In my last blog, I gave you a little trivia about traditional Hawaiian bedding. The more I thought about this layered approach, the more excited I've become about doing a completely non-traditional approach. I want to create a three-in-one quilt, all attached along one side, so that the user can decide how much coverage they want. It is for my brother's Colorado cabin.

Also, I love the idea of making each layer work with a different seasonal theme. But I also want all the layers to be traditional. So, I headed to the computer to do a little design work. Drats! My EQ6 is on my desktop computer, which I left in Kentucky. All I have here in Cincy is my laptop. So, I grabbed Designing Patchwork on Your Computer. It comes with this really cool CD that has basic patchwork software that works on both PC and MAC. It is a great little program for beginners and for designing basic patchwork. Plus it comes with the book.

So here is what I've come up with so far:

1st layer -- The Summer Layer:is just top and back (no batting) doing a simple Rainbow Squares with fabric from Robert Kaufman Fabric's Imperial Fusion collection. The range of colors will make the simple Rainbow block approach easy.

2nd layer -- The Spring & Fall Layer (Colorado mountains can be really cold at night): is traditional, cotton top, cotton batting, and cotton backing. I'm going for a simple Scrappy Herringbone design in solids, stripes, and geometrics. I'm trying to work in a color palette that evokes both fall and spring -- I think there is going to be a lot of orange and green going on here. I'm going to have do some serious searching for the right fabrics here.

3rd layer -- The Winter Layer (or the "why did I think it would be cool to come stay at 9,000 feet in January" layer) is going to be simple squares on point, all in SewBatiks flannel, with wool batting and cotton backing. I picked some up at Nancy Zieman and Wisconsin Public Television's Quilt Expo last fall, and I've been dying to use it.

The traditional Hawaiian Kapa Moe attached the layers permanently. Yet, again, I'm taking great liberties with the traditon. I'm going to attach the layers with buttons, for easy care.

I guess this really doesn't qualify for a Kapa Moe anymore. Any suggestions on what do call this quilt thing?

I'll post pictures when it is done.

--JayJay