Welcome gentle quilters!! It’s Day 3 of the 100 Blocks Volume 9 blog tour! These tours are always a rollicking good time, and I’m happy to be part of things once again.

I’m Kay Mackenzie, a designer and author in Santa Cruz, California. My website is By Kay Mackenzie, which has all of my books and patterns on it, plus select notions for the appliqué enthusiast. If this is your first time visiting my blog All About Appliqué, I’m glad you’re here! You’ll find a wealth of information about all kinds of appliqué here on the blog. And, we have a featured appliqué book at the beginning of every month, given away in a drawing, which is way fun.

I’m delighted and proud to say that this is my eighth time having one of the 100 Blocks. I just love participating in these special issues!

My latest title from Martingale, Scrap-Appliqué Playground, is all about different ways to put scraps together and cut appliqués out of them. After the book came out, I started playing around with more ideas for cutting appliqués out of something other than just one fabric. I let my mind run wild, and realized that there are clever ways to use traditional pieced quilt blocks for this! It’s the best of both worlds!

Half-Log-Cabin Tulip by Kay Mackenzie.

Cutting a tulip “just so” from a traditional half-log-cabin block gives a fun, stylized look to a very traditional appliqué flower. Split leaves and a patched background complement the pieced nature of the tulip.

The magazine gives complete instructions for making the block, and includes the tulip template that fits just right on the half-log-cabin once it’s pieced. Very cool.

Of course you can change up the color of the background and the flowers. Here are just a couple of possibilities!

I hope you enjoy this block and all the other 99 fabulous and varied designs in Volume 9!

The editors of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks are sponsoring a giveaway of a copy of the magazine! If you’d like to enter to win, please leave a comment here on this post before 12:00 noon California time on Sunday, May 4.

Good luck in the drawing, and remember that if you are subscribed to the blog by email, clicking “Reply” will not enter you in the drawing. Come to the blog on the internet and leave your comment at the bottom of the post. :)

Many thanks for your visit!
Cheerio,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Volume 9 of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks is coming out soon!

To celebrate the release of their newest block collection, Quiltmaker is throwing a big party in the form of a blog tour with lots of prize-winning opportunities along the way.


The tour goes Monday, April 28, through Friday, May 2. Start each day at the Quiltmaker blog Quilty Pleasures and they’ll send you on your way to visit the blogs of many of the designers who have blocks in the issue.

My day is Wednesday, April 30. See you then!

My block is the one on the right :).

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

The wonderful Kim Jamieson-Hirst of Chatterbox Quilts has been busy filming a series of videos on fusible-web appliqué.

The great thing is that Kim starts with the absolute basics, such as what fusible web is — and isn’t! Great fundamental information for the beginning fuser. In this first video she shows her two favorite brands, one of which is SoftFuse, my favorite as well. After months of not being able to get it, I’m finally back in stock on my website! Kim shows the rolls, I have the packages… same exact product, just a different format.

Here’s the first in the series. And here’s Kim’s YouTube channel, where you’ll be able to access the other entries in the series, and even subscribe, so that you don’t miss any of her videos in the future. Thanks Kim! These vids are great, and you’re the best!

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

The winner of Sew Embellished is No. 9, Gail! Congratulations! Gail says that her guild is just starting a splinter group for art quilters this month and the timing is great. Very cool.

I have show and tell! At the recent Desert Guilds show in Palm Springs, the show committee asked the vendors to award ribbons for their favorites. I wandered the show looking here and looking there. I saw one that was entirely to my delight, walked up to it, and hung my ribbon. Then I read the description. No wonder I loved the pattern… it’s one of Holly’s!

Holly Mabutas is a gifted artist and quiltmaker who has THE most delightful patterns over at Eat Cake Graphics. Here’s the quilt from the show, Furry Sweetness by Judy Price, quilted by Lynette Harlan. Love it, gals!

my Vendor's Choice ribbon

Furry Sweetness at Eat Cake Graphics.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Cathy Perlmutter is my special friend that I visit with whenever I’m in her area for a quilt show. She writes the fabulous blog Gefiltequilt about her wondrously creative projects. When I took a look at this month’s featured book, I knew that it was right up Cathy’s alley. Yay, she agreed to write a guest post!!

Take it away, Cathy!

How lucky am I that Kay Mackenzie loaned me a copy of Cheryl Lynch’s new book, Sew Embellished! Artistic Little Quilts, Personalized with Easy Techniques, published by Martingale in 2012.


This book is a delight, and packed with useful information. For everyone who would like to start embellishing, or be inspired by new ideas, this book is a must-have.


The book starts out as an embellishment encyclopedia. Cheryl shows how to attach a wide variety of beads, buttons, and miscellaneous hardware – anything, as she says, that has a hole in it. She shows how she uses trims as whimsical border treatments. There’s an explanation of how to make custom buttons and beads from polymer clay. She takes us through a wide variety of threads and yarns, and graphs the main embroidery stitches that quilters need.

Cheryl also offers a variety of ways to add words–whether applique, computer printing, embroidery, polymer clay plates, and more. She has a lot of really interesting binding and edging techniques, including folded shapes.

All that alone would be worth the price of admission, but we’re not even halfway through the book yet! Cheryl’s projects, which involve both piecing and applique, celebrate family, pets, nature and love. She turns unfinished blocks into works of art. My favorite are her brooches with shrink-plastic photos stitched on; a stunning appliqued “tranquility tree”, and her accordion-fold heart & home standing book.


I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning embellishment techniques or acquiring more; and who would like a reference and inspiration for personalized and unique art quilt gifts. I am buying myself a copy. It is a keeper that I will refer to again and again!

Kay here… thank you Cathy! Cathy has to get her own copy because we’re giving this one away! If you’d like to enter the drawing, please leave a comment before 7:00 p.m. California time on Monday, April 7.

It is with a sorrowful sigh that I must say that these drawings are now open to U.S. mailing addresses only. I found out with a shock that one of the changes in our recent USPS postal rate increase is that the cost to Canada has more than tripled. Apologies to my quilting neighbors to the north. :(.

Many thanks for reading All About Appliqué,
Kay and Cathy