Our island is home to several quilting groups. Some of them concentrate mainly on traditional Hawaiian quilting designs, which are quite unique (I will do a post sometime soon about this beautiful form of textile art), and others are a bit more eclectic in their approach, but even so, they are not like the old traditional quilts of old.
During the month of January, the Wailoa Center Gallery by the Wailoa Park in Hilo, is presenting a "Still Havin' Fun After All These Years" Fabric Fun Quilt Show. It is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM except on Wednesdays which they open from Noon to 4:30 PM until January 30th.
The exhibited quilts are the creations of the Village of Volcano Quilters group: Edna Arkawa, Lora Bristow, Roberta Baker, Susan Carpenter, Deborah Donaldson, Patricia Dow, Marilyn Hiestand, Dina Wood Kageler, Loretta Pasco, Vanessa Sales, Zee Sarr, Rosemary Stancampiano, Toshi Taylor, Katry Tripp and Irene Tye.
I wish I had room to feature works by each of these gifted ladies....unfortunately there were too many, so I chose a few that represented our island best.
Picasso Quilts Pu'u O'o by The Volcano Quilters Group - one member sketched the design on paper and cut it in pieces, each member took a section and gave it their own interpretation - The group is trying to sell this quilt for $3000 as a fund raiser to help with staging shows and other projects.
Pu'u O'o is the vent on the East flank of Kilauea Volcano that has been spewing lava since January 1983.
Rainforest - $1,200 by Marilyn Hiestand wovenwind@hawaii.rr.com
Bird of Paradise - $250 by Deborah Donaldson MsQuiltBee@aol.com
Watching the Ferns Grow - NFS by Susan Carpenter VolcanoSusan@yahoo.com
Kimono Quilt - NFS by Edna Arakawa yukiearakawa@yahoo.com
Lava Star - $425 by Deborah Donaldson MsQuiltBee@aol.com
Mangos - $375 by Loretta Pasco quilthawaiian@hawaii.rr.com
Ohelo Berries - NFS by Loretta Pasco quilthawaiian@hawaii.rr.com
Surf at Sunrise - $1,000 by Lora Bristow kuahiwi1@hotmail.com
SPAM - NFS by Loretta Pasco quilthawaiian@hawaii.rr.com
The State of Hawaii as a whole consumes more SPAM than any other state or territory in the United States, so of course, I had to end the gallery stroll with this quilt, a replica of the SPAM can art
Wailoa Center Gallery is located on Piopio Street in Hilo just past the Vietnam Memorial off Pauahi Street - below the County and State Buildings -808/933 - 0416
