Plumeria and Daisies: A Tribute to Vai

I saved this quilt finish and gift presentation for 5 days, because I am entering the quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival, which starts today.

http://amyscreativeside.com/2014/10/24/bloggers-quilt-festival-fall-2014-edition/

"Plumeria and Daisies" or "You are in Our Hearts"

Quilt stats:

54x54"

Plumeria appliqué by BarbaraBieraugelDesigns.com

The rest of the quilt designed by me, Rachell Reilly

Thread:

Superior King Tut: Mint Julep 1023, Malachite 989, Alabaster 997

Masterpiece 131 pale green for piecing

Connecting Threads Essential Cotton 21119 Hyacinth purple

Fabric:

Purple Batik, Teal Batik,

Background: Legacy Cotton Solid "Curaçao" (aqua-green)

Kona Cotton: Cypress (medium aqua green) for backing and hanging sleeve

Purple blender from Cranston Village for backing and binding.

I finished this quilt last Saturday, and my neighbor Kira embroidered the label on her Bernina machine on Sunday afternoon. I literally drove straight from her house to the hospital to present the quilt to sweet Vai Malungahu and her parents, my cousin Jessica and her husband Taylor Malungahu. I sat down and sewed the label to the quilt as I spoke with her parents; then her dad, mom and I all tucked Vai into the quilt. She is mostly sedated to control the pain. Vai has been in the hospital for two weeks, for uncontrollable vomiting and pain. Her heart has just been weakening so fast. We all feel blessed that she was strong and courageous for four months longer than the doctors all thought she would. Taylor, her tall Tongan dad, silently cried as he opened the quilt from the gift bag and gave me a big bear hug. That was seriously the best thanks.

(Photos taken Sunday, October 19, 2014)

As I'm writing this post, I learned that Vai passed away this morning, Friday, October 24, 2014. She was just 20 years old.

We are all saddened, but grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, who provided a way for families to be sealed together in the temple for time and eternity; so we know we will see her again.

If you haven't been following me lately, here is her story.

She received a heart transplant when she was 9. Soon after, she was adopted by her cousin Taylor and his wife, Jessica, who is my cousin. Vai has struggled this past year with heart valve replacement, received a pacemaker, and been admitted several times. After some serious pain in June, the doctors diagnosed her with heart failure specific to transplant patients, and gave her 6 weeks to live. In July, Vai and her family were able to fly to visit her family in Tonga and New Zealand for the first and last time since Vai came to the United States.

I chose the Hawaiian-style appliqué because Vai is Tongan. I used batiks because it would go so well with her island heritage. She loves Plumeria flowers, and purple and green. I quilted daisies in the borders, because daisies are also her favorite flower. I used one appliqué for the medallion center, and cut another appliqué into four pieces to appliqué in the triangles for a square-in-square effect. (I didn't have time to appliqué a large quilt, and my tendinitis wrists would probably complain too.)

I feel so blessed, every step of the way, in this quilt journey. Barbara Bieraugel gifted me her Plumeria pattern when I commented on her blog, telling her Vai's story. She has been such a great teacher and support to me, with all my questions, and my first experience with needle-turn Hawaiian appliqué.

I had the purple batik in my stash, waiting for something special. I found the perfect aqua solid to match the aqua in the butterfly print in the batik. Kim's Fabric Outlet www.kimsfabric.com had a Thrifty Thursday on her Facebook page, and I found the beautiful teal batik, and the green-aqua daisy-swirl batik for the backing. (I found the purple batik at Fabric Outlet too, last year!)

I found color cards at Superior Threads booth at HMQS, so it was easy to match thread to the quilt. I ordered the King Tut thread from www.SewThankful.com, and Tracy the owner was able to mail them to me in less than 3 days...New Mexico to Utah!  I used the entire spool of Mint Julep for all the echo quilting, using the last bit to sew on the label. I seriously felt like the widow with the last bit of flour, being blessed by Heavenly Father to last and have just enough to finish.

I'm grateful for my neighbor Kira for the quilt label.

