Loretta Kawaiaea took up quilting later than most people do. For years, there just wasn’t time.
Born in Pepeekeo, Kawaiaea, now 84, and her family moved to China so her father could oversee the construction of a new sugar mill. The mill was frequently bombed by Japanese pilots, and the family ultimately came back to Hawaii with help from an aunty.
After graduating from Roosevelt High School and Queen’s Hospital School of Nursing, Kawaiaea moved to Maui, where she met husband, Daniel, to work. The couple later returned to the Big Island.
Kawaiaea retired from nursing as the head nurse of the Hilo Hospital ICU, but it was some time before she actually stopped working: She went on to teach at the University of Hawaii’s School of Nursing.
“And then I started quilting,” she said.
Kawaiaea was honored by her fellow quilters Saturday at the biennial Festival of Quilts in Waimea. Held each year during the Waimea Cherry Blossom Heritage Festival, the event showcases quilts made by Hui Kapa Apana O Waimea, the oldest Hawaiian quilting club on the island.
“If you see her quilts, you’ll find that she does huge, beautiful, very intricate quilts,” said hui member Mary Hinck. “She’s not afraid of the challenge.”
The challenge of Hawaiian quilting, with its distinct focus on symmetry and precision, is part of what drew Kawaiaea to the art form — that and the fact that she was looking for something to do during Puukohola Heiau’s annual cultural festival.
Daniel Kawaiaea is an alii at the heiau; the couple’s son, Daniel Jr., is the park superintendent. The family attends the festival each year, and in 1980, Kawaiaea, newly retired, decided to stop by the learn-to-quilt booth, which was run by the Waimea group.
“They had all different kinds of patterns, and it was already cut, and all you had to do was sit down and baste it and start sewing,” Kawaiaea recalled. “‘Hmm, this is real good fun.’”
She started attending regular meetings in Waimea. And at the next Puukohola Heiau’cultural festival, she was teaching at the booth.
“Then I graduated, and I made eight big quilts,” Kawaiaea said.
The queen- and king-sized quilts were all sewn by hand, everything from the applique repeating pattern that instantly defines a quilt as Hawaiian, to the binding around the edges, to the thousands of tiny white stitches that hold the fabric and batting together.
She completed the last project in 2012.
“You can finish a quilt anywhere from five months to a year, a big one,” Kawaiaea said. “The secret is never put it away in the closet.”
“Leave it out,” she continued, “And then when you walk by, you say, ‘Oh, I want to finish this leaf, I want to finish this petal.’”
Occasionally, Kawaiaea will work on a patchwork quilt, but said she enjoys Hawaiian quilting because of the history behind it: the distinct patterns are relics of a technique missionary women used to teach quilting.
“They would sit on the grass under the tree, and whatever patterns the shadows on the grass made … they would trace the pattern,” Kawaiaea explained. Later patterns were designed around special events, like coronations.
Kawaiaea’s first big quilt incorporated designs inspired by Queen Liliuokalani’s fan, crown and kahili.
“Because it was my first one, I always cherished it,” she said.
The process of quilting, especially the hand-sewing component, requires such focus that it’s a form of stress relief.
“When you’re concentrating on that, your mind is just absorbed in whatever you’re doing,” Kawaiaea said. “You forget about all this little piddly stuff.”
And it attracts just about everybody, from keiki to kupuna, wahine to kane.
“We have a factory supervisor — he came and he learned how, he made a big quilt,” Kawaiaea said. “It’s very interesting to guys because they didn’t think they were able to do (that).”
“You’ll be surprised by what you can accomplish,” she said.
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.