Hawaiian-Themed Quilts for Julie's Grandsons

Last April my good friend Julie sent her daughter Samantha and teenage grandsons Hudson and Raine on a fabulous cruise to Hawaii.  It was the trip of a lifetime for the three of them and they all had an absolute ball.  Julie loves to give the boys special presents at Christmas, and I suggested that we look at my remaining stash of Hawaiian fabrics (purchased on Maui) and see if there was anything she liked - with the idea of doing a quilt for each of the boys.

Here are the ones I showed her:

(click the picture above to see a larger image)

The blue boats/pineapples/sea turtles one immediately grabbed her.  Hudson, as it turns out, has developed a fascination for sea turtles, so the fabric at the bottom of the photo above has been earmarked for him.  And, as luck would have it, the boy's mum says Raine is interested in musical instruments and surfboards - so the print in the upper right will be his.

Both boys are growing like weeds and Hudson in particular has really sprouted in the last year or so.  At 15 years of age, he's already 6'1" - and his brother (13 yrs) appears to be following suit.  The quilts will have to be good-sized ones.

No worries!  My longarm frame is only 8' wide, but even with that, I can make quilts wide enough for good-sized "throws", and length is not an issue at all.

I pulled out my quilting software and got to work - came up with this design for Hudson's quilt:

60" x 86" - this will be the largest quilt I've done on the long-arm,
and will be big enough for Hudson to tuck it under his feet and still be able
to pull it up to his chin.

I'm planning to use solids coordinating with the colours in the print.  That will ensure that the effect of the print is maximized, and will also keep the cost down.

And, to avoid any "sibling jealousy" - I'm using exactly the same design and dimensions for Raine's quilt - just changing the colours to pull out the snappy colours in the surf-board print.

So we're off and running.  I've got the main fabrics and the design, just need to get the coordinating solids.