Hawaiian Anthurium

Last summer in July of 2021 my quilt guild held an outdoor sale and I picked up this old 1997 pattern for 50¢. I do like the look of Hawaiian quilts but have no desire to needle turn appliqué one, so this technique, advertised on the pattern front as "Hawaiian style rotary cutting" caught my eye. It included four wallhangings, the two shown in the cover photo, Anthurium and Breadfruit, and two others as I was to learn later, Pineapple and Laua'e (fern).  It cried out to be made in batiks. I am not a fan of batiks based on a bad experience my fingers endured on particular quilt when hand sewing on a batik binding, details in my post dated 7/17/13. But I bought the pattern anyway, figuring I would give it a try. Each completed wall hanging will measure 30" square, not too much perimeter to hand stitch if I did decide on a matching batik binding.

Recently, I had been cleaning/organizing/decluttering my sewing room and unearthed the pattern that had been buried for months. It must have been on my mind because that night, when sleep escaped me as it occasionally does, I crept into my sewing room at about 3:00 am and cut out 93 red 2½" squares, 92 white 2½" squares and enough 2⅞" and 3¼" squares to make the required HSTs and QSTs. I sewed up the HSTs and QSTs the next day. 

Instructions in the pattern were minimal and assumed the quilter would know how to make HSTs and QSTs. Basically the number of squares of each type was called out and a diagram was provided as to how to assemble them. I developed my own process. I sewed all those squares together, like pixels, in rows. On the left, I numbered rows 1 thru 13. I used some arrow stickies to keep track of which unlabeled column I was working on from left to right.

My specialty numbered pins came in really handy to mark the rows as I chained stitched them, leaving the connecting chains intact. I soon had a rhythm where I stacked the next column, squares in the correct order, to the right of the rows in progress.

Here are the thirteen rows completed and still strung together to preserve the order. I'd inserted the pins in alternate directions along the left edge to remind myself of pressing direction. I cut each row apart from the rest to iron the seams in a pre-determined direction before joining each row to the next ironed in the opposite direction.  I bordered the assembly of thirteen pressed and joined rows with Kona cotton white strips, same as the inner squares. Now I need to pick my backing fabric.

For the backing I needed less than 1 yard and I was determined that it should come from my stash. I did have enough of the far right fabric that I'd used on the pieced front but somehow wanted something different and a bit more interesting for the backing. With the pattern on the left and the fabric for the front on the right I auditioned the three fabrics, shown in the center.  The left-most fabric was too precise and distinct; I wanted something with a more mottled look like the front batik. That narrowed my choice down to the two rings pieces in soft red or deep pink. I opted for the soft red with dotted white rings.

For thread, I considered using a multicolored rose/red to enhance the mottled look of the batik, but instead chose a solid rose colored thread. Sometimes, if I need to backtrack, I do not care for the look of a double path of multicolor. I also determined I would keep the white squares quilted in white. I quilted the inner red and white areas in pillow pattern. For the white outer areas, I quilted clamshells. After all, something Hawaiian should have a connection to sea shells in it.

For the binding I went with white Kona cotton with an ⅛" accent flange of the rose batik to relate to the anthuriums but not overpower them. The binding was the magic flange type that I could sew on by machine. In this case I put the label for the quilt name on the front to identify the Hawaiian flower.

The final wall hanging measures 30" x 30". Here are the front and the back. I grumbled about doing it, but I did add a hanging sleeve, even though I had to hand sew through a batik. (I took really big stitches.)

One fun aspect of sewing this pattern was learning about the anthurium plant. Here are some facts:

• That colored part is not the flower, but rather a special leaf called a spathe
• A spathe is a cross between a petal and a leaf
• Spathes can come in many colors, pink to red to violet, white, green, and even black
• The flower is that central spike called a spadix
• A spadix is dotted with both the stigma (female) and the stamen (male) tiny parts of the flower

The resemblance of the stylized pattern to the real plant is creative in its simplicity. By my interpretation, the corner heart shapes represent the spathes and the spiky-edged central regions represent the spadices. See the similarities?