Batiks By Design

Just a quick note to let you know that we have started a SALE category where we are clearing out some of our fabrics, patterns, and kits.   We appreciate your business and we hope to bring in more great fabrics, patterns, and kits once we clear some of this out and make some room.

Also, we are leaving for the AQS Nashville Quilt Show tomorrow and hope that if you are there that you’ll stop by and say hello!  We love meeting all of you face to face.  That’s the one thing we miss with only an online shop.  We’ll be in Harrisburg, PA for their Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza from September 4th through 7th as well.  We are getting close to my stomping grounds there and I hope to see some friends in the crowds.  I grew up NE of Philly and will stop to see my parents before heading home to Kentucky.

Wish I had more time to write, but I have a few orders to get out and some packing to do.  Wish us luck. 

Patti

Roxanne’s Star

Designed by Roxanne Ferguson for Batiks by Design

As featured in Cotton Spice’s Blog as part of their Summer Workshop 

Block size: 6” finished
Fabric and Cutting Requirements:
• Colored Scrappy Fabrics:
o Cut 8 - 6 ½” x 2” pieces from various scraps
o Cut 4 – 3 ½” x 3 ½” squares from scraps, mark diagonal line
• Neutral Colored Fabrics:
o Cut 8 - 6 ½” x 2” pieces from various scraps
o Cut 4 – 3 ½” x 3 ½” squares from scraps, mark diagonal line
Please read all directions before starting.
1. Take 2 colored scraps (6.5” x 2.0” pieces) and sew together with a ¼” seam.
Repeat 3 more times with remaining scraps.
2. Repeat above with neutral scraps.
3. Take a 3 ½” neutral square and place it on top of the colored strips. Place so
that the diagonal line goes from the upper left to lower right. See diagram
below.

4. Sew on diagonal line. Trim to ¼”. Press.
5. Repeat 3 times.
6. Take a 3 ½” color square and place it on top of the neutral strips. Place so
that the diagonal line goes from the upper left to lower right.
7. Sew on diagonal line. Trim to ¼”. Press.
8. Repeat 3 times.
9. Press.
6.5 inches
10. Sew a dark and light rectangle together with triangles at opposite ends as
shown.

11. Sew 4 blocks together, turning them to make either a neutral star or colored
star (as shown).

Sample of quilt -

Batiks by Design is participating in the Summer Workshop presented by Cotton Spice on their blog.  It is from July 21st though August 3rd and Batiks by Design will be sharing a pattern designed by Roxanne Ferguson on July 29th.  Check out their blog for many unique patterns for several different crafts.  So far, there are some wonderful ideas!  Keep your fingers crossed that we get ours done on time.  We think you’ll love it!

Patti

Yes, we found the perfect house, or so we thought.  Guess what?  We can’t get high-speed Internet service and we are going to have to sell it.  No, I couldn’t believe it either.  This house is 7.5 miles from a small city with a state university.  Isn’t this 2008?  We can’t even get DSL through the phone company.  After almost 2 weeks of searching and many phone calls, we have found out that we can get dial-up or 2 way satellite.  Dial-up was definitely out.  We researched 2 way satellite and even the company in Murray that sells the systems told me that for running an online business, it wasn’t fast enough on the uplink and on secure sites.  We’ve put 6 weeks of work into the house - painting, putting in new light fixtures, taking off wallpaper, getting new countertops for the kitchen, etc.  We would researched this earlier, but the information on the house said that cable tv was available.  Next time we’ll check first - if there is a next time.

I’ve been providing kits for a mystery quilt by Kimberly Einmo in The American Quilter magazine from AQS.  The mystery has been revealed and the quilt is beautiful.  Kimberly creates such wonderful designs.  Check out her site at http://www.kimberlyeinmo.com/.  Kimberly’s Hokey Pokey pattern has sold well on our site and features our blue and white traditional batiks!

