Batiks by Design

The house is ours!

batiksbydesign — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:59:44 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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

We found a house!

batiksbydesign — Tue, 27 May 2008 03:57:57 +0000

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

Where Did April Go?

batiksbydesign — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:29:39 +0000

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

We’re in Chicago

batiksbydesign — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:25:18 +0000

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

We’re heading to Chicago and the Spring Quilt Festival!

batiksbydesign — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 19:22:12 +0000

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

The daffodils are blooming!

batiksbydesign — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:21:28 +0000

I guess that means that spring is just around the corner. It seemed like it was here on Saturday and Sunday, but not today! We had lots of rain yesterday afternoon and overnight and flurries this afternoon. I’m glad I picked the daffodils that had bloomed since this cold spell would have gotten them. They look so pretty sitting in a vase on the table. Spring is my favorite season. I love it when the trees start to bloom and my perennials peak through the dirt. My favorite color is definitely not yellow, but I love daffodils. Maybe it is because it symbolizes the coming of spring. Or maybe it is because they are so bright and cheery in the otherwise dreary landscape of winter.

Spring also means Quilt Shows for us. We are getting ready for 2 big shows in April. We’ll be at the Spring Quilt Festival in Rosemont, IL from April 10-13th and at Kentucky Oaks Mall during the American Quilter’s Society Show in Paducah, KY from April 21-26th. The mall vendors open early, so if you come to the show, be sure to stop by. We’ll still be finishing our setup on Monday, but we’ll be glad to see you if you stop by – and we’ll even sell you something if you find something you just can’t live without. I’ve been trying to get into the actual show in Paducah, but there is a waiting list a mile long. The mall worked out well for us last year, so we are back there again. Illinois is a new show for us and we are really looking forward to it. I haven’t been to the Chicago area before and that adds to the excitement. I love seeing somewhere new.

I’m really excited. I’m working on a new website and I can’t wait to see what it looks like. I’m in the process of hiring a company to do my site for me and hope I’ve made the right decision. I want a site that is going to really show off my fabrics that I import – the traditional batiks. It will be more than a month until it is ready, but it’s kind of like waiting for Christmas as a child. You know it is coming, but you can’t wait until it gets here! I’ll let you know when it is live!

Peggy, Candy, Gary, and I are going to Tennessee tomorrow to pick up a “fold and roll” machine. We are buying a machine from a textile company that will fold fabric from a tube and then roll it onto a board (the center of a bolt). We plan on “bolting” the fabrics I get from Indonesia. They come rolled on a “board” made from part of a cardboard box. Not real sturdy, especially when you get down to the yards on the bolt. Kind of flimsy, if you ask me. Once we get my stock bolted, I hope to approach some fabric shops to sell it to them at wholesale prices. If you think your favorite shop might be interested, ask them about it and tell them to contact me at info@batiksbydesign.com. I would appreciate your help in getting the word of these unique and gorgeous fabrics out there to the shops.

Gotta go. Time for bed. We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow.

Sleep well.

Patti

It’s done!

batiksbydesign — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:06:54 +0000

Actually, only the top is done,but it has been given to my machine quilter, Shirley Jackson, to quilt. What a great feeling to finish a project AND have it turn out as well as this one did. As I mentione in my last post, I was going to a quilt retreat at a nearby resort last weekend, but guess what? I didn’t go. I came down with a head cold and spent the weekend at home so that I wouldn’t infect anyone else but my own family. They seem to have missed both of my last bouts of illness. Lucky them! I managed to find time in between taking some naps and feeling sorry for myself to do some sewing and not only finished my Bodacious quilt, but started my sister’s quilt. I haven’t had time to sew in so long tha I had forgotten how relaxing and enjoyable it is. BTW, what should I name it?

We’ve had 3 guys come by this week and look at our plans for an outside building and they will be sending us bids – hopefully soon. Two are suggesting concrete block buildings with insulation in the blocks. The other contractor puts up steel buildings using a post and beam frame. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but I guess a lot will depend on how much they cost. All these decisions are stressful! I want the business to grow and I need the room for it to do so, but the investment is big and I guess I want to see into the future and know it’s been a success. I’m a worry-wort, what can I say. Keep me in your prayers and I know God will guide me if I lean on Him.

