A Very Happy Hula Hut Day to You!

Above is a three-block version of my Happy Hula Hut quilt pattern. It's one of the patterns in my Hawaiian-themed pattern line.

These are all the patterns I make. I print, fold, stuff and tie the little bows myself. When I made my very first pattern, I thought the bows would be a good idea. They looked so pretty and I could put a different color on each pattern! My local fabric shop owner loved the bows and made me PROMISE, that if she ordered some, that the packaging would always be the same. I remember nodding my head vigorously yes as she politely ordered six patterns from me. I was on cloud nine--I had sold my first pattern! Six of them! And she loved the packaging.

Five years, eight pattern designs, and fifty thousand bows later, I'm not so sure the bows were a great idea. As a matter of fact, I've come to despise these freakin' little bows. When I have a pattern order of fifteen dozen patterns for three days in a row, you can't imagine how sore my fingers get tying those grrrrrrr little bows. My husband made me this little punchy ribbon device to poke them all uniformly, but I still have to tie the *%$#*@ things.

Once, I got too overwhelmed and decided to leave the bows off to see if anyone would notice. They did. "Ooohhh...what happened to the cute little boowwwwwssss?" they said. "That's how we know what we have in the drawer at a glance," they said. "They just aren't as 'jaunty' without the bows," they said.

Sigh. The moral of this story is to be careful with bows. They may look all innocent, but in a few years, they'll cause your fingers to gnarl and cramp up until you have to stumble downstairs for the aspirin in the middle of the night. My fingertips are so sore during my peak pattern season in May and April that I can barely stand to touch anything. So remember my cautionary tale, my children: Bows. Beware of bows.

Here I am delivering a large pattern order to Kapaia Stitchery. Oh! Look! I just happened to be wearing my new knitted mitts. In eighty degree weather. I'm holding my hands so funny because my fingertips are throbbing with pain...not because I want to show off my cute mitts. Ahem.

Note: after this picture was taken, I couldn't get those things off fast enough. My hands were sweating buckets. I stopped by the post office on the way into town and sent them to my son in Pullman, Washington. I hope the sweat dries before he gets them. I also hope he's not reading this post about the sweat part. Shhhhh...our secret.

I arrived at Kapaia Stitchery sans sweaty hands and handed my patterns over to Peaches at the shop. She's standing under my Keiki Hula pattern and she's hard to find in all that fabric, isn't she? It's like "Where's Waldo" in the Hawaiian fabric shop. Luckily, I found her and headed home.

When I got back from delivering the patterns, guess what was in my mailbox?!!! My beautiful strawberry needlecase! And it's just as pretty as its picture. Thank you, Happy Zombie. You are so talented. And you took the time to sew on 25 french knots just for me! That's a real friend. Thank you. I love it. It's already a treasured object.

Inspired by Monica's generosity, I have a little give-a-way of my own. Leave a comment at the bottom of this post (only one comment per person, please) and next week on Tuesday at midnight, I will pick a name via random number generator. I will send the winner one of my Happy Hula Hut patterns (tied with a cute little *&^% bow), and four fat halves of Hawaiian fabric to start your own Happy Hula Hut quilt.

And thank you all SO much for yesterday's comments. I want to give you all a big virtual hug and let you know that your support and kindness mean the world to me. Mahalo Nui Loa.