I recently had a chance to travel to Hawaii with my husband. While he attended some meetings in Honolulu, I located some quilting stores and went in search of fabric. The first store I went to was Kaimuki Dry Goods.
This store has a HUGE selection of fabrics – many cottons great for quilting, including batiks. The prices were fairly high.
3 or 4 blocks away was another store that I liked a lot: The Calico Cat.
I wish I had gone here first because they had some of the same Japanese fabrics for a lot less money. This was a smaller store and the woman who runs it was delightful.
A few days later some friends at home recommended a store closer to my hotel which I had to check out called The Fabric Mart.
It has a HUGE selection of Hawaiian prints and really good prices. They had rolls and rolls of fabric.
It was kind of overwhelming to me. They also had Hawaiian quilts for sale.
After spending some time in Honolulu, we traveled to Maui. I was able to go to the Maui Quilt Shop there.
This was another shop that was on the small side but full of fun fabrics and 2 delightful sales women. They offer 2 hour classes on Hawaiian quilting (needle turn appliqué). They have precut kits for this and also sashiko supplies. I bought this fun pincushion there.
Here are some pix of the fabric I bought at these stores. I cannot wait to start sewing with them. Maybe some bags for Christmas? Or framed coin purses? Or pillows?
This Japanese fabric (and some of the others that I bought) have all these different prints incorporated in them which would look like intricate patchwork if you stitched around them. That is why I call it “cheater” fabric.
I had a wonderful trip to Hawaii but it is a LONG, LONG way from Washington DC. It will be a pleasure to sew with these fabrics and remember my trip there.
I love the fabrics you bought and can’t wait to hear about your trip. Let’s get together soon!
Wonderful selection of fabrics! It sounds like a glorious trip. Thank you for including me in your gallery of quilts in the NeedleChasers Show post. You did an outstanding job!
You really found some fun fabrics! I never thought about quilting shops in Hawaii but you did great! Have fun!