Hawaiian Quilting: A Charming and Unique Design

I always associated Hawaii with the beauty of the land – people say that Hawaii is a sample of what you will see in paradise. Not only is nature at its best possible in Hawaii, you have the people, all without any exception, personally worried for your safety and well-being. Such warmth and love overwhelms and sometimes even embarrasses the Americans and the Europeans who are not used with so much affection being displayed in public.

Hawaiian Quilting: How it is Different

Quilting is an art involving leftover pieces of fabric. However, Hawaiian quilting is a special type of stitching. The method involves a unique method of design and stitching that is inimitable.  Each one of the Hawaiian quilting designs will give you a scene which will ‘say’ something. Since it is so complicated and so demanding, Hawaiian quilting is a long process, easily taking three to six months to complete.

The Hawaiian quilting involves designs which need direct overstitching of appliqué work all over the quilt. The method involves the use of two types of fabrics: one that will be the background and the other (there could be many secondary ones) would be the appliqué material which would be cut in specific shapes before being attached to the main quilt material.

This method has a funny legend. It seems that the women of Hawaii already knew stitching and were good at it, because they used to stitch the whale skin into mattresses, and clothes. When the quilting was introduced, the women took to like ducks to water. However, it puzzled and irritated them that they had to use small, small cloths. Since there was no surplus of cloth in Hawaii then, it looked ridiculous to the quilt-making women to first cut the whole material and then stitch it. 

In order to do away with this ridiculous habit (that did not help them, rather annoyed them to no end), they invented their own way to make quilts. They learnt to cut out the whole material in one-piece individual clothing. In this way, the quilt will no more be a patch work of different clothes, but a wonderful story of the character that has been the explanation.

This type of appliqué captured the hearts of all people all over the globe. The appliqué designs comprise of people, historical characters and mythological creations, etc. which are what the market has been promoting for about two years now.