I’m SO excited to announce a new project! I’ve teamed up with author Terri Thayer, actually she’s the one that approached me with the project over a year ago. She’s writing an 8 month series of stories called Tales of the Quilt Shop, and I’m creating an applique project to go along with it called Sugarplums.

You have GOT to go and take a look at the first block on Holly’s Blog Sprinkles of Thought. If there were anything cuter it wouldn’t be allowed by law. Way to go Holly! Not only that, Holly includes a link to her glue-stick turned-edge hand-appliqué tutorial.

Back soon,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

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Pennies From Heaven: Celebrated Quilt and Companion Projects by Gretchen Gibbons.

The title of the book and cover quilt comes from the old term “penny rug,” so called because of the circles, usually wool, that are blanket-stitched onto a base in decorative patterns. As Gretchen says, this style is “primitive, colorful, and funky all at the same time.”

Gretchen enjoys working with wool, and calls it the easiest appliqué technique, for several reasons:

• There are no edges to turn.
• There’s no right or wrong side, so you don’t have to reverse patterns.
• You don’t have to use fusible web (though you can if you want to).
• Cutting on the straight of grain or on the bias works equally well.
• The blanket stitching can be done by hand or machine.
• Hand-dyed wools come in yummy colors.

The book starts out with instructions for felting wool, which is the process that shrinks it, mats the fibers together, and eliminates raveling. Then there are complete instructions for wool appliqué, a color guide for the motifs used in the book’s projects, and information on needles, threads, and beads, and embroidery. There’s good advice on batting, mixing cottons and wools within a project, quilting considerations, and attaching a hanging sleeve.

Besides the cover quilt with its 10 beautiful blocks, there are instructions for eight more smaller projects, each one cuter than the last.

Enchanted Pennies

Joyful Pillow

Pennies Window Valance

Circle of Life Table Mat

I just love their primitive, folksy look. If you admire it too, and would like a chance to win this book, please leave a comment here on this post before 7:00 p.m. California time on Thursday, January 5. Contest open to U.S. and Canada mailing addresses only, and remember to click over to the blog itself instead of replying to your email feed.

Thank you, That Patchwork Place, for providing the book!

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

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Unless you’ve been living in a cave, if you’re a quilter you know Sunbonnet Sue. That simple little girl in a simple little frock and great big bonnet that conveniently hides her face. The first appliquér to come up with that concept was a genius!

Christine Porter and Darra Williamson collaborated “across the pond” to create a dozen small quilts to see what Sue gets up to through the seasons.

A Year in the Life of Sunbonnet Sue

The book starts with a section of “Sue Basics” that includes materials, frames, borders, backings, bindings, assembling the wall quilts, and how to add the appliqués. The method that the authors used was raw-edge fusible finished with a machine blanket stitch. They’ll take you through it step-by-step.

I’ll take a moment to say here that the illustrator for this book is the same one who is working on my new book, and the illustrations are fantastic. Kudos Robin!!

Sue decks the halls.

Sue tiptoes through the tulips.

Sue has to go back to school. Bummer.

If you’d like to win a copy of this book, courtesy of That Patchwork Place, please leave a comment on this blog post by 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 18. U.S. and Canada mailing addresses only.

Happiest of holidays to you and yours!
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

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I just love the soft, mellow feel of this book. Not only that, it has a cat on the cover! Very cool.

Bloom Creek is the name of Vicki’s pattern company, hence the name of the book, which includes 14 of Vicki’s most popular designs. She has included a variety of projects: smaller, larger, with appliqué, without appliqué, traditional, contemporary, some made with precuts, and a few brand-new designs. What a great combo platter.

The book starts out by covering quiltmaking basics, including working with precuts, freezer-paper hand appliqué, fusible machine appliqué, bias vines, and half-square triangle units. There’s also infomation on preparing for machine quilting, making a hanging sleeve, binding the quilt, and making creative quilt labels. Her labels are very cute.

