[ HAWAII AT WORK ]
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
I do Hawaiian quilting. I am a designer. I do everything. I design my own patterns. I do demonstrations. I travel to workshops and seminars and I do classes; all in traditional Hawaiian quilting. Carol Kamaile is in stitches
Just one year after getting back
into quilting, she’s as busy
as she’s ever beenI started in 1976. Luika Kamaka and I went to the same church. One day I went to her house for lunch and she had this beautiful green and yellow pikake and tuberose Hawaiian quilt on her lap. I had never seen anything like it. She was in the process of making it and I said I wanted to learn. I just was just fascinated.
She said you have to draw your own pattern and I said OK. She was my teacher. I learned from her for about six months. In 1977, or there about, I said let's go talk to some stores and see if we can find a place to teach, so we did. We started at Fashion Fabrics in Kailua. From there we just went to different stores and taught classes. We were teaching together, but she was more advanced than I was.
In 1978 we went our separate ways. Then from 1981 to 1988 we got together again for the Kamaka-Kamaile Hawaiian Quilting Exhibition. It became an annual thing for the Kamehameha Day holiday. The idea was to show our students' work for the year. We always held it at Kahala Mal. They just asked me back this year, and the show just finished. They've asked me to come back annually, so we're talking about that.
From 1976 to 1990, because I started doing custom orders for people on top of teaching, I got burned out on it. I hung up my hoop for 10 years. In the '90s I didn't do a thing.
I came back last year, and so a lot has happened in one year. I started again when a lady at work, who knew I was a crafter, asked me if I did Hawaiian quilting and I said I do. She wanted to learn. Right about that time, my daughter saw an ad for a quilting demonstrator. I went down and applied. That's how I got started with DBI Hawaii Inc. (also known as Kenui Quilts).
My daughter has tried quilting, and she says she's interested but she doesn't have the patience. I think it's going to skip a generation here.
What I hear from the local people is their mom or grandmom was a quilter, but they never took an interest in learning. Now their mom or grandmom is gone, and they want to learn, so they come in for classes.
At this time in my life, I'm a full-time quilter, that's what I do. I teach at Ben Franklin Saturday afternoons from 2 to 4 at the Mapunapuna store. I do demonstrations at Duty Free Galleria, Monday through Friday from 7 until 10 p.m. That draws people from all over the world. Usually I'll have them sign a guest book , so I can kind of keep track of people. I've had students from Germany, Japan, Canada, all over.
But Saturday is when we have a ball. Class is a lot of fun. Quilters are good people.
Hawaii At Work features tells what people do for a living in their own words. Send submissions to: business@starbulletin.com
