Most fabric manufacturers produce their own range of so-called solids now, so why choose Kona Cottons and why are they amazing? And what’s this talk about a Kona Club? Keep reading! In this post:
- Kona Is Ancient
- Kona Is Invested In
- Kona Is Affordable
- Kona Is At The Heart Of Modern Quilting
- Kona Is Readily Available In Europe
- Kona Club In Practice
Kona Is Ancient
Well, not ancient perhaps, but seeing as Robert Kaufman Fabrics have manufactured Kona Cotton since 1984, this growing collection of solids, or one-coloured fabrics without any patterns, is older than many millennial quilters.
It’s been around a long time, which indicates it will “keep being around” for years to come and also it exists in many experienced quilters’ stashes by now. The choice to continue building upon what exists seems natural.
Kona Is Invested In
Robert Kaufman Fabrics keeps producing colour cards with real fabric swatches whenever there are colour additions to the existing range.
The current amount is 365 colours and all fabrics manufactured today fulfill the Öko-Tex requirements regarding lack of harmful substances in the material.
Their latest thing is pooling resources with popular designers to create wall calendars (2020, 2021) with new quilt designs featuring the current colour of the year.
In 2020, this has been the green Enchanted and right now we are waiting for the 2021 colour to be announced.
Kona even has its own Instagram account: Kona Cotton! Check out hashtags like #konacotton, #konacottons and #konacottonsolids for an idea of all the stunning possibilities.
Kona Is Affordable
Solids are less expensive to produce than prints. If combined with prints, they press the price down nicely, and if used as whole contribution to a quilt, its final price is around 25 % lower compared to the prints-only counterpart.
Many of us are budget conscious at the moment, so why not take the fabulous solids for a test spin if they are a new acquaintance? Having 365 colours at your disposal can’t limit your work in a negative way after all.
Compared to some other collections of solids, Kona are more affordable still. This was definitely part of our decision to pick Kona over alternatives.
Quilting isn’t a cheap hobby for sure, but Kona allows you to practice beautifully at premium quality for a smaller investment. While it’s nearly impossible to ruin fabric (you can usually repurpose it), for beginners it can feel reassuring to “ruin less”. The same goes for more advanced quilters testing new techniques.
We at Sentti & Tuuma don’t shy away from discussions on realism such as this one.
Kona Is At The Heart Of Modern Quilting
Lately we’re seeing sellers of quilting fabrics creating fat-quarter bundles consisting of random mixes of prints and solids. Aesthetically, a quilt of prints only creates a vibrant but also demanding visual experience at times. But add a few solids and this tones things down a bit.
Or go all solids and achieve a two-dimensionally flat yet potentially very crisp look, where lines and curves have the opportunity to contrast sharply against their neighbouring patches.
Calling quilts, which are made of solids only, fresh and modern is well deserved. Established more traditional patterns get makeovers simply by using these solids in fun and vibrant combinations.
Kona Is Readily Available In Europe
Since our location is the high north of Europe, we also needed to consider what will ship fast when it runs out (because we want all 365 colours on our shelves eventually!): Kona will.
Especially now in the pandemic nobody knows when logistics processes will be back at normal speeds, so the shorter the final delivery distance the better.
Kona Club In Practice
We want you to join our Kona Club starting in early 2021!
Sign up for a monthly subscription of eight (8) fat quarters or half-metre cuts delivered to your doorstep (post office more likely). And cancel your membership when you want, no questions asked. We just need a heads up a month in advance.
Colours are the rainbow scale to begin with: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue and violet. Later we move on to neutrals and greyscale.
- Colour palettes will be planned to coordinate internally, so no pastel mixed with dusty colour in any given month. Instead expect a palette of strong colours only, pastels only, etc.
- There are two possible examples in our blog-post image with the upper two rows forming a pastel palette and the lower ones representing bright intensity.
- Check out Kona “color stories” on the manufacturer website for other ideas of what to expect: 1930’s Palette, Autumn, Spring, Summer and Winter.
Our price per metre of Kona Cotton is 12 €, so the fabrics themselves cost 24 € when going for fat quarters, or 48 € when picking the half-metre option.
- Shipping is 3 € within the European Union to begin with and eventually we’ll have to adjust by raising them slightly.
- Rest assured we’ll keep it as low as possible, with no dramatic increase to be expected.
- Shipping within Europe is regrettably close to our normal cost: 22 €.
- As the Kona Club is a subscription-based membership, no other items can be added to the orders, but the same package will be shipped out to everyone.
We’ll do our best to get our hands on the globally coveted colour cards and promise our members a small discount if choosing to order one. They are extremely helpful, because swatches on a screen go only so far.
As mentioned above, our vision is to stock all 365 Kona Cottons in the future and this club would help speed up the process significantly. Once a bolt runs out we restock, meaning this range of solids would be available at all times, alternatively arriving shortly.
For the club to be financially stable we need at least 20 members signing up for the fat-quarter bundle. Because of this we hope you’ll get back to us as soon as possible through our Contact page. Please ask any questions you still have either in the comments below or via email, we’re here to help and delight you!
And now the burning question is: fat quarters or half-metres? Remember you can always wait for the newest box, investigate the pretties and order more by the metre of your favourites only. Kona Cotton is here to stay!
Vastaa