Megablog

I know I've gone AWOL. Life has been keeping me busy, and it won't really settle until I return from visiting family for the holidays. So here's a month's or better worth of things I need to catch up to date...

Santa's Land at the Queen Ka'ahumanu Center - the turtle with the fuzzy red hat reminds me of my logo for the holidays

One of the few pics of me - here with my sister Dana at Makena Beach

Here's Ana'ole - turtle 4 - the hatchling that I named in the contest at the Maui Ocean Center

A sea urchin spiny thingy

One of my hats on display in the gift shop at the Maui Ocean Center

A puffer fish. He's endearingly cute but was about 18"-24" long and has sharp spines on his body that spike out pin cushion-like when he inflates himself

Just a peaceful beach shot

This place has been around since the creation of the islands. It's an institution in Wailuku

They serve onion rings - tempura style - at a chinese restaurant

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Chow Fun noodles. These noodles are actually sliced like carrot sticks and made from potato dough - YUM!

An offering at the Home Maid Bakery shop

Lunch at Leoda's in Olowalu - Spicy (fresh) tuna salad on thier bread with tomato and butter lettuce. Served in a metal pie tin lined with brown paper

Some of the best fries I have ever had! With an aioli - and ketchup of course

Dana's lunch was Fried Mac and Cheese with a marinara - we both had leftovers...

On the road leading to mine, I see a long neck serpent in the grass

Wild lilikoi (passion fruit) flower

The serpent again

This is how my hats were displayed in the booth for the Haleakala Waldorf Holiday Faire. We had a great location - on an end, at the bottom of a hill and by the second entrance to the event - that really helped with traffic 

The hats are all my fabrics - Surf's Up, Seal Pups, Mermaids of Hana Bay, Hibiscus - and the pillow cases - Cotton Couture, Shell Dot and Gingerbreadtown

Mac and Cheese with Peas, please! Red pepper flakes and Kiawe smoked Hawaiian sea salt. The background is Siren Song - color Rainbow

Grilled Shell-on Shrimp  skewered on fresh Rosemary twigs

The morning of October 15 - my mother's birthday 

Comfort food for lunch - when it rains there is quite a damp chill in Haiku and a lunch like this hits the spot!

Rooster Rumble

This wasn't too violent just two roosters plucking the feathers out of one another - but what a display!

These are boneless version of the  bone in ribs I made when Dana was here. Both were preseasoned with the smoked sea salt and crushed black pepper. Next I smoked them over macadamia nut wood then glazed them with Maui Brewing Company Root Beer Bar-B-Que sauce. Last they cooked slowly to dry them out a bit like chinese roast pork.

 Another ornate rooster and hen

One of several gingerbread boy doll fronts drying before construction

A Long Overdue Post: Sea Turtles, Seal Pups and Humpback Whales

This is a quilt made by Suzy Aguirre, of Maui. I have never met her but I do know her sister-in-law Bernadette, who is employed by the USPS as the mail carrier working my postal route. Over the years, I have had bolts of fabric sent parcel post, wrapped in clear shipping plastic. We connected one day when a bolt of my "Surf's Up!" sea turtle fabric arrived. She explained that the honu (sea turtle) had a special meaning for her. It seemed, each time while at the shore, a sea turtle would appear... a sign that was a reminder of her one son, a twin, whom had passed away - swept out to sea by a rogue wave while fishing on the rocks. And if that wasn't enough, several years later she lost her other son who was distraught at the loss of his twin brother.

I gave Bernadette the three fabrics - turtles, seals and whales - and in turn, Suzy made this quilt as a dedication to her two boys.

It's a wonderfully executed quilt, and these pictures really do not do it justice. I am touched that I could be a part of this...

If you look closely you will note the quilting is also in the shape of sea turtles

Honu 'Akala

Pink Sea Turtle.

Sue, of The Needlework Factory, and I discussed sewing the animals on the Aminal Crackers: Water Babies disc in different colors, primaries and pastels.

We never proceeded with the samples but the idea has remained with me. I needed a gift and decided to have the sea turtle sewn out in pinks on a pink/coral tie-dyed t-shirt.

Here are pics of the embroidery in the hoop, on the machine stitching out. There are about 34,000 stitches in the finished embroidery and each takes about 20 minutes to complete.

The foundation of the embroidery, the lightest color, is sewn out first, followed by the second lightest color which becomes the scales and shell

More detail is added with the second darkest color, which is primarily detail on the head

The darkest color is the outline which defines the final embroidery

The eye is sewn in with black, and the finished design on the tie-dyed t-shirt

Amtrak NY Penn Station to Pittsburgh

I'm back on Maui. Getting settled in and reacquainted with everyday life while working.

