Playing with the Fishes

I'm back home, and have been for a week now.  That is how long it takes me to feel like I have my feet under me again.  I swear, it was worse this time.  I was really struggling with "daily routines" like remembering the fabric softener in the laundry and turning onto the correct road for where I was headed.  Good grief!

I did have some big fun this week, though.  Take a look at these--I know they aren't "fishes"--whales are mammals, but you will see later why I titled this blog "Playing with the Fishes."

These were so much fun to make!  Once I figured out which fabric was going where, it was just as easy to make 4 as it was to make 1-2.  The two on the left are actually my "extras" that I may use for gifts, etc.  The two on the right are without borders right now as I am waiting on some different fabric.  I'm planning to use them as the front and back of a tote bag. 

The pattern is called "Humpbacks" and is designed by Castilleja Cotton and available from Quilt Passions on the Big Island of Hawaii.  They are a featured shop in the current (summer) issue of Quilt Sampler.  I was lucky enough to visit earlier this summer and it is a fun shop.  It finished about 20" x 14" and I easily got these all done to this stage in a morning.

That was how I spent my Tuesday.  On Wednesday of this week, three of my fellow girl friends and I went snorkeling on the North Shore.  It was lots of fun, and I got some great photos.  I particularly like this one:

That is a parrot fish "smiling" for the camera.  His teeth look a bit scary, but they don't really bite people.  Parrot fish bite off chunks of coral (you can really hear them crunching under water) and then they digest it and eliminate it in the form of beautiful, white sand.  Yes folks, those gorgeous white sandy beaches are really parrotfish poo.    The brightly colored fish is a Christmas Wrasse.  I think they have a symbiotic relationship with the parrotfish because they are frequently paired up.

The remainder of my week was spent with making and then attending appointments.  It really bugs me how much time something like a doctor's appointment takes when you factor in the phone calls, the driving and parking, the paperwork, the waiting, and finally the 5 minutes you actually spend with the doctor.

Yesterday I started a large, slightly complex quilt and I'm looking forward to seeing it come together.  Between shopping at Quilt Hawaii and visiting quilt shops on the mainland, and my pile from the Big Island, and the stack from the last time I was on the mainland, I have more things to do.  Forget about UFOs.  I have USOs (Unstarted objects.)  I'm looking forward to spending some serious time in my quilt room!

Aloha,
JoAnne