Here are just a few of the projects in the book.

Brandyvine Tote Bag

I love this bag! The combination of red and white toiles plus the simple appliqué put it right up my alley.

A Pack of Posies

Here’s that soft mellow look again. This table runner is made with one charm pack and a half yard of fabric.

Home for the Holidays

Since ’tis the season, I thought I’d show you this darling Christmas tree complete with cardinals.

Also included are the Blooms pillow and bed quilt shown on the cover (under the cat) more bed quilts, wall quilts large and small, and sofa quilts suitable for snuggling under in the living room.

Courtesy of That Patchwork Place, I have a copy to give away in a drawing. If you’d like to win this attractive book full of very doable designs, leave a comment here on this post before 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 4. U.S. and Canada addresses only, and remember that replying to your email feed won’t enter you in the drawing. Go the the blog itself and leave your comment there.

Many thanks for your readership, and remember that if you haven’t used it yet, the $5 off any order of $10 or more is still on at kaymackenzie.com, through December 10.

Until next time,
Kay

www.kaymackenzie.com

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Ready, Shop, Sew!

In appreciation, I’ve created a coupon for $5 off any order of $10 or more on my website, where all my stuff is. The coupon code is 5OFF and is good through December 10, 2011, for your holiday shopping pleasure. U.S. and Canada only, regular shipping charges apply.

Here are some great ways to take advantage of the coupon. Stocking stuffers for your quilty friends!

When you click on the links below, you’ll be taken to the page on the website where the item is found. If you don’t see it right away, just scroll down.

Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Volume 4. Only $6.99.

A cute little pattern for your friend who would like to hang this in her sewing room. Just $6.

Magnetic Needleminder, $9.50. These look like beautiful cameos and make fantastic gifties. There are 10 different styles to choose from.

John James #10 Straw/Milliner needles, $3.00. My favorites for hand appliqué.

Clover 5″ miscroserrated scissors, fantastic for appliqué. They’re very grippy on the fabric and the cut edge is less prone to fraying. $23.50

The coupon is good on anything you’d like to order from By Kay Mackenzie, including all of my books, patterns and notions. Maybe you’d like to get a gift for yourself! Have you been looking at Sew the Perfect Gift, Inspired by Tradition, or Teapots 2 to Appliqué? Now’s the time!

Hope you had a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

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For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Cheryl Almgren Taylor, a quilter and designer who specializes in fusible-web appliqué. In certain quilting circles, making this admission is like admitting you feed your kids hot dogs and goldfish crackers for dinner every night! However, I find this method to be very user-friendly and it enables me to create fabulous, intricate shapes with ease. It also incorporates thread as a design element which gives me the opportunity to add more color and texture.

I have a brand-new book just released by Martingale & Company / That Patchwork Place: Inspirational Applique: Reflections of Faith, Hope, & Love.

The book is a collection of scripture-inspired quilts, wallhangings, and small projects. I am a pastor’s wife and as a person of faith, I enjoyed being able to create tangible objects that express my beliefs through my quilting. That is one of my favorite things about quilting—our ability as quilters to convey our thoughts and beliefs through the medium of fabric and thread and color.

As I worked on the book, I felt a connection to the quilters of past generations who also used their quilting skills to express their beliefs and dreams. If you study the Baltimore Albums of the 19th century, most of those beautiful creations give us glimpses into the lives of their makers. Even the plainer, patchwork quilts from the past sometimes include tantalizing personal insights left by the quilter. And one of the common practices in historic quilts was to include a deliberate mistake to express their religious faith, the belief that nothing is perfect except God. I’ve never had to create a deliberate mistake in a quilt—I’m quite proficient at providing numerous mistakes without any extra effort, but I enjoy this tradition and the significance it held for the quilters who did this.

