ParishPursuits will be an occasional feature in the Hawaii Catholic Herald about unique activities taking place in our island parish communities. Does your parish do something out of the ordinary? Cooking classes? Yoga? Fly fishing excursions? E-mail aweaver@rcchawaii.org to let us know and be considered for a future story.

By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald

St. Jude Parish in Kapolei has a group that has their hands full … with needles, thread, fabric and quilting patterns.

The St. Jude Quilt Group started in 2003 with longtime quilter Genara Buza Campos and 11 other members.

“It was for fellowship, for people who were interested in doing something creative with their hands,” said Buza Campos, the group’s coordinator.

The group started with a specific commission from then-pastor Father James Orsini to make a Hawaiian breadfruit, or ulu, wall hanging for the church. Quilt group member Eulalia “Nena” Chang remembers that project as her favorite because “we just poured ourselves into it.”

Today 10 quilters meet twice a month and always have several projects going on. The group has made machine sewn blankets and donated them to a shelter for abused children and they are working on more for the elderly, sick and homebound.

They raised $1,200 toward the “Memorial of the Unborn” statue in front of St. Jude Church by auctioning off a nine-block quilt. A “corporal works of mercy” quilt made by group members has been used in catechism classes.

The Quilt Group’s current project is a wall hanging for Lent that will incorporate purple Lenten colors with a passion fruit design, which Buza Campos says connects with the passion of Christ.

Buza Campos said that most of the members had never quilted before joining the group. For some of the women, it is “learning a different cultural tradition.”

Jan Merryman is one of the quilt group members with previous experience, having quilted for 40 to 45 years.

“We have a fine group of women,” she said. Merryman enjoys the fellowship of the group but particularly likes the projects that aid the needy because members are “giving to the community.”

For Chang, it’s nice to know that “every quilt that we make, each person in the group has had their hands on it.”