Aunt Margie loved anything involving "handiwork". As a child, she was always fascinated by her great grandmother's (Linda "Chilson" Simms) quilting work. In later years, she picked up embroidery, needlepoint and counted cross-stitch, but her first love was quilting.
Sometime in the 1970s, while visiting Hawaii, she encountered Hawaiian quilting at the Bishop Museum. Aunt Margie was immediately addicted!
The process of Hawaiian quilting is complex. It begins with cutting a piece of fabric in a design - much like many of us learned to cut "snowflakes" from folded paper. Some of the designs she created, from a single piece of fabric, were so complex that they seemed impossible!
Once the design is cut, it is then appliqued, by hand, to the background. And only then does the traditional quilting process, all hand needlework, begin. The quilting of Hawaiian patterns follows the lines of the pattern, rather than the simpler form of the rectangular pattern of traditional American quilts.
It seems that, almost single-handedly, Margie Kerr preserved this art that was dying. She learned at the knee of Deborah Kakalea, a renowned Hawaiian native, creator of many Hawaiian quilts, and advisor to the Bishop Museum. Margie went on to teach this art to younger quilters, who carry on the work to this day.
Aunt Margie was multi-dimensional. During WWII, she enlisted in the Coast Guard, serving as Storekeeper, which included payroll duties. She left the Coast Guard with a best friend in Vermont. She often talked about how she learned to pack a suitcase - by "rolling" the clothes rather than "folding" them - it preserved creases in trousers and eliminated wrinkles in everything else. A wise woman, indeed!
Aunt Margie was almost a "second" mother to me as a child. Any "handwork" that interested her was picked up by her sister Katie (my mother). These two sisters were almost inseparable - born 18 months apart, they might as well have been twins! They died within a few weeks of each other.
Sometime in the 1970s, while visiting Hawaii, she encountered Hawaiian quilting at the Bishop Museum. Aunt Margie was immediately addicted!
The process of Hawaiian quilting is complex. It begins with cutting a piece of fabric in a design - much like many of us learned to cut "snowflakes" from folded paper. Some of the designs she created, from a single piece of fabric, were so complex that they seemed impossible!
Once the design is cut, it is then appliqued, by hand, to the background. And only then does the traditional quilting process, all hand needlework, begin. The quilting of Hawaiian patterns follows the lines of the pattern, rather than the simpler form of the rectangular pattern of traditional American quilts.
It seems that, almost single-handedly, Margie Kerr preserved this art that was dying. She learned at the knee of Deborah Kakalea, a renowned Hawaiian native, creator of many Hawaiian quilts, and advisor to the Bishop Museum. Margie went on to teach this art to younger quilters, who carry on the work to this day.
Aunt Margie was multi-dimensional. During WWII, she enlisted in the Coast Guard, serving as Storekeeper, which included payroll duties. She left the Coast Guard with a best friend in Vermont. She often talked about how she learned to pack a suitcase - by "rolling" the clothes rather than "folding" them - it preserved creases in trousers and eliminated wrinkles in everything else. A wise woman, indeed!
Aunt Margie was almost a "second" mother to me as a child. Any "handwork" that interested her was picked up by her sister Katie (my mother). These two sisters were almost inseparable - born 18 months apart, they might as well have been twins! They died within a few weeks of each other.
Aunt Margie loved anything involving "handiwork". As a child, she was always fascinated by her great grandmother's (Linda "Chilson" Simms) quilting work. In later years, she picked up embroidery, needlepoint and counted cross-stitch, but her first love was quilting.
Sometime in the 1970s, while visiting Hawaii, she encountered Hawaiian quilting at the Bishop Museum. Aunt Margie was immediately addicted!
The process of Hawaiian quilting is complex. It begins with cutting a piece of fabric in a design - much like many of us learned to cut "snowflakes" from folded paper. Some of the designs she created, from a single piece of fabric, were so complex that they seemed impossible!
Once the design is cut, it is then appliqued, by hand, to the background. And only then does the traditional quilting process, all hand needlework, begin. The quilting of Hawaiian patterns follows the lines of the pattern, rather than the simpler form of the rectangular pattern of traditional American quilts.
It seems that, almost single-handedly, Margie Kerr preserved this art that was dying. She learned at the knee of Deborah Kakalea, a renowned Hawaiian native, creator of many Hawaiian quilts, and advisor to the Bishop Museum. Margie went on to teach this art to younger quilters, who carry on the work to this day.
Aunt Margie was multi-dimensional. During WWII, she enlisted in the Coast Guard, serving as Storekeeper, which included payroll duties. She left the Coast Guard with a best friend in Vermont. She often talked about how she learned to pack a suitcase - by "rolling" the clothes rather than "folding" them - it preserved creases in trousers and eliminated wrinkles in everything else. A wise woman, indeed!
Aunt Margie was almost a "second" mother to me as a child. Any "handwork" that interested her was picked up by her sister Katie (my mother). These two sisters were almost inseparable - born 18 months apart, they might as well have been twins! They died within a few weeks of each other.
Sometime in the 1970s, while visiting Hawaii, she encountered Hawaiian quilting at the Bishop Museum. Aunt Margie was immediately addicted!
The process of Hawaiian quilting is complex. It begins with cutting a piece of fabric in a design - much like many of us learned to cut "snowflakes" from folded paper. Some of the designs she created, from a single piece of fabric, were so complex that they seemed impossible!
Once the design is cut, it is then appliqued, by hand, to the background. And only then does the traditional quilting process, all hand needlework, begin. The quilting of Hawaiian patterns follows the lines of the pattern, rather than the simpler form of the rectangular pattern of traditional American quilts.
It seems that, almost single-handedly, Margie Kerr preserved this art that was dying. She learned at the knee of Deborah Kakalea, a renowned Hawaiian native, creator of many Hawaiian quilts, and advisor to the Bishop Museum. Margie went on to teach this art to younger quilters, who carry on the work to this day.
Aunt Margie was multi-dimensional. During WWII, she enlisted in the Coast Guard, serving as Storekeeper, which included payroll duties. She left the Coast Guard with a best friend in Vermont. She often talked about how she learned to pack a suitcase - by "rolling" the clothes rather than "folding" them - it preserved creases in trousers and eliminated wrinkles in everything else. A wise woman, indeed!
Aunt Margie was almost a "second" mother to me as a child. Any "handwork" that interested her was picked up by her sister Katie (my mother). These two sisters were almost inseparable - born 18 months apart, they might as well have been twins! They died within a few weeks of each other.
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