November 12, 2010

keri-duke

Last month I had the privilege of taking a class in Hawaiian appliqué from Maui resident Keri Duke.

Keri was here for Pacific International Quilt Festival and came a week early to give a workshop for our guild. She’s snorkeling buddies with our program chair Tracey Brookshier so yay for us!

It was a beautiful day and a great location for a workshop. We were making a traditional breadfruit (ulu) appliqué. As Keri told us, this is usually the first pattern made by a quilter because it is supposed to bring fruitfulness and good luck in life.

keri-+-sample

Cutting out the motif, folded in eighths.

Cutting out the motif, folded in eighths.

big-basting

My big basting stitches. I was the first one done basting; some spent the whole morning just basting, using little bitty precise running stitches instead of big honking toenail catchers. Not necessary, gals. Just throw ’em in there.

other-colors

Some of the class members chose other colors for their projects.

other-colors-3

It looks good any which way you do it.

After the entire dark-green leaf motif was basted, we did traditional needle-turn hand appliqué. I’m a fast stitcher (well, you know, it isn’t my first rodeo) and I had my block all done for Show & Tell at quilt guild the next night. This type of Hawaiian appliqué is about the most fun, I think. Once you get it all prepped, you just sit and stitch and stitch to your heart’s content.

uluMy Ulu.

The following week was PIQF.

piqf-crowd

The crowd waiting to get in on Thursday morning.

Once I made it inside the doors, I chatted with Keri in her Keri Designs booth, and I was delighted to learn that she and another quilter had curated a special “Colors of Maui” exhibit for the show!

exhibit-sign

hibiscusThis hibiscus was my favorite entry, and come to find out, it was Keri’s!

hibis-descr

If you’d like to go on a tropical tour of the Colors of Maui, there’s a lovely slideshow posted over at The Quilt Show. Enjoy!

Aloha,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Comments

7 Responses to “A Hawaiian workshop”

  1. Violette on November 13th, 2010 5:10 pm

    I love hawaiian quilting so I know you had a blast in the class. I have never seen the breadfruit pattern with the fruit on it. This is a unique pattern.

  2. Mary Ann on November 14th, 2010 8:42 am

    Natalie sent me…lol. Thanks for the video. I started one many years ago and I may get it out as a winter project. I sure love this pattern though and maybe I need a “do over”

  3. Bonnie on November 14th, 2010 9:56 am

    Thanks for this post, I love it. I was lucky enough to take a class in Hawiaii on Hawaiian applique.

  4. Linda on April 23rd, 2011 6:37 am

    Where can we find this pattern? I have seen breadfruit patterns before but this one is much prettier then the ones I have seen previously.

  5. Kay on April 23rd, 2011 6:53 am

    Hi Linda! Just click on Keri’s name at the beginning of the post and you’ll go to her website. The pattern is in the pillow section.

    Aloha!

  6. Needles for batik appliqué : All About Applique on July 11th, 2011 12:38 pm

    […] at these funky scraps! They’re left over from the Keri Duke […]

  7. Judee on November 18th, 2012 9:46 am

    So great!…going to start this Hawaiian appliqué …and when I was in Kauai, I took the same exact photo of Wailua Falls. Blew it up and framed it and it hung on my walls until a few months ago when we sold our home and moved to a much smaller place. wuld love to go back there permanently. OH, Life is so short.