I am happy, though, that I have access to the wonderful world of quilting that we live in now, with rotary cutters and electric irons and fabulous computerized sewing machines. I own several sewing machines and like a man and his car, I am bonded with my machines.

As I mentioned before, my favorite technique is fusible-web appliqué. I always recommend using a lightweight fusible web and the “doughnut” method of construction, which has you cut out the center portion of the web from large pieces before fusing it to the back of your motif fabric. This makes the quilt soft and pliable rather than stiff, which is a common complaint about quilts made with fusible web. However, when using a lightweight fusible web, you must sew a finishing stitch around each unfinished edge in the appliqué design. I prefer a very small blanket stitch, but it is possible to use a satin stitch or zigzag—it just gives a slightly different look to the finished piece.

In creating the quilts for the book, I discovered a new technique that I think a lot of people would enjoy knowing about. One of the designs in the book, “Daily Bread,” features a neg done in gold and blue tones.

A neg is a bundle of wheat that is set out in wintertime in Scandinavian countries for the animals. Because the design featured a number of strands of wheat bundled together, there are a large number of overlapping wheat kernels to be appliquéd. All of them needed to be finished with a blanket stitch. If you are a fusible appliquér, you know that sometimes as you sew around overlapping pieces, you do not end up in the right spot for the next shape. Then you have to stop, trim your threads, move the fabric, and start over again. By accident, I discovered a traveling technique that makes it easy to move from piece to piece.

I discovered that after finishing the blanket stitch on a piece, I could change the machine setting from the blanket stitch to a straight stitch and travel to the next piece along the edge of the pattern pieces. (The pieces do have to be overlapping.) This can be done before or after using the blanket stitch on the design. If I traveled before finishing the edge, the blanket stitch laid over the top of the straight stitching and couldn’t be seen. If the blanket stitch was already sewn along the edge, the straight stitch went on top of the edge stitch and still couldn’t be seen. Of course, you must be using the same color of thread on the next piece, but for my overlapping wheat kernels, it was an outstanding technique.

I used traditional bias strips for the border vine in “Birds of the Air.”

But, in two other projects I used another trick — cutting fusible web-backed fabric pieces rather than creating bias strips for vines. For the tablecloth “I Am the Vine,” I traced the vine shapes onto fusible backing, fused the vines to the background, and finished the edges with a blanket stitch. It looks great and was much easier than fussing with bias strips.

I hope these tips will help you in your quilting journey and, for those of you who have never tried fusing, I hope you will become inspired to try this wonderful and easy technique!

Happy quilting!~Cheryl

Kay here — Thanks a million Cheryl for those two fabulous appliqué tips! The traveling straight stitch to another shape is something I been playing with myself. Thank you for legitimizing it!

Courtesy of the publisher, we have a copy of Inspirational Appliqué to give away to a reader. If you’d like to enter the drawing for the book, leave a comment by 7:00 p.m. California time on Sunday, November 5. U.S. and Canada addresses only, and remember to resist the temptation to hit “reply” to your email subscription. Instead, click over to the blog itself.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

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Meet Scrap-Appliqué Playground.

This is something different for me. My previous two with TPP were block books. This one is more of a concept, method, and project book. It’s also different because the fabrics and the projects are rather fresh and modern compared to my usual look. In fact I heard that when the projects were spread out on the table for the committee, they said, “Kay Mackenzie sent these…???” That’s funny. Different again in that all of the work is done by machine. Not bad for a girl who started out doing everything by hand! I enjoyed working differently a whole bunch.

Look for Scrap-Appliqué Playground in April 2012. I’ll be hosting a Book-A-Round, so stay tuned!

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

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Sew the Perfect Gift: 25 Handmade Projects from Top Designers just came out a week ago. I guess I have received a promotion to “top designer” because one of the projects is mine!

Awhile back, when Martingale put out the call to its authors to contribute a project to a book idea that they had for making gifts, I didn’t let the sun set on the opportunity.