We’ve added a couple of new patterns.  Check out Calypso, a pattern that we think will look fantastic in Bali batiks!  We also added Borealis which is gorgeous with the black background and bright Bali fabrics, but would also be fantastic with a white background and our blue and white traditionals.  Both of these patterns are from Mountaintop Quilting Studio.  Time to Dine just caught my eye and said make me from traditional batik fabrics!  What do you think?  This beautiful table runner is 18 inches wide and almost 5 foot long!  What a great accent to a long table!.

Ah, I finally got the graphic to insert.  Had to kind of go in through the back door, but it seems to have worked!! 

All the best,

Patti

Shirley made this wonderful bag!  It’s the Diva Essential Designer Bag, which converts to a backpack when you find that you need both hands.  The bag has a center zipper right) and velcro holds it together when it is a purse.    There’s lots of room inside and two large outside pockets.have escaped and fixed them, but I think he’ll still be able to get through the 4 inch squares in the fence. 

Janis from Michigan made Kings Corner (below) for us, a Stone Cottage Quilts pattern.  I really like the way it turned out.  Thanks Janis!  I was going to make this a blue and yellow only quilt, but I love the addition of the other colors (thanks to my friend Roxanne).  She has an eye for what really works. Quilts pattern.  I really love the way it turned out.

I have several other samples started and hope to get them finished and on our website in the near future.  We get such positive feedback from our samples when we attend shows.  I hope having them on the website is almost as good as seeing them in person.

Happy Summer!

Patti

Batiks by Design

www.batiksbydesign.com

866.447.9211 

We closed on the house and we are now the proud owners of 2 houses!  Yes, our other house has not sold yet.  Anyone looking for a terrific house on 5 acres just north of Murray, KY?  Didn’t think so.  I’m sure that God has a plan for all of this.  We’ve been working daily since we closed on the “new” house to paint it and get some things done.  We won’t move in until we finish doing some updating.  As much as I would like to do it all, some of it will have to wait until the other house sells.  So far, we’ve order the new countertops for the kitchen, bought an over the range microwave, ordered more wood to add to what we have to do the dining room and living room floors, and are working on painting the bedrooms and Kristen’s bathroom.  The family room and living room/dining room are next. 

I will have the whole lower floor of the house for my business (it’s a tri-level).  I guess you could call it the basement.  The room that the pool table is in now will house my fabrics.  It is about as large as where I currently have my business, but my desk is in that space.  The downstairs bedroom will be my office and I’ll have my desk, filing cabinet, and office supplies in there.  I’ll put a picture in my blog when I finally get it all setup.

We’ve been taking our dogs with us when we know we are going to the house for the day.  The yard is fenced in and they love to run and be off the run.  Well, yesterday Joey, our dachsund managed to wiggle his way through the fence and took off after a rabbit.  We called and looked for him to what seemed like hours before he showed up back at the house.  We were so glad to see him, we forgot to punish him.  Guess we’ll have to do something about the fencing.  We did find ways that he could have escaped and fixed them, but I think he’ll still be able to get through the 4 inch squares in the fence. 

Our new website is up and runnning.  If you don’t access it with a pre-saved link from your Favorites, try deleting your cookies and accessing it again.  We still have the other site up as well, as we continue to transfer data.  Once that is done, it will no longer exist.  I think the old site was a great site to start my business with, but the new site offers so much more.  Make sure you try the design board!  It’s awesome!!

Happy Sewing!

Patti

Batiks by Design

www.batiksbydesign.com

In the past, we’ve always looked for a house for a day or two and found exactly what we wanted.  Not this time.  We had been looking for a couple months now, put in a few offers that didn’t work out for one reason or another, and finally found a house that caught both of our imaginations.  It is bigger than we were actually looking for, but I think it will be for the best since my DH is a pack rat and won’t get rid of anything.  It is on 6 acres and has a beautiful fish pond and an old log cabin barn on the property.  It also has an outbuilding that will work for us for a while.  The house is a split level and the kitchen hasn’t been updated since it was built, but that’s half the fun!  I think for now I’ll just paint the cabinets and get new hardware, but we definitely need new counter tops. 

