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The late Hawaiian quilter Deborah "Kepola" Umiamaka Kakalia, fondly known as Aunty Debbie, was the kind of teacher students wanted to impress, her granddaughter said. Hawaiian quilter
taught thousandsDeborah 'Kepola' Umiamaka Kakalia / 1915-2002
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By Lisa Asato
lasato@starbulletin.com"She was just pleasant to be around," said Nadine "Nalani" Goard, who learned the art from her grandmother and who carries on her teaching and designing. "Everybody wanted to be the best student, aunty's favorite. Every student that comes into the shop claims they were aunty's favorite, so we see at least 10 favorites walk in a day."
Kakalia, who taught thousands of people worldwide the art of Hawaiian quilting, died in her sleep Tuesday morning at the St. Francis Hospice in Ewa, Goard said. She was 87.
One of the last quilts Kakalia made, a bright pink-on-pink chrysanthemum crib blanket, will be presented next month in Tokyo to Princess Aiko, the newest member of Japan's imperial family. The quilt will be presented by the Honolulu members of the Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship Foundation, who bought the quilt for $500 after seeing it displayed at Goard's shop, Nalani's Kapa Kuiki, at the Bishop Museum.
In the 1950s, already practiced in the American style of quilting, Kakalia was forced to teach herself the Hawaiian style of quilting, Goard said, adding that quilters at Kawaiahao Church shunned her for not learning the art through her mom or grandmother. Kakalia learned by watching and started creating her own designs because she did not care for the obscure traditional patterns. "She wanted people to look at it and see the beauty of the flower and the leaf and instantly say, 'Yeah that's a plumeria, that's a pineapple,'" Goard said.
Her trademark is an eight-pointed star, which she called her "star of David" in honor of her second husband, David Kakalia, who died in 1995. Another mark she was fond of was the old-fashioned embellishment "wai wai moa," which resembles three-pronged chicken feet.
Kakalia started teaching regular classes at Bishop Museum in 1975 and published "The Art of Hawaiian Quilting" in 1976. She retired in 1972 from Leahi Hospital, where she was a presser in the laundry.
She also taught and held demonstrations in Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Samoa, China, Japan, England and more. She retired shortly after enduring several strokes and heart attacks in April 2000.
Prolific in her work, Kakalia stopped counting when she had completed 3,000 22-inch pillows, and at her own estimate made more than 75 bed quilts, Goard said. "She worked on three, four at a time in different rooms at her house ... two hours in the upstairs bedroom, two hours downstairs in the living room so they'd all be finished at the same time," Goard said. Kakalia's full-size bed quilts could fetch $12,000.
"Her main concern was to continue her style of teaching, which is really simple, no rules," Goard said. "Her famous words were, 'Just sit down, relax and do at least an inch a day, and it will be done.'"
Kakalia was born in Honolulu on Jan. 21, 1915, the 14th of 15 children. She was a member of both Hale Ona Alii and the Kaahumanu Society for nearly 50 years.
Kakalia is survived by seven children, 24 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren. She and her first husband, Edward Ryan, had three children, Deborah "Tufa" Santos; Edward Jr. "Butch" and Patrick. She married Kakalia in 1959 and became stepmother to his children, Maxine Mills, Lucille Rogers, and Gordon and Robert Kakalia.
Viewing will be held at 8 a.m. Thursday at the mauka chapel at Borthwick Mortuary. Services will be at 10:30 a.m., followed by a 1:15 p.m. burial at Hawaiian Memorial Park. Aloha attire is requested.