Quilt 37: Hawaiian Tsunami

Back about a bazillion years ago, hubby Stephen and I paid a visit to Hawaii.  While there, I wandered into a fabric shop and went NUTS looking at the gorgeous hula prints.  I found 3 in particular which became part of my "fabric =  yes, design =  no" series.

Well, those three gorgeous blue/white/green prints have been sitting in my UFO closet ever since.  I've not had any idea how I might use them.  But my friend and neighbor Anna visited a while back - to check out the new longarm, and when I showed her the fabric stash she just went wild for those prints. So we agreed I'd make quilt for her.

What we agreed to was initially a use of all 3 prints on the top.  The soft blue/green fern leaves in blocks surrounded by a lattice made of the "shamrock green" print, and the large tsunami white and blue print as the border. But once I got into it, I realized we'd made a mistake.  That tsunami print was going to do a "number" on the more delicate greens and blues of the other 2 fabrics.

After swapping a couple of emails, Anna ageed.

Discussed how to approach it all, and came up with something like this:

Well... I'm really sorry... this probably looks a bit confusing.
The blue and green blocks in the center are the leafy/ferny prints. The green
lattice is the shamrock. The outer border is meant to be the tsunami print.

I got the ferny/leafy prints cut out and the lattice - but once assembled, I realized that putting the tsunami print on the border would be wrong. It would swamp out the inner prints (as a tsunami would, of course).

Here are the photos I sent her:

With the tsunami:

Without it:

A bit hard to completely envision - but what I proposed was extending the internal grid by another column - and reducing the outer border a bit.

Anna trusted me, and thank heavens she did.  We used that fabulous tsunami print for the backing - where it was away from the delicate ferns of the top.

Here's the top after piecing it:

Now, oddly... in the photo you can see the blue in the border is a flat blue, with none of the green/teal of the inner blocks. But in real life, you just don't see it. Your eyes lie to you, I guess!