Elle, you can try to put the tute here...if you "start a new topic" hoping that it will get put in with the blocks of the week/month section...it will automatically get moved to Tutorials. Ask me how I know...:roll: It won't matter though because we can still have it in the Topic List (virtual section) for the AOTH. I personally think a separate thread is better because we will all forget which page its on inside this thread.

Kathy....who ya' callin' chatty????? Is that bad??? :wink:

Hi, everyone - sorry not to have been here, but I have been broadband challenged since last week, and tearing my hair out in frustration. the engineer has been, and all is well so far, so I am trying to catch up now. So I am sorry I wasn't here to answer questions or to say welcome to the newbies who have said you will join us.

I have no problem appliqueing batiks at all, I find them very easy to work with, and the tighter weave is particularly good if you have to snip into corners etc., as they don't fray so easily as regular fabrics. Having said that, I do use regular fabrics too, if I don't have a batik that will 'fit' with what I am trying to achieve.

I am marking my black fabric with a Sewline rectractible pencil and a yellow (I also have white) 'lead' in it. I am lucky that I have two of these because I bought one and then promptly lost it, so bought a second. I now keep one with a grey 'lead' and the other with one of the lighter 'leads' in them. I believe now that they do one pencil that has three colours built into it. If you do decide to buy one, please consider getting the eraser too - it works very well with the pencil lines in any of the colours, and is also pencil shaped, with a retractible eraser that I think can also be replaced.

With handling the blocks quite a bit I have redrawn over the lines occasionally, just for extra clarity, but it works well for me.

I used that pencil to trace the trapunto design on some dark chocolate fabric Lesely...they do work really well.

I don't have my book yet, but from reading ALL pages of these posts it appears we don't need a lot of any one particular fabric for the applique pieces, so I decided to order a couple of the batik samplers from Connecting Threads. These samplers are 10" squares of 24 different batiks in each sampler. I ordered the spring and summer ones. Can't wait to get them. Now I'm wondering if I should have ordered 2 of each.

There is also a winter sampler, but I think I want to stay with lighter colors, but who knows.

I thought about purchasing the Spring Sampler, too. I love those colors. I already have some pretty bright fabrics, and the Spring fabrics would balance the blocks out.

These are really pretty colours JudyG I really do like the Spring sampler.

Hi Judy!

I bought the Spring sampler for this project too. I'm a Connecting Threads addict! I'm going to mix in a few deeper pink and purple batiks I have as well.

Judy, judging by what I have used already, I doubt if you will use much more, and rather than buy the same again, I would counsel you to wait until you start, and perhaps buy a couple of fat quarters of ones you might use more, i.e. a green, or colour for more of the hearts, or one that you want to emphasize more

So, after calling Nancy's Notions and finding out that the Walnut Shadowplay is on backorder, I asked if I could change it to Denim. So it is now DEFINITELY this one.

***sheesh! You'd think this was rocket science or something***

Ducky, that is a really nice fabric too. You can change your mind as many times as you like.... I was a bit like that too, when I decided I didn´t want a black quilt.. Glad you have decided now. You can have yellows, whites, oranges, pinks on that blue background