I love Batiks!  I especially love the one to two-tones with the delicate, nature-stamped designs.  The multi-colored, tie-dyed ones give you a variety of possibilities just by where you cut on the fabric.    The single colored Batiks with dye stripes, bubbles or swirls provide your quilts with light, shade and depth without having to create it with different pieces.  Because of the special dying and stamping process performed by skilled artisans in Java, Indonesia, each cut of fabric becomes its own piece of artwork.

Batiks have been very popular for use in art and landscape quilts, but more and more people are using them in traditional pieced quilts.  I love this!  The vibrant and tonal quality of the fabrics, create something new and fresh with a very traditional feel.  Our Check Out the Stars Twin Quilt Kit is a perfect example of this.

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Thank you to everyone who entered this year's Win Your Wish List contest- we had over 1,300 entries in just one week! We selected three participants at random as the winners. Congratulations to Mary Brewer, Claudia Barner, and Carol Haskell! These three lucky quilters each won $50 worth of goodies from their wish lists.

It's fun to see what's on everyone's wish list this year. You can visit this page to get a peek at Connecting Threads' most wished for items. You guys sure do love thread! Of course, the staff here at Connecting Threads wanted to get in on the fun too. Since they couldn't enter the contest, they've made their own wish list. We hope all your holiday wishes come true this year!

I just stumbled upon this blog post contest over at Taken Patiently. She made a really cute tote bag from one of our Christmas Cheer charm packs.

Photo from Taken Patiently.

How cute is that? She's giving away two more charm packs, and she's got a neat giveaway for a $25 gift card if you join her Handmade Holiday Challenge. Head on over and check it out!

When we were choosing which “Gifty” projects we wanted to do, I eagerly chose the Panda Bolster pattern from Stash Happy Patchwork by Cynthia Shaffer. I just fell in love with it!  It’s sooooo adorable.  And yes, I’ll admit, it reminded me a lot of Pasquale!!!  I was also really drawn to it because of the colors, I knew I wanted this project to be a gift for me, and I like neutrals in my house with accents of color--just like this bolster! 

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We have some great downloads that are just fabulous for this time of year. So Deck the Halls with Fabric! Some of my favorite seasonal projects that we have available for download are the Starlight Table Topper, Winter Through the Seasons Table Runner and the Poinsettia Table Runner and Placemats. These three projects would sew up relatively quickly and help bring in the cheer. There are many more patterns to choose from.  If you are looking for a bigger project this season, I would recommend the Christmas Goose Pattern.

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