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Hawaiian women developed a quilting style known world wide for several distinguishing elements:

• Two colors, usually solids with high contrast (The early examples were often turkey red on white, indigo blue on white or other solids including yellow, orange, green, purple on white. Occasionally small calicos on white were used.)
• Medallion style with the large design covering the entire surface, generally with no border
• Elaborate cutout applique designs, often with symbolic cultural or personal significance such as the local flora
• Outline quilting, also known as echo quilting, moving like waves out from the applique design

In 1820, when Christian missionaries arrived in the so-called Sandwich Islands, the Hawaiian women were creating kapa cloth by pounding the inner bark of a variety of mulberry trees and then adding on designs of contrasting natural dyes. These fabrics were very labor intensive and were used for clothing, household items, and as masts on the outrigger canoes. With the introduction of cotton cloth and thread the women adapted their sewing skills to the new fibers and adopted the applique traditions of the visitors. The Hawaiian women created a new cultural heritage often using the flora and fauna of the Islands as design inspirations for their quilts.

Each Hawaiian woman was encouraged to develop her own original design by folding the darker fabric into four quarters and cutting out the intricate design--rather like cutting a snowflake from paper. After appliquing the darker fabric to the light background the quilter usually outlined the applique with close echo lines of quilting stitches.

A second distinctive style of Hawaiian quilting appeared after 1893 when the last Hawaiian monarch Queen Liliuokalani was ousted by U.S. back interests. The Hawaiian people were not permitted to fly the Hawaiian flag. After 1893 the flag began to appear on quilts allowing the makers to express their loyalties with their needles. Known as "Ku'u Hae Aloha" (My Beloved Flag) these Hawaiian quilts are still being made today.

Contemporary interpretations of Hawaiian style quilting can be seen today in large whole cloth quilts, in the large four block variation, as well as in the multiblock sampler style quilts. Today's maker of a Hawaiian quilt may use a two color design using solids as in the early quilts, but she may choose to use prints, florals, or batiks to enhance the elaborate applique and quilting designs. Some still create their own individualized applique pattern, but many commercial  patterns for Hawaiian quilts are available. Generally quilters still choose to use echo quilting since it is one of the distinctive elements of Hawaiian quilting.

Article by Paula Mariedaughter

Helpful reading on Hawaiian quilting:

Hawaiian Quilting: A Fine Art. Elizabeth Arkana

The Wilcox Quilts in Hawaii. Robert Schleck, Grove Farm Homestead and Waioli Mission House. Kavai: Hawaii, 1986.

To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions. Editors, Marsha L. MacDowell and C. Kurt Dewhurst. Museum of New Mexico Press and MI State University Museum, 1997

Hawaiian Quilt Masterpieces. Robert Shaw. Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., 1996