Fun in the Mail!

I guess you could say I’m “Tying One On!”  In a batik way, of course!

My friend Scott Hansen of Blue Nickel Studios has a new fabric line out, Tie One On by Banyan Batiks and he asked me if I wanted to play with some scraps.

Catch Scott’s story behind his fabric line on his website HERE.

Did he even NEED to ask?!  What a silly question!

The small squishy envelope arrived yesterday – as I was handing off tubs and tubs of outgoing Quilter’s Date Keeper and Quilty Pencil Set packages to my postal person, she handed me this envelope and I ran inside with much anticipation.

I LOVE batik fabrics – since returning from Bali a few years back after learning the painstaking artistry that goes into each and every one of a kind piece, I’ll never look at a batik without examining the pattern, and going through the process in my head – for instance:

(After ironing, I couldn’t want to dig in!)

The black piece with the red design at the far right?

The fabric was first died red.  And then the wax stamping happened – by hand.  And then the fabric is over-dyed black, and then boiled to remove the wax over the design area, so the red is now visible.

But see that pink with the grey at the far left?  Cutting triangle pairs for my Jewel Box Stars Leader & Ender quilt:

This one, that I am pairing with gifted sloths from my friend Jamie?

The fabric was first dyed a mottled gray.  And then wax stamped by hand.  And then the gray from around the waxed design was bleached away, so the fabric could then be over-dyed with the pink you see as background.  and THEN – the fabric was boiled to remove the wax and hung to dry as the print you see before you.

Batiking is an incredible process, and even more-so when you see a dark design on a lighter background because of the process of removing color, to dye again to change the color of the background.

It’s one thing to screen print a fabric by computer driven machines.  It’s completely another to hand dye, and hand wax stamp, and boil away……and I think of all of the hands involved that “had a hand” in making these beautiful fabrics.

What am I cutting from these?

More triangle sets for this year’s Jewel Box Stars Leader & Ender Challenge!

What’s not to like about a Tie One On Batik paired with Grumpy Cat?!

I finished the Printer-Friendly PDF copy and you can print it HERE.

Thank you for understanding the many hours involved in just getting this project ready to go live, and the extra time it takes to make and edit and upload and link a PDF file so that you have a printer-friendly version.  

I needed to spend yesterday getting as many orders out as I could until it was time to leave for Virginia, and writing the PDF yesterday would take away from people getting their orders in a timely manner – and yet – I didn’t want to delay on yesterday’s post presenting our new challenge to you, so I have kind of worked this in split shifts.

All cut and ready to Leader & Ender!

Yesterday – wow.  It was a race to see where I would hit a dead end first – How many orders could be made ready before post office closing time at 4:30pm?

Would the next shipment of printer postage labels arrive via FedEx before I ran out of the roll that was in the printer?

Where would I be stopped in my tracks?

I ran out of printer labels at 2:30pm.  No FedEx.  (and they sometimes come up to 7pm) So I stopped right there, crammed everything in the van that needed to go – and dropped the remaining orders that were filled after postal pick-up at the post office and headed west to the mountains.

It was 96 degrees as I left Winston Salem.  By the time I reached Jefferson, NC it was 83.  A 13 degree drop in temperature! YES!

By the time I arrived in Virginia, a bit higher in elevation – temps were into the 70s.  DOUBLE YES.

This girl was happy to see me!

Look at that tail!

(Okay, so Jason was teasing her with a treat…)

Family 4th Ahead!

Jason is moving to Portland, Oregon.  He’s been planning it for sometime, and now is the right time.  Oregon born, he says he is returning to his roots.  I say  -- he is going clear to the other coast and I am going to miss him tremendously.  But kids do what kids gotta do and he needs to follow his own bliss.

This also means that I may be fostering his 2 cats until he gets settled in a place that is pet friendly.  Because that’s what family does for family.

Click to play:

A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Jul 3, 2018 at 3:12am PDT

65 degrees this morning at 6am’s bird chorus of awakening!

My friend Lisa will be up here this afternoon – I’m excited to have her meet me at Quiltville Inn and give her the grand tour.  

We have plans to sew, talk, laugh, eat, relax for the next few days.

Also today - the Window Man is coming to start measuring and giving estimates on replacing the Quiltville Post Office windows.

Our 4th of July evening will be spent in Boomer, NC in the company of Rick & Mona for a steak cook out – PERFECT!

I’ll be headed back home on Friday – where new labels and padded mailers will be waiting for me to pick up where I left off yesterday afternoon.

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

Things to consider this Independence Day holiday ahead. Thank you, Abraham Lincoln!

Isn't this quilt interesting? It was shared with me by Kevin H @photokevin74 And we are trying to figure out the history behind the pattern.

Early 1900s?

Have a great Tuesday, my friends!