Aloha Adventures

On my latest trip to Hawaii I visited some fantastic fabric stores. Nothing on the islands is very shiny and new but, once you walk through the doors it's always a surprise.

Up in the ranch land town of Waimea is a little shop called Topstitch.

Topstitch has been in business 28 years but, the current owner has only had it for one year. It is very much a quilt store and if you have any interest in Hawaiian style quilting this is the place to shop.

The owner Liz is super nice and there are lots of kits to buy but, I need a new project like a hole in my head!

On the Kuhio Highway in Kapaa Hawaii there is an inconspicuous storefront that says Vicky's Fabrics. Inside is a wonderland of fabulous fabrics.

This store has such a great vibe and it's probably because it is family owned and run for the past 29 years. You can really feel the love for fabrics and creating with fabrics.

I couldn't resist the Oriental theme redwork on the sale rack for $3 a yard and the batik fabric is designed in Hawaii by Trans Pacific Textiles although it is printed in Indonesia.

Vicky's is an island treasure and an excellent reason to go back to Hawaii :)

After quite a search we finally found Discount Fabric Warehouse in an industrial area and it was worth the hunt.

There are four stores total spread around the islands and I don't know if they are all as large as the one I visited in Kona, Hawaii but, the Kona store is HUGE. The selection of Hawaiian prints was mind boggling and there were some unique fibers also.

Stores this large are a little overwhelming, almost like visiting a museum but, here you can actually take a little bit home with you :)

After looking and looking and looking at the HUGE selection of fabrics I finally decided on a green Hawaiian looking border print because the color was a nice solid green and I always love a great border print. I'm thinking about using the fabric for a blouse and orienting the border print vertically. A student used a border print vertically and I loved the result.

Not all my fabric adventures were successful.

At the very small town of Honokaa on the big island of Hawaii I spied a sewing store named Nene's Sewing Corner and although it was the middle of the day, the middle of the week, no one was home :(

Guess that's living on island time.