At the first part of the year I taught a Hawaiian Applique Class at OLLI (Osher Livelong Learning Institute) here in Portland. I love teaching these classes because the students are older (have to be 50+ to join OLLI) and they invariably teach me things I didn't know so the learning goes both ways. Also the venue is only steps away from my house and they pay me in class vouchers and Longfellow Books gift certificates. And you can't get better pay then free classes and free books -- at least not if you're me. This beautiful picture is of Carol Jenkins finished Hawaiian Applique quilt block. I hand dye these designs onto cotton fabric, and then I offered the option of using an off white linen for the background fabric. Carol did an elegant job of stitching here and the combination of the natural colored linen and the hand dyed leaves looks very Old World Hawaiian to me.
Here I've folded back the corner of the wall hanging to show the batik fabric that Carol pulled from her stash to use for backing. I am very taken with this choice. The batik enhances the "something old" feeling of this piece. Carol and I are calling this way of finishing a wall hanging but this simple square is very flexible in how you can use it. You can hang it on a wall, certainly. But it is also very beautiful in the middle of a table with a vase of flowers in the center. This is really a lovely look that the centered symmetry of the Hawaiian design really enhances. You can put it on the back of your wingback chair -- sort of like a lovely tropical kind of Victorian antimacassar (those doilies that Victorian ladies put on the backs of their upholstered chairs to protect them from gentlemen's macassar hair oil. I also have been known to hang this sort of thing in a window.
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