Beauty, One Stitch At A Time

By Kristin Hashimoto

Celebration of Quilts flyer

Stitch by careful stitch, a laborious affair of repetitive movement and singular vision, coalesce into art. Quilt work is labor and time intensive. The results of such painstaking attention to detail and determined efforts are beautiful and enduring. On May 14, the Bailey House Museum in Wailuku will showcase new and antique quilts from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Some of the quilts are on loan from private collections. Nicole McMullen, curator of the antique quilt exhibit said, “The oldest [quilt] is probably the Kahili & Comb pattern, made in 1870 for Mrs. Thomas Porter of Honolulu; it was given to the Maui Historical Society by Virginia Wirtz in 1976.” The other quilts in the museum have Hawaiian and other themes.

There will be quilting demonstrations by the Maui Quilt Guild, and a silent auction for a sea life quilt created by Joan Davis of Kula. McMullen said that Davis’s quilt is simply “fabulous.”

Museum trustee, Melissa Kirkendall, formulated this exhibit last year, and it was so well received, that this year, they’re doing it again. Kirkendall is part of the Maui Quilt Guild, and has tapped her friends for the new quilts on display outside of the Bailey House. They will also be providing the day’s demonstrations on quilting techniques and Hawaiian quilting.

Kahili Quilt, image courtesy of The Bailey House Museum

For more information, call 244-3326, or visit www.mauimuseum.org.