My other worry is whether or not to go wholesale with my fabrics. I have had several quilt shows show interest, but it’s another BIG investment to get the fabric and have it bolted to sell to shops. What do you think? Do you think it will be of interest to your local shop? Ask them and let me know! Thanks. You can email me at patti@batiksbydesign.com. Or have them email me. I would love to hear from shop owners!

It’s lunchtime, so I think I’ll go and find something to eat. With my food allergies, that is not as easy as it sounds. Hmmmm. I think there is some leftover corned beef or maybe I’ll make a salad.

From the nervous quilt entreprenuer,

Patti

I finally found some time to sew!

batiksbydesign — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:30:15 +0000

I’m sure you find it hard to believe that I have so little time to sew with a home based business that is quilt and sewing related. But it is true. Since business was not my major, I spend a lot of my time pulling my hair out and trying to figure things like accounting and payroll out when I would be doing other things like making quilts. It’s the nature of the business for now. I’m hoping that will change, but I’m not holding my breath. Last Friday I was diagnosed with a throat and ear infection and spent the day sleeping. Now I can just here you saying to yourself – she could have sewn then. Frankly, I just didn’t feel like it! I felt pretty bad. But after a day and a half of sleep, I started to perk up and decided to sew instead of work. And I did. I started a sample quilt from a book we carry called Bodacious Quilts by Colleen Granger. I spied it at Quilt Market in October and was intrigued by the number of designs that could be made using this one block. Peggy Welchert, my assistant and pattern designer, helped me pick out fabrics for several samples last week. We decided to try black and white for this quilt with accent colors of fuschia and purple. I’ve added a picture of the blocks layed out to see how they look. What do you think? I used a mix of traditional batik designs and Bali batiks. I plan on only making a wallhanging size because we have so little room in our quilt booth at shows to display all of our quilts.

On Thursday – yes, on Valentine’s Day – I am going on a quilt retreat to Kentucky Dam Village which is not far from where I live, but it gives us a chance to sew and sew and sew! There are 21 members of our guild going for the weekend. I can’t wait! I haven’t been on a retreat in years. We are renting 3 cabins with 7 of us in each cabin. I plan on making a quilt called Five of Diamonds while I’m there – another one of our patterns. I think this quilt has a lot of potential with our fabrics and I hope it will turn out as great as I hope it will. I’ll fill you in on the retreat – and the quilt – when I get back.

This afternoon, Peggy and I are taking a break from the business to make baby quilts. She’s coming over around lunch time and we’ll sew all afternoon! Yeah, another chance to sew!! We both need baby quilts for special people who are adding to their families in April. In my case, I am making this quilt for people who have been very special in my daughter’s life. They’ve been her teachers, both at school and at church, and Academic Team coaches. They have also helped Kristen to believe in herself, which is so important in a young girls life. They are wonderful role models for her and I hope they’ll continue to be a part of her life even after she moves on to high school.

Gotta go. I need to workout and do a few other things before Peggy arrives. Yeah, I need to read more on doing payroll. The IRS has too many rules and regulations, and then you add the State rules on top of that!

Bye for now. I hope you get some time to sew too!!

Patti Oakley

Batiks by Design

www.batiksbydesign.com

Over the weekend . . .

batiksbydesign — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:44:54 +0000

Since I opened my store, my husband and I have been talking about taking down our barn (it’s really old and too far gone to restore) and putting up a building that would house my “store” and his workshop. That was well over a year ago. We have “sold” it on eBay twice and most of it is still standing. Yes, we sold the wood from the barn on eBay. The buyers cam and took whatever wood they wanted from the barn. There’s really old oak beams still left in there and we hope to salvage them when we take it the rest of the way down. It’s actually sturdier than you would think. We had some trees logged from our property and several hit the barn on the way down. The barn shuddered, but is still standing – and that was AFTER 2 people had taken wood out of it. They don’t build things like they used to.

