Black Sand, Sea Turtles and Manta Rays

Punalu'u Black Sand Beach is on the south end of the Big Island and was one highlight on our trip.   Black sands of volcanic glass created when the lava reaches the sea and instantly cools causing it to shatter into tiny fragments.  It has a sharper feel to walk on than coral sand beaches around the island.  My feet never felt smoother after walking it for about an hour!  lol

A common site at this beach are the sea turtles and there was one for us to see.  They have them protected behind barriers to keep from getting too close.  Most beaches have signs say 'stay 3m or 10m back from the turtles'.

Here he is having a little snooze in the nice warm black sand.

Sploosh!

Well that woke him up! lol

Another highlight of our trip was a double haul canoe paddle out to see the Manta Rays after sunset.  Paddle, sunset and manta rays...that's my kind of adventure!   The area around Keauhou Bay is were we went, right in front of the Sheraton Hotel.  Back in the 80's the hotels bar started shining lights into the water and they soon noticed the Manta Rays swimming around the lights.  The lights were attracting plankton and the Manta Rays feed on the plankton.  So since then each evening the bay is full of snorkelers and canoes each with their lights.   We saw about 4 different Rays and I wasn't expecting them to circle up like they did as they fed, it was very cool!

For my next post I'll share my night time photography.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

I am sure you all saw on the news back in 2018 that Kilauea lava started flowing out of Fissue 8 in Pu'uO'o and the caldera collapsed. Lava had been flowing from Kilauea from 1983 to 2018.  Here is a link to an article about what happened and the current conditions.  We drove along Highway 132 and came to a dead end as the road was closed due to the resent lava flows.  Part of highway 132 was reopened while we were there but this part shown in the photo is still closed.

A lot of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is open, only a few roads, trails and sites closed.

Here is the view of Kilauea crater.

Found a great diagram to show just how much it changed after the collapse.

We drove down Crater Rim Drive to the ocean, lovely drive.  

We parked at the end and walked to the recent lava field flows ( recent being 1983- 2018). Tim and I were totally nerding out here!  My husband is a geologist and I studied geology in university ( that's how we meet) so this was a fun experience running around on new lava flows. We are use to seeing 1.9 billion year old flows in Canada that have a bit of weathering so it was fun to see them fresh!

Walking on new lava sounds like walking on fine crushed glass.  The surface is rough from all the gases escaping (vesicular texture) and those sharp edge crunch as you walk on them! This is a beautiful example of pahoehoe lave or ropy lava. You don't want to fall on this stuff!

This next picture shows the contact between lava from 1970 and 2007.  The 1970s lava from Mauna Ulu is well weathered and has a turtle shell pattern, the 2007 lava is still un-weathered. 

Here is a close up of the 1970s lava with its turtle shell weathering patterns.

All is quiet regarding lava activity on the island right now so that is why we had beautiful clear skies. I was told when the lava is flowing it can get very hazy,smoky across the island.  But I think I would be fine with the hazy if I could have gotten the change to see lava flowing off these cliffs!  Oh well, that's still on my bucket list.

Next we went to Punalu'u Black Sand Beach, that will be my next post.

Aloha!

Last week Tim and I finally went on our first Hawaiian vacation.  This has been on our bucket list for many years and it was wonderful to finally check this one off the list.  We decided on the Big Island because we like to explore and seeing the volcanoes were high on our priority list.  We are not much for laying on a beach but really enjoy walking them and swimming in the ocean. So we found a great resort in Waikoloa Beach which is about half hour north of Kona that was right on the beach. Here are a few pictures from our first walk.

  

Because of the 4 hour time difference we were up pretty early each morning so the beach was empty.

We rented a 2 person kayak to explore the bay and the reefs.  Saw some fish and a few sea turtles in the distance poking it head above water briefly.

I was intrigued by the workers trimming the coconut trees with a machete.  They have a lot of skill using the metal ring 'climbing contraptions' on their feet!  Not easy work at all in the hot sun.

Tim noticed this Praying Mantis on one of the fallen leaves, guess he got chopped out of his home!

We went to a Luau which was very entertaining and the food was fabulous.  The sunset that night was spectacular too.

Half hour after sunset the blue hour was pretty good too!

Checked out Hapuna beach, one of the best/beautiful white sand beaching on the island in my opinion.

Then off to Pololu Valley Lookout,  it was too hot to walk down to this beach, for me anyway!

Next stop Laupahoehoe Point Beach Park.  Love the colour of the water here as it breaks on the rocks!

Lovely walk to Akaka Falls, now we are on the tropical eastern side of the island.  I'll stop here and continue with our trip to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in the next post.

Minnesota Stars Pattern in Paper and New Website!

Lori and I decided to remake our Minnesota Stars sample in a modern fabric palette and use it for our new cover.  We have the pattern now available in paper and PDF format in our Etsy shop and new Website!  Yes we launched a new website for Highway 10 Designs and you can find it at highway10designs.com  

The fabrics in this sample are mainly Art Gallery fabrics which we picked up from Missy at Up North Quilt Shop in International Falls, MN.  This sample will be hanging at Up North and kits available starting Friday.  The outer border fabric is called Doiland Gloss Sparkler by Art Gallery and is beautiful! The background is Moda Grunge and the blocks are made with Art Gallery and Riley Blake fabrics.

I had fun custom quilting this sample with bead board in the outer border, stipple in the background and feather, loops, CCs and angled lines in the blocks.

I found a new location for quilt pictures at our fair grounds.  Love the barns as a backdrop with the snow.

Baby Simply Dashing

Brigitt made our Highway 10 Designs Simply Dashing quilt in baby size using a Rainbow Ombre.   I had made a sample using the same fabrics but Brigitt did the cutting correctly and got all the colours in her quilt, not like me! So I was very happy to see one done up right.

I used Flourish for the pantograph, white So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting

 Brigitt is going to bind it with the left over Rainbow fabric which will look great!

 
We still have all our patterns 20% off in our Etsy shop until midnight tonight ( Dec 2) so if you have been eyeing any of our patterns this is your last day to take advantage of our sale.

Second Ruby Waxed Canvas Tote

I think I am addicted to making these totes!  Made my second Fabriculous 'Ruby Waxed Canvas Tote' this week and am now out of waxed canvas! Time to order some more from Fabriculous!  

I used a sweet fabric for the outer pocket called Birdsong by Jojo-Coco for Dashwood Studio.

Added a light blue fabric I had in my stash called Norrland by Bethan Janine for Dashwood Studio.  I seem to be starting to collect Dashwood and Art Gallery fabrics, I still like batiks but they are not the dominate stash builder anymore.

Third Round Robin - Final Round

Here is the last round of our Third Round Robin!  The theme this round was 'flowers'.  I chose do fusible machine applique and had created a template to cut all my petal shapes out. 

Bronwyn all wowed us with her tiny hexagon flowers! I do believe they are hand pieced and appliqued as that is something she enjoys doing.

Desley made a lovely pieced flower block in pinks and greens and I love the pop of green in the sashing.

Lori made this positive/negative style flower block and machine appliqued the petals and stem. That was a great use of our focus fabric.

So now two sets of Lori's and my blocks are in the mail traveling over seas to Australia and two sets of Bronwyns and Desley's blocks are on there way to Canada. We will all have 20 of the same blocks to make a quilt top with and have until the end of May to piece our tops. Deadlines can be a good motivator.   I have a feeling they will all look different when they are done.