Two Hawaii quilters have had their work selected as semifinalists in the American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show and Contest in Paducah, Ky., considered one of the most prestigious quilting events in the country.
Margaret Teruya, a retired teacher from Kaneohe, and Ric Stark of Hana, Maui, will travel to Paducah for the 28th annual show, which will be held April 25-28. One of four shows held by the American Quilter’s Society every year, the Paducah show is considered the most competitive, attracting more than 1,300 submissions every year and held in the same city as the National Quilt Museum.
The Hawaii quilters will be among 376 semifinalists competing for cash awards totaling $120,000.
A self-taught quilter, Teruya’s unconventional methods used in her pineapple quilt may have caught the eye of quilt-show organizers.
"I just make a sketch, and then I begin just playing with a lot of fabric," she said. "Many quilters quilt by using a pattern that they’ve read. But I was a public school teacher (mostly at Castle High School) for 30 years, and I decided I wanted to quilt when I retired, and the last thing in the world I ever wanted to do was follow the rules and read instructions."
Teruya said she knew how to sew before taking up quilting, but has taken no formal instruction in the fabric art. She now belongs to a quilters group that produces items for charity and shows.
Her pineapple quilt took about two months to make, but she already had the pattern worked out because she had made previous quilts using the same design. She said she was "amazed" to have the 4-foot-square quilt selected for the show.
"I’m not a competitive person, and I didn’t set out to enter contests," she said. "I just said, ‘This is something that is going to be fun to do.’
"My quilt is not technically advanced. I would fall down in a faint if I won anything. The prize for me is the fact that it was accepted to hang in the show."
Stark, on the other hand, studied quilting with three teachers, one of whom mentioned the Paducah show during class and inspired him to set his sights on the top prize of $20,000. He started learning quilting 14 years ago from a Hilo "auntie" who taught him traditional Hawaiian quilting techniques.
"I’d been trying to self-teach myself and got so frustrated," said Stark, whose background in fabric includes sewing, knitting, crocheting, weaving and macrame, as well as co-owning the clothing company Hawaiian Heritage by Allan James.
He entered his fifth completed quilt for the Paducah show. Titled "He Pua Kalaunu o Liliu" ("The Crown Flower of Liliu"), it measures almost 9 by 9 feet and is made of cotton dyed in a batik pattern by Kathy Lukens of Waimea on Hawaii island.
Intending the quilt as a tribute to Queen Liliuokalani, Stark incorporated symbols of the Hawaiian monarchy into his design: kahili (feather standard), peahi (fan) and kalaunu (crown), and the buds and flowers of pua kalaunu (crown flower), which Stark learned was the queen’s favorite flower.
The quilt took three years to make, "working on it every day," he said.
Stark said the standard for modern Hawaiian quilting is six stitches to an inch, but he was taught 10 to 12 stitches an inch, which "makes the pattern really pop out."
The technique astounded his later teachers, Stark said. "One of them turned it over, looked at it and said, ‘Where did you learn to quilt like this?’" he said. "She went on and said, ‘No one quilts like this anymore. This was lost in the rush during the ’70s renaissance of Hawaiian quilting.’"