I’ll be putting most of my business on the lower level, which right now has a bedroom, full bath, a bar, and a large room with a pool table.  The pool table will be moved to our new “rec room” in the finished attic and I’ll use the bedroom for my office and the “bonus room” for my fabrics that I need access to.  My fold and roll machine will go in the outbuilding and so will my excess fabrics.  I think it is a very workable solution until we outgrow the area again, but then we have a great place for another outbuilding for the future.

We’ve been trying to get our current house ready to put on the market, which meant getting rid of a lot of the clutter.  We rented a storage unit and have been moving things into it, painting the garage door and trim, and burning the barn little by little.  It’s about half gone.  We keep advertising the free wood and tin, but everyone comes once, takes a few boards and realizes how much work it is to take the thing apart.  The old oak is like rocks and the nails don’t want to move.  So . . . as much as we hate to burn it, we are. 

We pulled out a few of the bushes around the house that died during the draught last summer and I’ve replaced some of them.  I need to get some mulch around them.  I also need to put something in front of the basement window in the front that will provide shade in the summer and sun in the winter.  I’m thinking of dwarf crepe myrtles.  What do you think?  I love the flowers in the summer!

I’ve also been trying to get the new fabrics we received before the Chicago and Paducah shows online and I’m getting there very slowly.  99% of the traditional batiks are on there, most of the Bali fabrics are not.  Maybe I’ll get some time to work on it and finish it this week. 

My new website is also almost ready to go online, so if you think you are at the wrong site the next time you visit, it will probably be the new one.  It will take a week or so for me to transfer all of the new stuff to the new site (maybe that’s why I’m not really motivated to get them on my current site!) and make sure all is working right.  If you find a problem, let us know.  My email is patti@batiksbydesign.com. 

I’m working on finding more of the tablecloth that I used for Moon Glow (to the right) since a lot of quilters have mentioned their interest in haveing the same one.  Ani is having a hard time finding the same thing, but says she has found others that are very pretty.  As highly as I regard Ani, sometimes she doesn’t realize what I need due to the language barrier.  I hope what she has found will work, but I asked her to try looking again, because I know you want THAT particular tablecloth because it works so well in Moon Glow.

To those of you that have served in the military in the past or present, please accept my thank you for what you have done for our country and our freedoms.  Having lived in several other countries, I don’t take my freedom for granted.  Many people live without it every day.

Keep my business and our move in your prayers.

Patti Oakley

Batiks by Design

www.batiksbydesign.com

Last time I remember, it was the beginning of April and we were in Chicago.  Now it is May.  What happened?  When they told me when I was younger that time flies the older you get, I didn’t believe them.  I do now!!

The International Quilt Festival in Chicago was a great show and we thank all of you that stopped by to see our fabrics or to just chat for a while.  I can’t think of another business with so many friendly people in it.  We returned home without incident and had less than a week to get ready for Paducah.  Guess what, we didn’t even unpack the trailer!  Any orders we had meant going out there and sorting through the fabrics, but it was a lot easier than unloading and loading it up again. 

Paducah was awesome.  This year we were at the KY Oaks Mall again and we thank all of you that came all the way out there to see us.  We hope to get into the actual show next year.  The hours at the mall were too long - 10 am until 9 pm!  Ugh!!  Fortunately, I was able to borrow my stepson’s motor home and park it right out in the Mall parking lot.  All I had to do was walk out of the Mall and into bed!  There were nights when that was all I wanted was a bed to sleep in.  We met so many new people who had lots of positive comments about our fabrics and samples.  Thank you for being there.  It makes it all worth while.

