Once you’ve seen your first Hawai‘ian quilt, you’ll want to buy them all! The distinctive fabric art uses appliqués—usually symmetrical—in bold colors, often depicting botanical designs on a white background. Many experts consider it the marriage of missionary handicrafts with the indigenous kapa (mulberry-bark cloths with geometric patterns). Opened in 1973, Kapaia Stitchery on Kauai remains the largest and longest-operating retailer of batiks, quilting supplies, and Hawai‘ian-print fabric on Kauai. It also sells finished masterpieces, for those who don’t sew, as well as aloha shirts, wall hangings, locally designed visors, and animal-shaped pot holders. One especially charming gift: little stuffed-animal chickens with simple pyramid bodies of flowered fabric and cloth faces, beaks, and combs.
