Tropical Garden Finished

Jeong's Tiki Garden - 44"x 28"

Up through the day that I left Michigan, I worked to get this tropical garden quilt finished so it could be shipped on our way out of town. It's created as a gift in appreciation to special friends who live in Hawaii. The guys had met way back in 1957 when my husband had lived there for a year while his father was a visiting professor. We have visited and been royally entertained by the Jeong's on quite a few trips to Hawaii over the years since.

The tiki has special meaning. Lee's mother had made a shirt with fabric that had been hand block printed with it for him back when Lee and Kawiki met. Quite a few years later Lee had out grown it, so it became a part of my wardrobe for a number of summers. Now 55 years later, the shirt fabric is too fragile to wear. So I cut out the tiki and layered it with tulle netting to become a feature in this tropical garden.

This quilted tropical garden features my favorite Hawaiian flowers … Plumeria, Hibiscus, Orchids, Bird of Paradise, and Ginger along with the amazing Ti plants and foliage. The border of Impatience along the bottom edge were included especially for David. That plant being the answer he gave me when I asked him his favorite flower.

It's amazing how a swipe of pastels and a touch of paint brings the flowers and leaves to life.

Tucked in among all that tropical splendor are images of our all time favorite Rock 'n Roll singer, Elvis who also loved Hawaii.

I'm fond of this picture taken of it hanging on my clothes line with the trees and foliage of Michigan in the background.

I hang my work on the line to spray coatings of acrylic protectorate on the surface. This gets done at intervals during their construction. I like to use Krylon. It protects against dirt and fading of colors.

Getting lost in this project has also been my refuge during this period of time dealing with breast cancer. There's more surgery in my future to get rid of stray cancer cells.