Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 6, 1 June 1990 — Quilt exhibit opens June 9 [ARTICLE]

Quilt exhibit opens June 9

Hawaiian quilts by Hannah Baker and her students are featured in the llth annual quilt exhibition at the Mission Houses Museum, Saturday, June 9 - Sunday, July 22. Master Hawaiian quilter Hannah Kuumililani Cummings Baker (1906-1981) was a prolific quilter and a tireless teacher. Baker is wide!y acknowledged as one of the people most responsible for the current revival of Hawaiian quilting. Hannah Baker began teaching Hawaiian quilting in the early 1930s in the Papakolea Community Hall and went on to teach widely in the islands of the Department of Public Instruction and at Palama Settlement, the YWCA, and the Honolulu Academy of Arts. She moved to the mainland U.S. during World War II, and taught in California and Hawai'i too, teaching Hawaiian quilting to more than 2,000 people. Unlike many quilters who zealously guarded their patterns, Hannah Baker widely shared patterns to promote Hawaiian quilting. She created

many of the patterns seen in her quilts, but others were handed down from the mother and greatgrandmother or collected from other quilters. Baker was a woman of many accomplishments. In addition to bearing and rearing seven children, she was a strong advocate of education. Unable to complete high school in her early years, she returned to school as an adult and graduated from high school and junior college. During the war, she worked as an electrician's assistant. Until her final illness, Baker pursued her lifelong goal of reviving the neh tradition of Hawaiian kapa (quilt) making. Her legacy is the renaissance of Hawaiian quilting we enjoy today. Admission to the exhibition is included in the museum entrance fee of $3.50 for adult and $1 for youths (6-15). The museum is open Tuesday - Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Call 531-0481 for additional information.

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