Nov
12
A Hawaiian workshop
Filed Under Classes, Designers, Hand appliqué, Hawaiian, Needleturn, Patterns, Quilt shows | 7 Comments
Last month I had the privilege of taking a class in Hawaiian appliqué from Maui resident Keri Duke.
Keri was here for Pacific International Quilt Festival and came a week early to give a workshop for our guild. She’s snorkeling buddies with our program chair Tracey Brookshier so yay for us!
It was a beautiful day and a great location for a workshop. We were making a traditional breadfruit (ulu) appliqué. As Keri told us, this is usually the first pattern made by a quilter because it is supposed to bring fruitfulness and good luck in life.
Cutting out the motif, folded in eighths.
My big basting stitches. I was the first one done basting; some spent the whole morning just basting, using little bitty precise running stitches instead of big honking toenail catchers. Not necessary, gals. Just throw ’em in there.
Some of the class members chose other colors for their projects.
It looks good any which way you do it.
After the entire dark-green leaf motif was basted, we did traditional needle-turn hand appliqué. I’m a fast stitcher (well, you know, it isn’t my first rodeo) and I had my block all done for Show & Tell at quilt guild the next night. This type of Hawaiian appliqué is about the most fun, I think. Once you get it all prepped, you just sit and stitch and stitch to your heart’s content.
My Ulu.
The following week was PIQF.
The crowd waiting to get in on Thursday morning.
Once I made it inside the doors, I chatted with Keri in her Keri Designs booth, and I was delighted to learn that she and another quilter had curated a special “Colors of Maui” exhibit for the show!
This hibiscus was my favorite entry, and come to find out, it was Keri’s!
If you’d like to go on a tropical tour of the Colors of Maui, there’s a lovely slideshow posted over at The Quilt Show. Enjoy!
Aloha,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
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