So, my business is in my basement, which is finished and is supposed to be our family room. Little by little though, I’m taking it over! I started with 1/3 of the basement and now I’m in 2/3rds of it as of this past weekend. I keep running out of space to put things and store my fabrics. My Indonesian buyer has 90 bolts that she’ll be sending to me within the next week. So . . . I went to Lowe’s and bought two 6′ x 6′ x 24″ heavy duty metal shelves. My daughter-in-law, Candy, came over and we put them together and rearranged most of my stuff. I can’t believe how open it actually feels down here. I don’t know why! We actually have the same amount of stuff that we started with, but it is organized differently. I’m still not sure where the 90 bolts are going to go. I have room for some of them . . . as long as the grandkids (above) will stay off of them!

I must have gotten through to my husband though about the barn, because he finally went out there and took the pump out of it so that we can finish tearing it down. Yeah!

I cut out one quilt yesterday, it’s a blue and yellow quilt I promised my sister years ago! By the time I get it done, she may change her mind. I’ve also cut out a table runner and a wallhanging for quilt show samples and to put in the online store and gallery. As I sew them I’ll put some pictures on here so you can see my progress. I’m not going to tell you yet which patterns I’m using. Two are from my online store and the other one is one that I’ve just ordered for the store. See if you can figure it out!

Back to doing my filing. Fun. Not.

Patti

Batiks by Design

www.batiksbydesign.com

It Snowed This Morning

batiksbydesign — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:32:26 +0000

We woke up to snow – about 1/4 of an inch. And they cancelled school so my 13 year old daughter is at home. Not that I mind her being here, I love having her around, but it’s supposed to get up to 40 degrees today and the roads are already clear. I don’t get it! Tonight we are supposed to get some freezing rain and more snow – more than 1/4 of an inch. My guess is that they won’t have school again tomorrow. I grew up in the northeast and we might have had an hour delay this morning, but we would have had school. I guess they feel it is better to play it safe.

I felt like a pioneer woman the other day. I was cooking dinner around 6 pm as a cold front was coming through the area. Winds had picked up to about 35-45 mph, but the rain had stopped. It had been 60 degrees that day and was forcasted to get down to 19 that night. The lights flickered and I thought, oh no, let me finish cooking before you go completely out. The flickering happened a few more times before they totally went out at around 6:15. I had just put the chicken into the pan to stir fry it to add to the zucchini tomato mixture that I had already cooked. Now what was I going to do? I thought about finishing it on the gas grill, but the wind was way too strong. I lit candles and placed them in strategic places around the house, hoping all the time that the lights would come back on. That didn’t happen. After 30 minutes, I put the food back in the frig and tried to figure out what we could eat and not need electricity. I also didn’t want to spend time rooting around in the frig in case it was out for a long time. My daughter, Kristen, decided to have cereal, Gary, my husband, had ice cream, and I had a protein bar and potato chips. Great dinner! Kristen spent some time on her laptop (she thanked God for her battery), Gary and I talked for a while (not something we get to do every day), then I worked on my laptop for a while before shutting it down to read by flashlight. I then remembered my Mighty Bright lite and clipped it to the headboard as I read my novel. We all went to bed early after realizing there wasn’t much to do without electricity. Ours came back on around 10 pm, but I heard from others that they were out most of the night. I woke up the next morning to find lights on throughout the house and the TV blaring from downstairs. Oops! I know now why the pioneers rose with the sun and went to bed shortly after it went down.

Since opening Batiks by Design, I’ve pretty much been a one woman business, hiring either my daughter-in-law or my friend Peggy to work before shows to help me get ready. Peggy has also done the quilt shows with me. I finally have gotten to the point where I just couldn’t keep up with everything on my own, so now Peggy is a part-time member of my team. Yeah! Peggy and I have known each other for about 10 years and she used to own a quilt shop in town. We are not only good friends, but we work together very well. I thank God for placing Peggy in my life and my business.

At Quilt Market in October we ordered some new Bali fabrics from Hoffman, Timeless Treasures, and Island Batiks. Many of them have arrived in the last week or so and I have finally gotten them online. You can look at all of the new Balis in the NEW category of our online store.

Keep those lights on and get a Mighty Bright light in case of emergencies!

Patti