During all of this, we’ve been looking for another house.  See, we planned on tearing down the barn in our backyard (it was old and starting to fall down on its own) and building a building for my store.  Well, I got to thinking, what if we could buy a house WITH a building with it for about what we could sell our house for.  The first one we found would have been perfect, but the owner hasn’t finished the inside (studs only) and wanted an enormous amount for the shell of a house and outbuilding.  No thanks.  We’re still waiting to hear on another house that has 3 outbuildings on 2.5 acres (we like acres!).  It is in the being foreclosed on by the bank and we are now dealing with the bank and they seem to work SO SLOW.  I really like the house, which has a wonderful sun room!  Can’t store the fabrics in there, but it will be wonderful to relax in.  Keep your fingers crossed and pray that if this is meant to be it will happen. 

Moving you said?  Yes, that means getting rid of the clutter and also getting ready to show the house.  Not fun.  We’ve rented a storage building and have started to move stuff there, but I need my stuff for my business thank you, and that has to be where I can get to it, even if it means moving it back downstairs, then out of the house later on.  We also had new carpet put in the area where my shop is and everything was in a state of chaos when I arrived home.  I still haven’t found everything!  I finally borrowed a stapler from upstairs!  The carpet is nice though.  A great improvement over what was here.  Why is it that you beg for new carpet and the DH finally agrees when we decide to sell the house?  Hmmmmmm.

We have new Bali fabrics AND traditional batiks that we will be putting online in the next few days.  I’ve ordered lots more of the tablecloth I used in Moon Glow and hope to have those in about 6 weeks.  At both shows, everyone wanted THAT tablecloth!  It did turn out beautiful, if I may say so myself.

Happy Spring!

Patti

Batiks by Design

www.batiksbydesign.com

866-447-9211

Just a quick post to tell you about all the fun we’ve had getting to Chicago and getting setup for the show.  Let me start before the show.  The truck that I’ve been using to take my stuff to shows is 13 years old, and although it is in great shape, it really didn’t like pulling my trailer, so my husband found a used Ford 250 Diesel with a full cab to purchase right before I left.  It’s a BIG truck and it pulls the trailer like there is nothing there.  The guy who sold it to us told us that the “water in fuel” light kept coming on, but we could just push this button to make it go away.  Well, about half way here, the engine light came on and stayed on.  We stopped and purchase some fuel additive for diesel and added it and the light is still on, but we get the message less and less.  I really haven’t had time to find a Ford dealership and find out about the light.  Towards the end of the day on Monday when we had arrived in the outskirts of Chicago, the ABS light came on and the brakes made weird noises.  At the time we were looking for a hotel and since we weren’t on an interstate road, we were having trouble.  After looking it up in the book, it seemed that the ABS part of the brakes weren’t working, but the brakes should still work.  Ok.  I also noticed when we stopped for the night that the tailpipe was hanging down.  The next morning I tried to fix it (it had slipped out of the rubber thing that holds it up) but I couldn’t believe how heavy it was and had no luck.  We stopped at the first exhaust and muffler place we could find and the very nice gentlemen there fixed it for me and didn’t charge me!  There are some wonderful people in this world!!  Thank you Midas somewhere in Chicago!!

Well, silly me, we arrived a day early.  I thought we would stay just outside of Chicago for the night and then go unload, well, my dates were off.  We ended up parking the trailer and taking a drive north to Wisconsin.  I hadn’t been there and since it was raining, a drive seemed like the best thing to do.  We went as far as Kenosha and saw Lake Michigan.  With the rain it wasn’t a pretty day, but we enjoyed our ride.

We unloaded yesterday.  I’m so glad I didn’t have to back that monster truck up to do it!  We lucked out.  We finish setting up today and open tonight.  I had better get busy.  Wish us luck!

Patti

Batiks by Design

www.batiksbydesign.com

Chicago, Chicago!  I hope we can get everything ready to go to Chicago.  Time seemed to be flying by faster than we were getting stuff done.  Shortly after Chicago we’ll be in Paducah, so we are essentially getting ready for 2 shows at once!  Thank God for good friends who are pitching in to help us get done what we need to do to make sure we bring the best that we have to those of you that will be visiting us in either place.  If you come to Chicago, we are in booth 1241 and love to meet new visitors and chat with some friends we met in the past year.  Batiks by Design has grown so much since we did our first quilt show in April of last year during the AQS Paducah Show.  I’m still amazed and I have all of you to thank.

