Originally Posted by Ritacarl
I've seen "batiks" used a lot. Will someone please explain to me what it means. In the dictionery it says "A material printed by an Indonesian method by hand-printing textiles by coating with wax the parts not to be dyed". Sort of like those eggs I used to make. Now, I don't think that is what it is meant in quilting. Is it a whole bunch of material of the same color pallat?
Rita
Yes, batik is a method of printing fabrics that uses wax to "resist" dyes in certain design areas. They can be monochromatic (one color) or polychromatic (more than one color). The wax is removed after the fabric is dyed. Good batiks are, for all intents and purposes, indistinguishable with regard to a right or wrong side. They (good batiks) don't ravel and have a good hand to them. And yes, there are cheap, knock-off printed batiks to be avoided.