "Aloha State' because the word 'Aloha' is one of the most commonly used words in Hawaiian language. Based on the context, Aloha can mean 'hello', 'welcome', 'love', 'best wishes' or even 'goodbye'.
  6. Hawaii is the only state in United States where whites (Caucasians) are in minority. About 38% of Hawaii's population are of Asian ancestry.
  7. Hawaiian language has only 12 letters (A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P and W) and a symbol called 'okina (') and it indicated a glottal stop (slight pause) 'Okina is often represented by the apostrophe (') but its official symbol (') In Hawaiian language, Hawaii is written as: Hawai'i. Every word in Hawaiian language has to end with one of five vowels (A, E, I, O, U). The kahakō symbol is a line placed over a vowel. It directs speakers to stretch out a vowel sound.
  8. Hawaii has its own time zone (Hawaiian Standard Time) It's also one of two U.S. states that doesn't follow Daylight Saving Time. (Arizona is the other.)
  9. Hawaii is the only state in the United States to honor a monarch, celebrating King Kamehameha Day on June 11th since 1872. King Kamehameha I (Kamehameha the Great) is known for uniting the Hawaiian Islands in 1810.
  10. A Lei is a wreath comprised of nature's gifts (flowers, leaves seeds, nuts etc.) presented upon arriving or leaving as a symbol of affection. A lei is usually given with a kiss. It is impolite to refuse a lei or remove it in front of the person who presented it. A lei should never be thrown away casually. It should be returned to the earth by hanging as a decoration, burying, or burning.
I saved the lei for last because that was my inspiration for our souvenir for Hawaii. Hey did you know that the Hawaiian language does not distinguish between singular or plural so you can have one lei or many lei! Isn't that cool!

We all wash our hair. I like to wrap my hair in a towel but towels do not like staying on my head. I'm constantly fidgeting with the towel to keep it in place. Let's make a custom wrap for our wet heads and embellish it with a flower that is commonly used to make a lei--plumeria. The most common plumeria flower I've seen is white, but there are also pink and yellow ones. My towel I used is white so I chose to do my plumeria in pink fabrics.

So I present you with my gift to you for traveling with me on this thoughtful journey as we take a break from typical quilt making to create a personal gift for ourselves or to gift to someone you love.

Plumeria Headwrap

jojohall.blogspot.com
First flower

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Second flower on opposite side







Saturday, October 1, 2016

Are you coming with me to visit Hawaii?

World Quilting Travel Adventure
JoJo Hall's World Quilting Travel Adventure
I'm changing it up and our next stop is Hawaii. Our plane leaves on Friday morning so if you haven't requested your passport yet, you still have time to join us at our next stop.

Post a comment below letting me know you want to join in and what email you want me to send it to. Please also become a follower of my blog. That's your only payment necessary!

Now for the good stuff, I'm giving you a heads up on supplies for our next souvenir. So here's what you need to have on hand for Friday if you want to get a jump start and be ready to start.

  • Bath towel (all cotton and not chunky thick) in either white or pink or yellow that is at least 25 inches long. I chose a white one that I already had in my closet. Wash it if you buy a new one or be thrifty and use one that is needing to be culled out and re-purposed!
  • One elastic hair band in the same color as your bath towel.
  • 3 cotton fabrics in colors (a) white, yellow, a darker tone of yellow or (b) pink, yellow, darker tone of pink. I'm using strips of fabric I have in my stash that are 5 inches wide.
  • Cheap muslin fabric. Really, you need not use good fabric so if you don't have muslin, use something else that is either white if you are using white cotton fabric or neutral colored if you are using pink or yellow cotton fabric.
  • Thread in colors of your towel and fabrics.
That's it! Now get ready for some fun, effortless sewing for your souvenir. You are going to love using this souvenir all during our travels; I promise.