Traveling quilt exhibit honors national parks

During March, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will display 13 colorful art quilts created to celebrate the National Park Service centennial anniversary.

The park quilts will be on exhibit in the Volcano House’s Great Room, just off the lobby, starting Friday through March 27, Easter Sunday. The public is invited to view the quilts at any time during those dates before they are shipped to the Statue of Liberty National Monument in New York. There is no charge to view the quilt show, but park entrance fees apply.

The quilts were created by Fiber Works, a group of textile artists from Nebraska’s Lincoln-Omaha area. Inspired by the centennial of the National Park Service, the quilt artists selected 13 national parks, including Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which also turns 100 this year, as inspiration for a traveling collection.

Dorothy Heidemann- Nelson, a retired chemist and lifelong quilter, created the vibrant quilt that represents Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, incorporating traditional Hawaiian kapa (bark cloth) created by kapa maker Joni Mae Makuakane-Jarrell, who also serves as the park’s chief of interpretation. Heidemann-Nelson used the gift of kapa to represent the volcanic birth of Hawaii, and the culture of the islands.

The lava on the left side of the quilt is a tough construction-industry material called Tyvek that she painted with acrylic art paint, then heat shrunk. The fern fronds depicted on the right side represent new life. The park will receive the imaginative quilt as a gift after the traveling exhibit ends in December.

“I love doing both science and art, so you can see why choosing to do something for Hawaii worked out to be a great fit for me,” Heidemann-Nelson said. “I chose it because I thought it would be easy and colorful to make a quilt with a volcano on it, but the completed quilt evolved because of what I learned about the park and Hawaiian volcanoes.”