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Designed by Howard Marus for Moda, it's kit #46241 for "Collections for a Cause". This 2017 kit was dedicated to The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA.org)  in loving memory of Gene Stewart, a beloved member of the Moda family.   This is my 14th quilt, made between October 2018 & April 2019.  My sister (she's Bothtwins here on Quilts by Me) and I  have worn Hawaiian shirts for decades during the Seattle summers, which sometimes last as long as 3 weeks in a row although this year (2019) summer lasted the entire month of September!   We chose The Sunshine Kit as our first joint quilting project. It was a hoot, and figuring out that back-collar-front-collar business was challenging ~ bouncing ideas off eachother is great for solutions. The finished size is 92 X 93", bigger than the original pattern which ended at the red border, which was the original binding.  Then I added 3 floral borders for the width/length I needed for my queen bed. I used a Hobbs Tuscany Silk Batt. Our top-stitcher, Lyn at camlynquiltsDOTcom, did an edge-to-edge pattern with a curl and a swoosh called 'Repunzel', a pattern she said she could use to stitch around  all the 3-D collars.  The front collars are free-standing from the shirt fronts.  No wonder they were problematic, both to us stitching them and Lyn trying to quilt around them. About half way through the project one of us said "wouldn't it be cute to put buttons on the shirts?" and Lyn said "don't do it before I quilt it" (of course not, duh!) and they are SO CUTE with buttons!  If you have a button box this is the perfect time to use it.  I also used my friend Karen's button box, because that's a lot of tiny buttons!  Thanks Karen!  It's suprisingly hard to find 4 or 5 buttons that are the right size and color for 20 tiny shirts.    I have so much fabric left over.  I bought extra for the borders, then bought more because I didn't like those.  I ended up using extra back-side for one of the borders and the binding, so I have plenty of other colors to make cuffs for some pillow cases and maybe another quilt, too, lap size or baby.  SO CUTE for a baby quilt, without the buttons of course.  Also, that is the cutest calico in the world. She is also the best cat in the world. posted 102419 edited 092521

I am delighted that my 15yrs of working on this quilt paid off in our recent Arts and Crafts show taking out first prize in its category. I was going to edit the page on Quilts By Me but feared loosing the previous blurb as I am soooo not technology savvy!!

This was my first shop hop, I visited each shop, purchased the block, and then chose the finishing kit for the one I liked most. That was November 2016. I started in 2017, worked on it mostly at retreats and finally finished this 95 x 95 Queen size quilt, the largest I have made. Not bad for 4 1/2 years! My longarmer did a beautiful job with a panto called Tea Rose.

The quilt pattern was very interesting to me. The thought of lining all those fabrics up and cutting them exactly the same and then putting them back together with so many different patterns was so fun.