The teapot idea came to me right away when I thought about sewing a gift. You may know that I’ve designed a number of teapot patterns, and I’ve often heard quilters say that they’re inspired to make something special for a friend who collects teapots.

Time for Tea, Have a Cup With Me

Here’s my project from the book. It’s a little guy, 14″ x 9″, hung up with rickrack for a little extra touch. The caption says, “Include it with a gift of your time; brew a pot of tea, sit down, and have a long chat with your friend.” That was my thought about making something for somebody you care about.

Here are some more exceedingly cute things from the book.

Tic-Tac-Toe for Ewe from Cheryl Almgren Taylor.

Little Wool Bags from Karen Clifton.

Elegant Parsons Chair Dressing from Avis Shirer.

Sew the Perfect Gift is this month’s prize, thanks to That Patchwork Place! If you’d like to win a copy of this brand-new book, leave a comment here by 7:00 p.m. California time on Wednesday, October 5.

Open to U.S. and Canada shipping addresses only. Remember that if you are subscribed by email, replying to the email won’t get you in the drawing. Instead, click the title of the post and you will be taken to the blog itself. Leave your comment at the bottom of the post.

Good luck! If you don’t win the drawing, I put the book up on my website and you can order a copy there.

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

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Tea Ceremony by Marjorie Kilcrease, 109 x 120

Most of the teapots are from my Teapots 2 to Appliqué. I got the chance to talk with Marjorie a couple times during the show. She was beaming with pride over her quilt and so was I. Here’s the story of this masterpiece, from Marjorie herself.

When I saw Kay’s book on teapots, I fell in love with it. However, I kept thinking “Are you crazy? This is applique!” I collected oriental fabrics for about two years while I was trying to figure out how to display the teapots. Then I found the center panel with the Geisha holding the teacup.

Next, I found the block pattern called BQ2 by Maple Island Quilts and it looked very oriental to me. I was ready to sew!

This was my second appliqued quilt. I used the directions in the book to enlarge the patterns by 150% so they would fit on a 12″ block. I used a freezer-paper method (ironed to the back) with spray starch to anchor the edges down. Then I used the liquid basting to adhere the teapot parts to the block. The final step was machine-stitching the teapots. My husband designed three blocks for me too. The whole project took about four months.

The quilter, Wendy Knight, did custom quilting. In the black horizontal strips are names of tea or words like ‘happiness’, ‘peace’, etc. The vertical black strips have bamboo quilted in.

I had bought a large backing but still needed to enlarge it to make sure there was enough for the quilter. My husband helped me mimic the front design and we offset the black strips (instead of centering them) and then I used another panel that I found to add a decorative touch.

The quilt is for us and will take its turn on our king-size bed. However, all of my friends want me to put it in our will and leave it to them! They’ll need to discuss that with our two daughters though!

What Marjorie didn’t mention is that her quilt won First Place in Viewer’s Choice!

Congratulations Marjorie!!

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

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The fabulous Welcome to the North Pole from Piece o’ Cake!

This is one of my personal favorite books. I got it when it first came out and it sits on my bookshelf to this day. Back when I first got it, I made a little project for my friend’s parents, and loved every minute.

For Tess's folks, by Kay Mackenzie

I jumped at the chance to get an additional review copy from Martingale / That Patchwork Place. The scenes in this book, which is subtitled Santa’s Village in Appliqué, are just utterly whimsical and charming. Here are a couple of the vignettes from Santa’s Village.

The book includes notes on fabric selection and preparation, information on the Piece o’ Cake gals’ hand appliqué methods, adding embellishments, and finishing your festive little quilts.

If you’d like a chance to win Welcome to the North Pole, leave a comment here on this post by 7:00 p.m. California time on Sunday, September 4.

Drawing open to U.S. and Canada addresses only. Remember that if you’re subscribed by email, you’ll need to click on the title and come over to the blog itself to leave your comment.

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

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