First, the Hawaiian women were already well skilled in making bedding and everyday clothing from tapa, a felted "fabric" from the fibers of a native plant. The tapa was beaten rather than cut to the proper size for bedding and "wrap-around" garments. The early whaling and trading ships brought the skills of sewing and the basic woven fabrics to the Hawaiians. They, in turn, created later garments similar to the present day muumuu. These were cut using the whole piece of fabric. There were no scraps left for the patchwork quilts of the style taught by the American missionaries upon their arrival in the early 18001s. As the cutting up of a large piece of fabric into little pieces, to then sew back together again, was illogical to the Hawaiian women, they soon created their own style of cutting their appliqué, all at once, from a whole piece of fabric.

Second, the "snowflake" art of paper cutting taught by the missionaries probably inspired the cutting method of the appliquéd designs the Hawaiian women used on their quilts. While they may have never related to the term "snowflake", the designs that resulted from the paper cutting resembled those used in the dye stamped designs on their tapa. They quickly adopted the method, first folding their design into eighths (or quarters) and then cutting the entire appliqué at one time, ensuring a balanced, symmetrical design.

The folding method could have also been inspired by examples of appliqué blocks in quilts the missionaries brought with them to Hawaii. Too, many of the early designs found on Hawaiian tapa closely resembled the present day Hawaiian quilt appliqué design.

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