On top of everything, a quilt kit that I’m providing for a mystery quilt by Kimberly Einmo published in The American Quilter has been in high demand and we’ve had to order more fabrics and will be putting together kits this week and getting them in the mail.  The fabrics are all Bali’s and are beautiful!  If you haven’t seen any of Kimberly’s quilts, you should check out her site at www.kimberlyeinmo.com .  She does some fantastic designs and is a wonderful teacher if you ever get a chance to take a class with her.  You can purchase the kit by calling me or on the Internet at www.batiksbydesign.com  once we get them back in our online store. 

My husband is in the process of getting our income tax records ready to go to the accountant.  As he does every year, he procrastinated until the last minute and is now rushing to get it finished.  In other years, I’ve been able to help, but so much of my time is taken up with my business that I have to focus on it and my family and let him struggle through it by himself this time.  He’s unemployed at the moment, so he has time on his hands!  He’s hoping to go to Nepal on a short term project in the near future and will be working on a USAID project to evaluate school systems in other countries as well as a consultant.  He loves working overseas in other countries and meeting and learning about the people.  With the business and Kristen, I’m not ready to go back anytime soon, although I’ve enjoyed our time spent in several countries.  Our daughter is getting ready to go to high school next year and we’ve been busy reading the high school handbook and picking electives.  Some days I can’t believe she will be in 9th grade next year.

Another shipment of traditional batik designs has arrived and will be showcased in Chicago and Paducah before going online.  There are some gorgeous new designs that you will just love!  The fabrics is sent my ocean freight and arrives in Los Angeles, where it has been pre-cleared through customs, and once it is unloaded, it is placed on a transfer truck as a partial load and makes its way to Paducah to the freight terminal where we pick it up.  Would you believe it costs more to get it from Los Angeles to Paducah than it does to ship it from Jakarta to LA?  We picked it up on Friday night and Saturday morning, Kristen and I unloaded it.  My business is located in the finished basement of our house, so we used our new wooden cart to get them from the trailer to the garage, then put the bolts into shopping carts, brought them into the house, and threw the bolts down the stairs.  My husband then piled them up where he could find room, which was hard to find since I keep taking over more and more of our basement!  I should have taken a picture of the pile of bolts at the bottom of the stairs!   

We will be spending a lot of time this week getting the new items ready to take with us by cutting FQs, pre-cut yards, and rolling the fabric onto smaller bolts.  When I receive the fabric, it is rolled onto a piece of cardboard literally cut from a box.  There is anywhere from 32 to 60 yards of fabric rolled onto that poor little piece of used cardboard.  Recently, I’ve purchase a “fold and roll” machine to take the fabrics and put them on a cardboard “board” or “reel” that we are used to seeing fabrics on.  Candy and I worked for several hours on Friday to practice using the machine and we still don’t quite have the hang of it yet.  We had a few good laughs as the fabric “walked” off the board as we rolled it and had to start over again.  It’s really meant for taking fabric off a roll and folding it before it gets rolled.  Well, our stuff is already folded and so we aren’t using it exactly the way it should be used.  In the future, I hope to be able to order the fabric on rolls to make this whole process easier.

Last week, my friend Shirley and I made Moon Glow using a batik tablecloth as the center.  She took it home to quilt and I should have it this coming week.  She also made Carousel for me and is quilting it too.  I think you’ll love the samples we’ve made and I hope to show them to you in my next blog.  Cary Flanagan, the designer of both of these, made a sample of Rule of Thirds for us and we should be getting it this week.  I can’t wait to see it.

 It’s raining again.  After the drought of last summer we’ve had record amounts of rain this winter - and now we are starting spring the same way.  I love spring, with the flowers blooming and the new leaves on the trees, it is a time of renewal for me.  I hope that you will feel this too as spring comes to you as well.

Happy Quilting,

Patti

Batiks by Design

www.batiksbydesign.com

patti@batiksbydesign.com