I want to share the unique Hawaiian quilting history. It just inspired me to try doing Hawaiian quilting though I don't have the time to do it but I might try to include it as one of my hobbies.

"......A Brief History of Hawaiian Quilting. Before the first contact with the white man (haole), the Hawaiians were making a type of Quilt called a Kapa, which was made of fabric pounded from the bark of the Wauke (paper bark or mulberry) tree. On the top layer they would print geometric and snowflake type designs, with a thicker layer in the middle and a smooth bottom layer or lining. They were sewn with fibers gathered from nature and needles fashioned from shells or the rib of the palm frond. In the early 1800’s the missionaries brought woven fabrics and steel needles and taught the Hawaiian people how to make patchwork quilts, which consisted of a top layer of the sewn geometric pieces, a fluffy middle layer of batting and a bottom or
lining. The missionary women had scraps of fabric from sewing on the long sea voyages, but the Hawaiians had none, so it didn’t really make sense to the them to cut up the bolts of fabric into little pieces and sew them back together. In addition, they taught the Hawaiian keiki’s (children) how to cut snowflake patterns from folded paper. The Hawaiians found this method of
folding a more efficient way to create the designs that they were already printing on their bark cloth Kapas.
While having one of their "sewing bees" in the shade of the Breadfruit tree, the shadow cast by the tree inspired the Hawaiians to create the first "Hawaiian Quilt" by cutting out the design seen in the shadow, from one large piece of fabric. The Hawaiians blended the traditions of their past with these new lessons to develop the unique style of cutting the design from a single piece of fabric. The pattern was then appliqued onto another fabric to create the quilt top. The quilting was stitched "echo style" --following the contour of the design throughout the quilt, like ripples on the water which surrounded the islands. The Hawaiians found inspiration for their designs in the beautiful garden islands where they lived. This wonderful art is truly a labor of love with over 1000 hours to make a full size quilt.
"Breadfruit ** The Beginning"
From Quilt