“The making of tapa was a time-consuming and labor intensive process. The outer bark was stripped away and the inner bark was soaked in water to make it soft.”
“Artistically carved round wooden mallets were used to pound the strips of the inner bark into meshed fiber to form sheets of various sizes, thicknesses, and textures. Then, the tapa was colored by native dyes and decorated with block prints.”
“New England missionaries arrived in 1820 and taught high-ranking Hawaiian women to make American-style patchwork quilts. On April 3, 1820, seven young New England missionary women held the first ‘Sewing Circle’ aboard the brig Thaddeus.” (Cao and Park)
“The high-ranking Hawaiian women were Kalakua, mother of King Liholiho, her sister Namahana, and two wives of Chief Kalanimoku. The missionary wives were Lucy Thurston, Lucia Holman, Sybil Bingham, Nancy Ruggles, Mercy Whitney, Jerusha Chamberlin, and Elisha Loomis.”
“The missionaries supplied the scissors and furnished the native women with calico patchwork to sew. Sewing calico piecework was new to the ranked Hawaiian women, but the geometric and symmetrical patterns associated with quilting were not.”
“The Hawaiian women were taught both types of quilt making. The pieced variety technique was used to make geometric repeated blocks, and the appliqué style used the ‘snowflakes’ method.” (Cao and Park)
Lucy Thurston, the wife of one of the first missionaries, recorded in her journal (1882): “Monday morning, April 3rd [1820], the first sewing circle was formed that the sun ever looked down upon in his Hawaiian realm.”
“Kalakua, queen-dowager was directress. She requested all the seven white ladies to take seats with them on mats, on the deck of the Thaddeus. Mrs. Holman and Mrs. Ruggles were executive officers to ply the scissors and prepare the work. … The four native women of distinction were furnished with calico patchwork to sew-a new employment to them.” (Thurston)
“For the first few years the missionary wives spent a great deal of time sewing for the upper class Hawaiians.”
“These ladies preferred to spend their time instructing the Hawaiians in spiritual matters and when regular supplies of fabric and patterns arrived from the mainland, the missionary wives began teaching Hawaiians to sew”.
“According to Wild, the missionaries’ instructional program included other domestic arts in addition to sewing lessons, and both sexes were welcomed into the domestic arts classes.”
“Leftover scraps of fabrics from the lessons were used to teach patchwork quilting. As they began learning to quilt, Hawaiian women incorporated traditional and familiar kapa designs into their quilts.”
“As part of the assimilation and acculturation processes, western fabric, fashions and quiltmaking were integrated into Hawaiian material culture. As this happened, the making of kapa began to decline, and by the end of the nineteenth century, kapa production waned.”
“To the Hawaiian seamstresses, it probably seemed illogical to cut new materials into small pieces only to be sewn together to make a patchwork quilt.”
“It was quite natural, therefore, that the Hawaiian women would move toward individual designs as they were accustomed to producing original designs with their own kapa beater and wood-blocks from which they made kapa designs of their own.”
“It is not known exactly when, or even how the appliquéd Hawaiian quilt evolved. What is most striking about the Hawaiian quilt is the appliqué technique in which a large sheet of fabric is folded, cut into a design, then stitched onto a contrasting background, followed by contour quilting around the motif.”
“Both in technique and style, Hawaiian appliqué reminds us of paper snowflakes made by schoolchildren, a contemporary remnant of cut paper work that was popular in the northeastern United States during the early decades of the nineteenth century.” (Arthur)
In addition, 9-year-old Huldah, daughter of missionary Samuel Ruggles made her own patchwork quilt, it is featured in the image. It was recently on display at Hawaiian Mission Houses. It is made from scraps; images of other clothing are also included in the album (from which Huldah Ruggles used scraps to finish her quilt).
Follow Peter T Young on Facebook
Follow Peter T Young on Google+
Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn
Follow Peter T Young on Blogger
