Shoreline Throw

Maui was fresh on my mind when I got the Stitch Summer call for projects. My family had just taken a trip there and I had several quilt ideas in mind when I came back. When I saw that one of the issue themes was Maui that I knew I had to get to work!

I thought about the colors of Maui: there was the clear blue sea, green shady palms and sun bleached sand. I wanted to design something that was graphic with an Island feel. I had recently seen the Mosaic Collection by Marcia Derse for Windham and knew I wanted to use her fabrics for this project!

I started playing around with a half-square triangle technique where you slice up the HST and then rearrange the slices to form a new block. By rotating that block and making mirror-image versions I could create the diagonal zig-zag shape across the quilt. It took some brain power to figure out the layout and I admit I made quite a few blocks that I ended up not using, but I think the result is really exciting!

I quilted it on a BERNINA 710 which we have on a quilt frame at Modern Domestic. I drew rows of 'Es' and 'Ms'  -- I was going for a traditional Hawaiian Kapa cloth feel. The whole time I was working on it I was thinking about how it would look in the bright Hawaiian light. The colors had to be strong and vivid and the design had to have movement that felt like the wind on the north shore or the waves washing up on the sand. When I look at it now I think it has a bit on an 80s surfer-vibe which is totally awesome and something I hadn't planned on happening!

Imagine a version of this in hot pink and lime green! Wouldn't that be stunning? The magazine pattern I wrote is for a throw size, but it would be easy enough to build it out to a full or queen by increasing the number of blocks. Meanwhile I am going to go make a Mai Tai and dream about the next time I get to visit our 50th state. 

Aloha!
Michelle