By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

The quilting bee has come a long way in Our Honolulu from the image of little old ladies in a circle stitching for the church bazaar. Glamour is an important new element. Also social and political clout. Some of the ladies quilting today can buy the church.

I discovered last week that quilting is no longer done around a frame in the church basement. The heavy work takes place at some of the top addresses in town.

The "bee" in quilting now happens when the ladies gather at the Kilauea District Park recreation center, at Kilauea and 21st avenues between Kahala and Kaimuki. Everybody takes a few stitches and then they go to lunch. These topics were discussed over Chinese food:

1. The basketball game at Stan Sheriff Center.

2. A flu epidemic at Punahou School.

3. The Sony Open.

4. The next gambling expedition to Las Vegas. I won't tell you who lost how much.

Oddly enough, the quality of quilting seems to have risen to this new approach. Matsuko Sugi from Japan is an example. She spends 20 days a month in Honolulu and 10 in Japan, much of it quilting.

For her new crazy quilt, sewn in silk, she paid $1,000 for fabric alone.

It's the kind of crazy quilt that Leonardo da Vinci might make if he was born today; the design done free hand, embroidered together, not sewn. A masterpiece.

The most improbable group at the recreation center was organized by Caroline Luke, wife of banker Warren Luke. She said her quilting career began while she was driving her kids to soccer and music lessons after school. She'd wait in the car stitching a pillow.

Luke has done some spectacular quilts that she carries around in plastic holders the size of Tiger Woods' golf bag. Five years ago, she started collecting other quilters. You'd never guess who:

Pat Saiki, former U.S. representative for Hawai'i. She said she had some time after she lost the governor's race in 1994. Her Hawaiian Lili'uokalani quilt is a knockout. One of her quilts is made of 20 different patterns sewn separately. "Nobody believes I can sit still and keep my mouth shut long enough to make these," she admitted.

Guru of the gang is Mary Wo of the C.S. Wo dynasty. She has sewn a quilt for her daughter and daughter-in-law. "If I live long enough, I'll make one for each of my grandchildren," she said.

Marti Steel, wife of the construction tycoon, has been quilting for about a year, an hour at home every morning. Steel and Saiki are in awe of Caroline Luke. "She's ambidextrous and doesn't even use a thimble," they said.

Nery Heenan, wife of the Campbell Estate trustee, popped in late as usual. She has dropped out of the class and back in more times than anybody can count.

Then there's Lydia McCoy who has been working on the same pillow for five years.