The Life of Fabric at Kona Bay Fabrics

Have you ever wondered how that beautiful Asian fabric from Kona Bay you see in your favorite quilt shop got there?

The first step involves transforming idea into art. Several times a year, I board a flight to Japan to meet with our artists. The visits are two-fold—to review art created as a result of previous visits and to discuss ideas for future designs. I’ve devoted thousands of hours over the years to researching Japanese culture, traditions and art with a goal creating traditional fabric designs for your quilting projects.

The process for printing fabric is similar to printing on paper. Two methods are used—roller and screen printing. The majority of the Kona Bay fabrics you’ve come to love use the screen printing process. This allows us to produce the intricate designs and moiré shading that accent your quilting projects so well. A separate printing screen is created for each individual color and the popular gold metallic accents.

The printed fabric is shipped to the Kona Bay warehouse on 120 yard rolls. At the Kona Bay warehouse, the fabric masters use special folding machines to turn the rolls into the 15 yard bolds that are shipped to your local quilt shop.

The last part of the process is my favorite—seeing Kona Bay fabric transformed into projects just like yours! We love seeing your projects and sharing them with the readers of our magazine, Asian Fabric. Send an email to PublishingPeople@mac.com for instructions on submitting your project. If your project is included in the What I Did With My Kona Bay section, we’ll send you three yards of fabric for free!