Hawaiian Pineapple

From a pattern for four pieced Hawaiian wall hangings, not appliquéd, I made my third wallhanging, pineapples. I'd already made the anthurium (February 2002 post) and the fern (March 2022 post) but April slipped by without my sewing the breadfruit. Maybe next month...? The anthurium and fern posts show some details and hints from my assembly process so I will only repeat a few in this pineapple post. I stuck with my previous design choices of batiks with a Kona white background, selecting prints in colors that reflected the theme of the pattern. I picked this golden swirly batik to imitate the skin of a pineapple.

In assembling the pixellated looking pattern, I chain stitched the next square in each row after the previous row, without snipping the adjoining chains; doing so kept the row order intact from the charted diagram of the Beyond the Reef pattern. See the February anthurium post for details of how I stacked the squares to preserve their sequence.

I used my numbered pins along the left edge, not only to keep the rows in order when I did separate them, one at a time, at the ironing board, but also to remind me which direction to press the seams, alternating opposite directions to be sure that they nested at the intersections.

Although curvy and bumpy on the ironing board, each row flattened, mating well with its predecessor.

I joined the thirteen rows, one by one, from top to bottom. Here is row four being added on the right (i.e., bottom). Lastly, I added a white border. After making my quilt sandwich with bamboo batting and a rosy pink backing, it was time to decide the FMQ. I made my faux piped binding while I was thinking and deciding the FMQ

I knew I was going to do clamshells around the outer border as I had done on the anthurium and fern.  The pineapples needed something to enhance their texture and bring out the diamond shapes on the surface. I sketch three patterns on a clear page protector overlay. I chose the simplest straight line one in the center. The other two options with curves seemed to fight the swirls of the batik. The leaves on a pineapple are straight and spiky so I chose to FMQ them in parallel lines along their length.

 

Either a peach or a yellow thread would blend well in the pineapple batik on the front. I chose yellow because it is more like a pineapple. Thread color for the quilting is pink on the backing. I sometimes have trouble with dots peeking through if I use different colors on the front and back when my thread tension is not 100% balanced. With this combination, if that happens the dots will blend in because the batik has a bit of pink undertones. With white for the clamshells on the front however, I will switch to white thread in the bobbin. Following the thread choices is a closeup of the FMQ patterns in the three areas: pineapple, leaves/stems, and clamshells.

No quilt is complete without a label. I added my embroidered grosgrain ribbon labels. I placed my name/initials and the year on the back as usual but instead I put the quilt name on the front. The completed pineapple wall hanging measures 30" x 30".

For completeness here is the back. "Pineapple rings" anyone?

My using pink thread in the bobbin for the pineapple FMQ and white thread in the bobbin for the clamshell FMQ is not at all obvious, even in the closeup. Had I not switched to white bobbin thread, pink dots peeking through on the clamshells on the top would have been a glaring admission of slightly imbalanced thread tension.