Since our trip to Hawaii I’ve really wanted to try my hand at a Hawaiian quilt block.  Just one.  They are so graphic and gorgeous, but the work involved is crazy.  So I got this book from the library, and chose the sea turtle, or honu, pattern.  We’ve been lucky enough to see sea turtles on both our trips so it seemed appropriate.

Now, those who know me, know that I have taught myself quite a few crafting techniques from glancing at books.  I’d like to say I read and study them but that is actually pretty rare.  Nope, dive right in I say. 

So, if you look closely at the picture below, you will notice that I didn’t use the correct pattern for cutting out the turtle motif.  I used the stitch guide, which is almost half the size of the real pattern.  Yeah.  This is going to make the hand-turned appliqué portion of the quilting even more difficult.  Ridiculously time-consuming and eye-straining. 

And once all this stitching is done, then I can start the quilting!