I just can't get enough of this quilt. Maybe I took a ton of photos, but it has seriously turned out so beautiful.

Hopefully, this quilt will provide cuddle comfort in Vai's memory for her parents and younger siblings.

Quilting complete

I now officially declare that the quilting is finished on the plumeria Hawaiian-style appliqué!

I will get better pictures soon. 

I'm preparing the hanging sleeve, and I need to trim the quilt sandwich.

Then let the binding begin!

Vai is in the hospital, barely hanging on to life, according to her mother and grandmother today. She's barely conscious. My heart aches for her and her family.

This quilt's journey is almost finished for me, and I'm anxious to help provide some little comfort to her family with it.

Almost wordless Wednesday

Backing pieced. Binding prepared.

Oh see, there's daisies in the backing, so there's still daisies that Vai loves, in the quilt !

Off to bed!

ALYOF: September Finish

I think that I did pretty well for September.  I would have liked to get more done, but it is what it is.

1--The HST Star is all quilted, except for the final outer border. Yay!

2--the Hawaiian-style Plumeria got its final border tonight! Whee! It's now about 54" square. It's been a longer ride than I hoped, with so many ideas floating in my head and indecision fogging up the ideas.

And I received the quilting thread so quickly from my order from SewThankful !

Meanwhile, I've been playing with Sue Pelland's Hearts and More templates. They are very slick, so I will need to get the grippers like she recommends. I wanted to put daisies on the Hawaiian appliqué, but the fun, cute daisies just didn't jive well with the more formal Plumeria. Plus, the daisies seemed to interrupt the flow of the two-color quilt, and interrupt the flow of the medallion on point.

At first, I cut individual petals with the template. (White daisy) That started to get tedious.

Then I read a bit more in the template instructions and the different types of shapes and cuts. Sue shows how to make 4 and 6 petal flowers, and mentioned 8-petal flowers in passing. I cut a square of pre-fused fabric, then folded it into eighths like I did with the Hawaiian appliqué. I stapled the fabric together, then used the template to draw the curves on the folds. I used scissors to cut, then opened the flowers! I also used the template to cut the circles for the flower centers.

So now I need to figure out what to do with the daisies!  How fun....!

Playing

I can't decide whether my Hawaiian-style appliqué quilt top is finished. It looks so beautiful!

I fussy-cut the border to show off the long, vertical leaf pattern, and thought I would echo those leaves for the quilting designs.

But right now, the top is only just 40" square. Is that big enough to cuddle with as a hospice quilt?  I really love the 44x60 size.

The whole premise of an Hawaiian-style is balance, peace, nature, symmetrical. I definitely think I captured that!

But I very much wanted to incorporate some daisies into the design, since Vai loves daisies too.

I thought a narrow aqua border on the sides, with an aqua wider border on top and bottom, with appliqué daisies in white and purple.

Would that take away from the balance and harmony and detract from the lovely center plumeria?

So I've been playing with my new set of Hearts and More templates by Sue Pelland. I'm trying to get the hang of them, and the templates + rotary cutter = definitely faster than cutting with scissors!

And I'm trying to figure out sizes, too.

The one in the picture above is roughly 6" across.

It's fun being able to cut lots of different shapes and sizes with just one template!

I'm also just trying to get a feel for what the quilt would look like with my desires, too.

However, I learned today some news that might just force the issue of not adding more, and just finish the quilt!

Vai has been discharged from the hospital to home, with hospice care once again. She is on air all the time, sleeps a lot, and is in terrible pain. My aunt, her adopted grandma, thinks her time on earth is very short now. I very much want to have her cuddle with the quilt before she passes.

Oh dear. Decisions, decisions.

Vai's story; September goal check-in

I'm getting closer to finishing my goals for the month!

Oooooh pretty!  But I have trimming and squaring up to do, as well as adding two borders and some more appliqué to the borders.

Every step getting closer to finishing this Hawaiian-style quilt is important to me.

This quilt is for Vai and her family. Vai was admitted to the hospital this past week for fluid swelling around her heart. She's on oxygen full-time now and having a lot of chest pain.

