Hawaiian quilting
 

I've been enjoying rewatching the Poakalani videos by Cissy Serrao on YouTube. I've done Hawaiian quilting on and off for about 40 years, but found the video really helped me improve my stitching technique. Are any of you enthusiastic makers of Hawaiian quilts?

I did my first Hawaiian quilt in 2010 through an online class taught by Nancy Chong original owner of Pacific Rim Quilt Company. In 2016 Nancy moved back to Everett and began teaching classes at Quilting Mayhem in Snohomish where I live. She has 2 monthly classes and 4 three day retreats a year and lucky me we have become good friends. I have posted some of my wall hangings Sea Turtles and Dolphins, Hawaiian Wall Quilt Finished. I just finished a King size quilt made with 16 blocks from PRQC and Poakalani's book. Did you know there is a Facebook
group called I love Hawaiian Quilting?

I was first introduced to Hawaiian quilting in 1990 on a visit to the Bishop Museum in Hawaii and immediately fell in love with it. A wonderful older woman was working on a king size quilt block that she had started over 10 years earlier and was only about 25% finished with the beautiful, intricate design!! Because even a small project would require more patience and dedication than I could muster, I never attempted that wonderful art, but have always been amazed at the skills of those that do. The simplicity of two fabrics enhanced by perfect hand stitching bringing a detailed design to life can virtually take your breath away.

Hawaiian quilting is on my list of things best to be done by other people and appreciated by me. We need the appreciators as well as the creators!

Over the years I have had a couple of friends who do Hawaiian projects. It's a marvel to see them as they do it, and their work as finished.

I've taken short classes with Nancy Chong - what a hoot she is! And I made quite a few of her 2-fabric appliques (2FAQ). I also used her tropical Hawaiian patterns to make blocks that I set into a bed quilt. But the very idea of designng and making one of the typical Hawaiian bed quilts is daunting.

Nancy is a hoot for sure. We always laugh about when at Nancy's first retreat she was demenstating how to open out the quilt applique and pin to the backgroud and several of us were helping to pin in place. I pricked my finger and got a drop of blood on the fabric and still to this day those of us who were there laugh at her reaction. She immediatly and loudly told me to "suck on the spot, don't spit, put it in your mouth and suck". The only person who's saliva will remove the blood is the person who bled on it. That quilt hasn't been gifted to grandson yet as he hasn't reached the required age but she still reminds me of that's the quilt you had to suck on.

Nancy has made bed quilts for everyone of her children and grandchildren that she gifts to them on their 21st birthday (if I remember correctly) when old enough to appreciate her gift of love. She has several in her closet with all the history, documentation of quilt and care for it. She is currently working quilt for her granddaughter who is 6.

In 2019 she finished a quilt that she had started for her husband in 90s and she had embroidered the dates to document her progress on the quilt where she stopped and then restarted. So even for the most experienced and accomplished Hawaiian it is a long process to finish and definitly filled with love.

If you enjoy digging into a thick book simply for the pleasure of being immersed for a long time in a good read, you might also enjoy designing and making your own Hawaiian quilt. Yes, it does take a long time. We visited Hawaii many years ago and stayed at a hotel that was landscaped with beautiful ferns and also had a flock of flamingos. Inspired, I took pictures of both, then designed a quilt I called "Ferns and Flamingos". When I cut out the flamingos with the long legs and laid them out on the background, my husband said it looked like "chicken on a stick". I basted them, then added a border of ferns. It took me . . . 30 years to complete it! I worked on it for a year or two, then got sidetracked into learning to spin. Eventually I got back to it, and finished it two or three years ago. I wish I could post a picture . . . not sure I want to take the time and study to figure out how to do that. It's lightweight, and is a good summer quilt. I'm now working on a large wall quilt with an anthurium design.

I think designing and making a true Hawaiian quilt would be more akin to writing that thick book than to reading it.