Island Batik - a Fresh Breath of Bali!

We recently had an exciting opportunity to visit the Island Batik Distribution Center. We love batiks & sell a lot of colorful batiks in our shop, so we were really looking forward to seeing how these lovelies come to us from so far away.

This incredible piece greeted us as we walked into the Distribution Center Office. 

It's a much smaller operation than I'd imagined, especially since they have so many gorgeous fabrics to choose from. We were greeted by Caleb Willis, the President/CEO, Maureen, one of my favorite salespeople, & this beautiful sparkly quilt, by P.J. Anderson.

Kristen & Katie were busy as bees, keeping the office humming smoothly.

The Indonesian artists in Bali create the vivid colors & designs for which Island Batiks are known. Batik is a way of life for the Indonesian people, practiced for centuries.

The colors don't show up as vividly as I'd hoped in my photographs, because everything is already wrapped in plastic to protect the fabric. It arrives in plastic from Indonesia. Caleb shared with us his vision of providing more opportunities to the locals in the small village in Bali where his manufacturing facility is located. 

This provides that consistent, quality product we are inspired by & love to create with.

Local artists transform the white base cloth into the spectacular designs and colors for which Island Batik is known. All of the fabric dyeing is done in Island Batik's own manufacturing facility in Bali. Men and women of the community perform the management of the plant, as well as all of the production processes. Men perform the stamping of wax onto the fabric, dyeing, washing and drying. The fabric is left out in the rice fields, where good sunlight is essential to ensure strong color and color fastness. The women are in charge of quality assurance, folding, bolting and packaging of the cloth. I have to say, they do a darn good job!

The batik fabric is rolled by hand onto cardboard bolts, which are manufactured by families in the surrounding district on the island. Island Batik produces 100% recyclable bolt boards utilizing local island raw materials. I think that's awesome!

These bolts are stacked & ready to be boxed. 

We Mermaids are picky about how our fabric is rolled onto the boards, & we're very unhappy when our bolt boards are wimpy, bendy or loose. These are some of the best!
Kudos to the villagers in Bali.

These boxes are ready to ship all over the world - we even noticed some familiar quilt shop names. We thought we might just offer to deliver them on the way home ... but our car was already packed with our own new batiks!

This is my BEFORE shopping cart. ;)

 

Many thanks to everyone at Island Batik for such a wonderful morning. You all do an amazing job. We enjoyed seeing your facility, learning about the batik process,  & ... 

PICKING OUT NEW BATIKS!

We'll be back. ;)

Hoffman of California

So we had the opportunity to visit Hoffman of California's headquarters last week. 

That was quite an experience!

Hoffman has been making gorgeous batiks & tropical prints, as well as cotton prints for quilting & clothing for 88 years.

You can read about the company's history here:

http://www.hoffmanfabrics.com/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=68

The warehouse has a gazillion surfboards hanging up high on every wall,

because the Hoffman family is filled with surfing legends. You can read about their 

surfing legacies here:

http://www.surfingwalkoffame.com/culture/Hoffman.html

http://www.surfersjournal.com/journal_entry/phillip-flippy-hoffman-1930-2010

We saw pallets stacked high with beautiful bolts ready to ship, & rolls ready to be wrapped on bolts.

 

 

 I loved watching these guys turn the rolls of luscious fabric into bolts ready for our shop!

These ladies were busily cutting & stapling the samples together.

They have a cutter just like (sort of) like our paper cutter at school to cut & pink the pieces before attaching them to a cardboard header.

The offices are even decorated with quilts & surfboards.

What a beautiful office to work in!

Each year, Hoffman creates a specific fabric line for their Hoffman Challenge, celebrating its 25th Anniversary. The Challenge started with 94 enthusiastic quilters, and now the number of entries has grown to more than 700.

Categories include pieced, appliqué and mixed technique, clothing (wearable art), accessories, 

and dolls - something for everyone! 

The top entries are grouped into traveling collections and visit quilt and fiber shows, seminars, quilt shops and quilt- and doll-makers guilds nationwide and in Canada.

Read more about the Challenge rules here:

http://www.hoffmanchallenge.com/

And of course, you can order your Challenge fabric, Anisa, from Calico Mermaid!

http://calicomermaid.enstore.com/browse/challenge,hoffman/1?menu=challenge,hoffman

Thank you, Hoffman Family, for your hospitality & so many years of beautiful fabric!

New fabric!

Lots of new fabric this month, just in time for your gifty projects. Flannels, fall colors, batiks & lots more. Come on in & see. The newest patterns & books are full of inspiration.

Do you love batiks?

These batiks are just so rich! We have brights with brilliant intensity, as well as softer, soothing shades. Layers upon layers of color create the depth & visual texture you're looking for in your projects. Batiks hand painted in Indonesia with traditional methods have such a diverse range of color, you'll want to use them all!

Hoffman Batiks are on the way!

There's a whole box of these amazing Bali Handpaint samples sitting under my tree right now! There's something for every color palette here. I'm anxious for the bolts to arrive.

More pretties!

We chose more fabric for the shop. What delicious choices there were! There were some lovely florals from Wilmington, cowboys from Riley Blake, some great batiks - Seasons & Windswept, from Benartex. I have such a soft spot for batiks.
But then, I also have a soft spot for florals, polky dots, bunnies, butterflies, tropicals, paisleys, red & pink, red & orange ...
umm....
Wait. Maybe I just love selecting fabric.

I threw in a few peace signs & panels just for fun, plus some gorgeous Civil War prints from Windham. This last photo is the Hemingway collection from Windham.
It's easy to choose a variety of fabrics when everything is so beautiful.
The colors for spring are just amazing. I can't wait for it all to arrive!