postcards from hawaii

So we went on this awesome vacation to Hawaii this summer. We spent several days in Honolulu and took a 7-day cruise around the islands on the Pride of America. We did the whole thing with our dear friends Gregg, Steve, William and Thomas--hopefully the first of many future trips together.

I was alerted by my sewing friend Tana before we left that Hawaii is a fabric shopper's paradise--she was not kidding! I went to fabric stores in several different places and piled up 27 different Hawaiian fabrics! What a great souvenir--they packed well and I knew I'd be able to make lots of keepsakes when I got home. Bill got the first one--the Hawaiian-style shirt I blogged about earlier.

When we were visiting Kauai, I went into a quilt shop and indulged myself with a nice little pile of fat quarters. Hanging in the window I saw my inspiration--a quilt called Postcards From Hawaii! I googled it when I got home and made up a pattern.

I had enough different fabrics that I only had to repeat each fabric three times. I even splurged on the fancy Kona cotton for the sashing that the original quilt had. (A 40%-off Joann's coupon helped to ease the pain.)

It went together really quickly and easily and I'm thrilled about how it's turning out so far.

Cincy got interested while I was taking the photos.

Now I'm starting to thinking about what to do on the back and binding and how to quilt it. I wish I could just work on this and not do anything else!