ritzy wrote:
How fun!!! I got mine all packed up today - just awaiting the Priority Tyvek envelopes from the Post Office to arrive so I can ship them your way. I have extras for Australia / Hanne, but will send those direct to Debbie with the Sisterhood batch.

WHOO-HOO!! Doin' the happy dance!!!

Ladies!!! It is time to get excited. Just got an email from none other than Alex Anderson and she is going to send each of us a batiks HST!!!! WooHoo!!!

winkydink13 wrote: I hate to send cash in the mail but if it sounds like that would definitely be the easiest for Ritzy and probably the international sender as well.

My beautiful little batiks are ready to go BUT it seems that when I got in touch with my bank here in Australia they have never heard of a Visa gift card, the girl was very helpful and came up with something that maybe an option, she suggested that they draw up a foreign cheque or foreign draft which is done through Travel X and done in US dollars, this will cost us on this end $11.00 Australian over and above the postage and a lot of people will not be wanting that extra cost and I am still wondering if it will cost anything on your end the girl seems to think not, as it will be in US dollars, maybe another option is to get some Australian dollars exchanaged into US dollars and enclose the cash in with the batiks in a well marked envelope and register the parcel, don't know whether people will be too comfortable with that either, hopefully something can be worked out

In an email I received from Ritzy, she asked that we include a Visa gift card for postage. I checked the visa gift cards from RBC here in Canada and it says that they can be used in any country and at any place visa is accepted. The difference in currency rates will be figured with the purchase. This sounds like it would work fine as long as the United States post office accepts Visa --I know that Canada Post does. When buying the gift card you would have to purchase the correct amount of $s on the card that would be required to make the postageamount in US dollars. Our Canadian dollar is currently at par with the US dollar so I can just figured dollar for dollar.

Thanks SalApril and Naomi, for offering to help.

The person who has all the details of how this works is Clara as she is doing it for the SoTTT's. As I understand it, via Paypal we 'gift' the money to Clara and pay the fees at our end, then enclose a copy of our receipt in our parcel. Clara then ticks us off one of her 'little lists' that we have paid and will then buy our stamps for us for the return journey.

I would imagine that we would work it similar to this, with the added stage that whoever is receiving in the States keeps a list of payees, which she then sends to Ritzy along with a cheque for paying for the stamps for the return journey.

The main problem seems to be getting money in and out of different countries, without pay an arm and a leg for the privilage, and waiting weeks while the banks get their a**** in gear. International reply coupons would cost $45 for a $13.95 stamp, and Ritzy's bank want $20 per international cheque and several weeks to process it! I don't mind paying a reasonable fee, but these are ridiculous

We need to run this by Ritzy to see if this will sort out the problems for the 11 international participants.

Cheers
Rosemary

So how does it work... the person who has the PayPal accepts all the payments for the postage and then sends a check to Ritzy? I have PayPal and I typically know a few of the ins and outs. I would be willing to jump in here, but I need a little more details on how it works in this situation. I do believe there is a fee for each transaction... will that be part of what the person paying for their postage pays into PayPal?

re: International Postage Problem
I have PayPal, but I'm not hip enough to understand how this would work. If someone can explain, I might be up for it. -- Naomi

International Postage Problem

As Ritzy doesn't have Paypal, Is there anyone in the BRUs group in the States with Paypal who would be willing to accept payments for buying the return postage stamps for those of us who live out side the States? Clara is doing this for the SoTTT's but doesn't want to tangle up the two groups - understandablely. Ritzy had said that she would accept cheques, but we have discovered that doing it this way would take several weeks and $20 to clear each overseas cheque .

So if any one thinks they could help with this, please could you let us know. Thanks

Rosemary

I have two lights - one is a creamy yellow, while the other is one of Edyta's that is more tan. But, honestly, they will all be beautiful once sewn together, regardless of whether the light leans toward peach, yellow, white, cream or tan. I'm looking forward to receiving these little gems in the mail from all of you. It will be like receiving a box of quilter's candy!

I'm having the best time, picking colors, sewing the sheets and dreaming of what I'll do with all the HSTs that will arrive next month.

Will finish cutting my HSTs up and mail them tomorrow. Unless I get an opportunity this am at work before mailman comes. I will put in only 137 of them. My light was more consistent, but I changed up the dark color. I will package only the dark blues so will be easier to sort and not a bunch of different baggies.

I would stick with the batik and it will fit in.

The first set I did the light was a very very pale pink mottled print, then I had second thoughts and bought some batik, which has come in light peachy/yellow but much darker than I hoped (the perils of buying without seeing ), which still makes a good contrast.

So now I have the dilemma of do I send the very high contrast, that is possibly not 'pure' batik (but fitted in perfectly originally), or do I send the slightly lesser contrast combination that is 'pure' batik for the revised rules :

Rosemary