Quilt Pattern

Date1920-1929

Maker Agnes Kahoe (ca. 1891-?)

MediumPaper and graphite

DimensionsOW: 38 1/2"

Credit LineGift of Lisa Noelani Tam-Hoy Robbins

Object number2012.609.7,1

DescriptionThis is a cut paper pattern for a Hawaiian-style quilt. The design is in the "Bird of Paradise" pattern, intended to be cut through folded fabric to form a symmetrical design by repeating eight of the paper motifs. Small crescent-shapes are cut into the paper near the tip or center of the design. Labelled in pencil with the words "Emily [?] H/ Bird Paradaise [or Paradaiso]."
Label TextThis paper pattern was designed by Agnes Kahoe (b. ca. 1891), a Hawaiian quilter who worked in the 1920s. The pattern is one-eighth of a design for the center of a quilt. The quilt maker folded a large textile intended for the design into eighths, traced the paper pattern onto the folded textile, and then cut through all of the layers of the textile. When unfolded, the textile was ready to be appliquéd to the ground fabric of the quilt top. The paper pattern is inscribed in pencil “Bird Paradais[o or i],” suggesting that the maker knew the design by the name of the flowering plant called bird-of-paradise. Agnes Kahoe was a traditional Hawaiian quilt maker who taught her daughter, Rose, to quilt.
Inscribed"Emily [?] H/ Bird Paradaise [or Paradaiso]"
Provenance1920-1929, Anges Kahoe (b. 1891] (Kaupo, Maui); by descent to her daughter, Rose Lokelani Lum Tam-Hoy [1923-2011] (Honolulu, Hawaii); by descent to her son and daughter-in-law, Harold Man Fong Tam-Hoy and Arlene Cora DeSilva Tam-Hoy; by descent to their daughter, Lisa Noelani Tam-Hoy Robbins (Newport News, Virginia); 2012-present, given to Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.