Kona Bay Fabrics back from Quilt Market

Kona Bay Fabrics staff has returned from the recent Quilt Market (wholesale trade show) in Houston and it was so nice to see our customers, sales team and friends!!

We showed many of our new fabrics and we were very pleased with the response from our customers!!

Our VP, Kristina Nakashima, was thrilled she got to meet Ty Pennington as many say that Ty and I look a lot alike....(yeah right!!!)

One of the highlights of our Quilt Market show was showcasing the actual fabric from the SHADOWLAND COLLECTION which was done in conjunction with super star Jason Yenter from In the Beginning Fabrics.

We hope those in attendance had  a great time and we thank you so much for visiting our booth.

Soon, many of the new fabrics shown to our quilt shop customers at Quilt Market will be in your local quilt shop and we know you are going to love them!!


Mahalo from Da Textile Samurai

How Kona Bay Fabrics got started

People often wonder how Kona Bay Fabrics (http://www.konabay.com) came to be. It’s an interesting story (I’m biased—but it really is!). So grab your coffee and I’ll tell you the story.

My career managing political campaigns brought me to Hawaii in 1974 right after college.  

After doing the political jumps through hoops and doing my part to elect good people to political office,  I decided business was my next arena.  Kona coffee was a hot commodity, so I started Kona Bay Coffee Estates. I had made the transition to business owner and I loved it.

Textiles were a recurring topic during Japan trips I was making on behalf of the coffee business. I knew little about textiles. In 1991, that changed.

An invitation from a Japanese trading company I was regularly doing business with to attend a textile trade show on the west coast sounded like a fun outing to the mainland. Trading companies are brokers who deal in many different products. This company wanted to investigate textiles in the US.

I was astounded. At food trade shows people sample your coffee and take their thoughts back home with them. At the textile show, people were lined up waiting to place their order. Hmmm, I was balancing the options in my mind—A business where you get an instant order or one where you wait for orders. You can guess where the scale tipped. The trading company offered to provide me with bolts of fabric—cotton sateen’s with oriental designs so I could test the waters.

That fall I bought a booth at the annual quilt market show in Houston. People like Mary Ellen Hopkins, a famous quilter we all love, saw my tiny booth and our gorgeous fabrics and dragged hundreds of quilters to my booth to see our designs. My Asian fabric business took hold. I felt like I had been swimming in this pool all my life and the water felt wonderful. Kona Bay Fabrics was born.

Many people have played a key role in helping to shape Kona Bay what it is today and one of them was my good friend and mentor, the late Irwin Bear, President of P&B Textiles.

Now, 22 wonderful years later, I am just as enthusiastic and excited as ever. I am still fascinated by the artistic talent and appreciate the dedication that quilters show for their craft.

I have made many life long friends as a result of Kona Bay Fabrics and I’m grateful to be a part of the quilting and fabric community.


Kona Bay Fabrics is only 22 years old and I look forward to the next 22 years with the same enthusiasm. 

Kona Bay Fabrics' Shadowland Collection Released

Kona Bay Fabrics is proud to announce that quilt shops have now received  one of Kona Bay's most popular and gorgeous fabric collections this year -- SHADOWLAND COLLECTION.

Kona Bay's SHADOWLAND COLLECTION is a very pretty fabric group combining the special printing technique from Kona Bay and  distinctive designs by In the Beginning's very own Jason Yenter.

There are thrity-three wonderful fabric selections in SHADOWLAND  that covers the color spectrum with much beauty and elegance.

For the first time ever, Kona Bay Fabrics has published a companion book featuring six beautiful quilts by our very own Georgie Gerl, an award winning quilter from Spokane, WA.

Please visit your local quilt shop today and see what the SHADOWLAND excitement is all about!!

Kona Bay Fabrics ready for Quilt Market

Kona Bay Fabrics staff is working very hard to get ready for the upcoming Quilt Market show in Houston this week.

Those attending Quilt Market are invited to come by our booth at 1336 and see all our fabric collections and treat yourself to a chocolate macadamia nut from Hawaii which has been our official booth candy since we started in 1991.

This wholesale show is where Kona Bay Fabrics gets together with its loyal quilt shop customers and dedicated sales reps  to show out latest beautiful fabric collections and we hope to please one and all with our new collections.

Three of the gorgeous collections being shown this year are:

Hanko  (Japanese stamp)  Collection:

These Japanese stamp motif fabrics come in five wonderful colors and can be used for any of your quilt projects.

Kasa (Umbrella) Collection:

Kona Bay Fabrics gorgeous Kasa Collection features six beautiful colors and they are absolutely stunning!!

Flutter Friends:

Kona Bay Fabrics has been producing wonderful Asian fabrics since 1991 and one of our most famous motifs has always been our dragonflies.  This Flutter Friends group keeps with that time honored tradition.


All three of these fabric collections will be available at your local quilt shop in December and we hope you love them as much as we do!!

You can always visit our Kona Bay Fabrics website and see all the colors in these three groups along with the many other fabric collections.