I did accomplished much when I was in New Jersey, and I could have done more, but it was just nice to chill.

I had hopes of working on the follow up paperwork for the sorbet, which has still been kept active, on the train ride to and then from Pittsburgh, but I just sat back, watched the scenery blur by, took in the mini-dramas of the passengers surrounding me in their seats; I packed my own food so I ate as I pleased and truly feel the 18-hour round-trip from NY - Pittsburgh was overall relaxing.

I went to teach at the Airport Sewing Center the projects I had posted in my June 02 post Recent Projects. I'll post pics from the class and a turtle embroidery in the process of being sewn out in my next post.

These pics were taken through the tinted window of the passenger train.

Leaving Pittsburgh train station

These smoke stacks were part of a nuclear power facility

Red car, red house, gold gilded church roof

 The stripes were created when the mothership landed and deposited the circular alien pods

Stripes 

 Crossing the Susquehanna River on a mile-long bridge

I see a muppet-like tree monster a la Sendak

Philadelphia

Then it was on to Trenton, Newark and New York Penn Station; the subway to the port Authority bus terminal and on to New Jersey to crash...

Welcome Baby Sea Turtles!

At the start of this year, six baby green sea turtles arrived at the Maui Ocean Center from Sea Life Park Hawaii, Oahu, where they were born on July 15, 2011. All from the same clutch, the six-month old turtles weighed a little over one pound and were about five inches in width. A traditional Hawaiian ceremony to bless and officially welcome them to the Aquarium was held on January 20th. (Alas! I forgot to attend as I was engrossed in a project I was working on... oh well...)

This month the Maui Ocean Center held a contest to name one of the baby turtles. The aquarist team provided the traits and behaviors of each turtle to help in choosing the perfect name.

The names were to be in Hawaiian and include a definition of the name and an explanation of how and why that name was chosen to be submitted.

So I got out my Hawaiian-English / English-Hawaiian dictionary and started thumbing through the pages...

Turtle #1:      Solid; the largest turtle.
Turtle #2:      Carefree and spends most of its time underwater.
Turtle #3:      Mellow, but holds its own.
Turtle #4:      Voracious; eats quickly and always wants more. Not to be messed with!
Turtle #5:      Active, small but spunky.
Turtle #6:      Only eats what it wants, when it wants.

On Tuesday - appropriately the 1st day of Spring - I received an email congratulating me on having chosen a name for a turtle. I laughed out loud when I saw which turtle I had connected with! I suppose the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree - or perhaps, more appropriately - the turtle doesn't swim too far from the shore.

The name I submitted and in turn that was chosen was ANA'OLE - which means, "insatiable, never satisfied; without equal, unsurpassed". So turtle #4 is my little dude. I'll get to see him, and the rest, when they gather the winners for a special behind the scenes turtle encounter at the Ocean Center! Guaranteed I'll be posting pictures as soon as I can!

On a side note, the Never-Ending project should be wrapping up tomorrow... so I promise to publish a design related post on my other collection that was released at the end of last month - for some it will be new... and for others... a bit of deja vu!

And if you're as fond of these little critters as I am, don't forget to check out my baby sea turtle (or honu in Hawaiian) print Surf's Up! by clicking on the "Sea Turtles" label below the post.

Water Babies

Sea Lions, and Turtles, and Whales (and Dolphins...) Oh, My!

One of my best selling prints, the baby sea turtle (or honu in Hawai'an) Surf's Up!, was reintroduced by Michael Miller Fabrics a couple of years ago as a part of their 10th year Anniversary celebration. It's still going strong, and we decided to make a group of it by adding a few more designs in an aquatic and endangered species theme. The latest addition to the seal pups, sea turtles, and humpback whales is Dolphin Babies. This is a sneak peak of this print and it will start to be shown by the Michael Miller sales reps the beginning of next month. I hope you like Dolphin Babies as much as I do! 

Seal Pups (DC5001-Ocean)

Surf's Up! (DC2019-Aqua)

A Whale of a Tale (DC4958-Ocean)

Dolphin Babies (DC5449-Seafoam)

In addition, a dolphin, seal pup and sea turtle figure is available as a machine embroidery through The Needlework Factory. The three images, along with a penguin, iguana, walrus and harp seal are all on the WATER BABIES disc. They will also be available as an individual download. Please check back SOON!