I have a treasure! The Calico Quilter from It's the Cat's House, I just live here sent me a package of batiks! She was having a giveaway on her blog and was generously offering three prizes, a book on Baby Quilts, a mini-Jacob's Ladder quilt and 5 fat quarters of batiks! All three prizes were lovely but I really loved the batiks! Batiks are not popular yet in Japan and so I don't think I've ever seen any being sold, at least not in the fabric stores around me. I really want to make a batik and hand-dyed quilt someday and I've had ideas in my head for ages (quilting ideas are like that) but first I needed to collect some batiks, soooo...A couple of California summers ago my sister-in-law conned my brother into driving us to a few quilt shops. Marcy (SIL) does not quilt but she was willing to wander the quilt shops with me. Of course my brother has even less interest in fabric but dear brother gave up his day off and chauffeured us up and down the freeways of Southern California with Google maps in hand. We hit 5 quilt stores that day and while I drooled and hyperventilated, Marcy made suggestions, and my brother stood by the shop doors or sat on the car fender and smoked cigarettes.
With all this family support, I really couldn't go into my normal shopping mode which is to look a long time, ponder prices, color combinations, and project plans, decide that it is all too confusing, put everything back in the racks and leave the store empty handed. This drives everyone crazy and with my brother sacrificing his time and gasoline I decided on the outset of the day that at every one of the quilt shops I would buy three fat quarters of batiks (for the someday quilt). Oh what a wonderful day!!! After 5 quilt shops I came home riding on a cloud and had a wonderful selections of batiks.
I've used some of my summer batiks for a Wonky quilt for Leiya, and I gave a few away to some Japanese friends who fell in love with them. My batik stash has been somewhat depleted but now with the Calico Quilter's beautiful assortment my mind is starting to get into gear again. I just love the colors and the leaf patterns on these!
Thank you Calico Quilter!
7 comments:
Tanya I have an abundance of batik scraps. Send me your snailmail address and I'll ship some off to you!
Lurking Linda
I love Batiks, too ;>) The color variations are incredible and they melt so well with each other. The wonder is you can have so many tones variations in just one piece! Also : no right or wrong side, and it doesn't fray easily (purrrrrfect for applique).
One regret, however : it's NOT so easy to handquilt :>( but we can't have everything, do we ? ;>)
I'm curious to see the project you'll choose, as I'm willing to use mine in a special quilt, too...
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO
NADINE
your idea of purchasing a specific amount in each store sounds like a great plan! It'll be wonderful to see this "some day quilt" someday :-)
I know how you feel about the shopping business. I love the look, feel and smell of quilt shops, yet find it near to impossible to make a choice and often leave empty handed, unless I've got a short and specific list to stick to.
Congratulations on your win. Batiks are certainly luscious. I wasn't sure what to do with batiks, but I do admire them. I bought some jelly rolls at the last quilt show and am slowly adding some my quilts. I really enjoy using them.
I am so happy that you liked them! My local quilt store has quite a good selection, and I have been dipping just a toe in the water choosing batiks lately - I never used them before. I have a planned batik quilt too, but other projects seem to keep getting in the way.....
I love batiks, too. I might have a chance to see your beautiful works with batiks in the near furture.
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