 Vai is Tongan and came to the United States when she was 8 yrs old. She got sick, and the germ attacked her heart. She had a heart transplant at the age of 9 ! In the meantime, Taylor and Jessica adopted her into their family. Taylor is Vai's cousin, and Jessica is my first cousin. Taylor and Jessica have four children of their own, all younger than Vai. 

Now Vai is 20, and has really struggled this past year, with surgeries and a pacemaker for her transplanted heart, in and out of the hospital several times. In June, while being admitted for some very serious pain, the doctor ran lots of tests and diagnosed that her heart is in failure, a type of heart failure specific to transplant patients. They gave her 6 weeks to live....and she has obviously fought much past that already. I intend this quilt to be a cuddle quilt for Vai, and also to be a memorial quilt for her for her family and siblings.

Anyway, Vai loves purple and green, plumeria and daisies. My nurse friend, who also quilts, who married a Tongan, said that Hawaiian-style appliqué is great for a memorial quilt, as well as a plumeria pattern.

While following the American Made Brand blog tour this summer, the last stop was Hawaii--the last state becoming a state of the United States. Barbara Bieraugel blogged about Hawaii. In my comment, I mentioned a bit about Vai's story and how I wanted to learn Hawaiian-style appliqué to honor her. Barbara was so sweet---she emailed me her new Plumeria pattern!!!!!! And she has been so helpful and supportive in helping me learn this style of quilting.

Now on to part two of my goal:

Quilting the HST star !

Whee! I think I'm almost finished quilting! I think I have some touch-ups on the blocks, and then quilt the border. 

I'm still trying to decide on a border motif.

More continuous swirls like the sashing?

Echo the puzzle pieces?

Quilt a starburst border like in Angela Walter's Dot-to-Dot quilting class ? (See below)

Ok I'm done thinking for the night. Goodnight!

Wednesday

I'm so tired all the time right now. I guess I'm just wearing a lot of hats.

Work.

Trying to finish more pieces of projects.

Baby got his 6-month shots and got a bit sick, then his first tooth crowned! Talk about keeping me up nights. And he's nearly crawling, and the past two days, he's been doing awesome, getting up to sitting on his own.

Biggest brother's first two adult bottom teeth crowned and he lost his first baby tooth.  It was the week of the teeth!

The first center block of the Hawaiian-style appliqué.

I was able to cut two of the background triangles for the on-point setting. Then I cut another appliqué, and got two sections basted onto the two triangles. I'm definitely getting faster at the needle-turn appliqué.  Now I need to wait for payday to get more background fabric.

It was fun listening to book on CD while I cut and basted and stitched this week. Jennifer Chiaverini's "The Aloha Quilt", and I was so glad to learn more history of Hawaiian-style quilts, Hawaiian history, and symbolism behind Hawaiian-style quilting. As I stitched, I could recognize parts of the symbolism in the Plumeria design that I'm stitching.

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks that I finished this week:

Tiny progress

July rolls on, and I'm making bits of progress.

Needle turn appliqué is slow and careful with tiny stitches. It's hard to see what I've finished so far, so I've put some markers on the piece in the picture:

One quarter is finished (by the natural-colored spool), plus halfway up one side of another stem (see the tail of thread by the beeswax), and up another stem with one flower almost finished (the scissors are pointing to the thread tail).

I just realized that this Plumeria pattern has 16 leaves, and 60 petals!

I'm not sure how I forgot to mention this, but I finally got all the feeling back in my fingers in April (3 months postpartum). So  what do I go and choose as my first project to do with hand stitching?! 

Very intensive and detailed Hawaiian appliqué!

 And I've discovered that I need to take short breaks because my fingers holding my needle get numb and fuzzy again.

Well, off to bed!

Sneak peek

Happy July!

Here's a sneak peek of what I'm doing tonight.

I'm getting ready to do a lot of hand-work ! It involves a lot of appliqué.

I can't tell you enough: I adore these fabrics and colors!