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Nov
2
I’m a Subversive Stitcher!
Filed Under Articles, Back-basting (no-template), Blanket stitch, Books, Fusible web, Hand appliqué, Improvisational appliqué, Machine appliqué, Needles, Patterns, Raw edge | 3 Comments
Writer Dawn Goldsmith invited me to do a guest post on her blog, Subversive Stitchers: Women Armed with Needles.
Of course I wanted to do that! What a great name, and an admirable spirit! I’m not all that subversive actually, but I am totally armed with needles. I wrote a post about the three main sharp implements in my life, showing a few examples of what I’ve done with them.
Be sure to check out Subversive Stitchers, a blog about the abounding creativity of women who wield all sorts of needles.
Thank you, Dawn, one writer to another. What a treat for me.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Oct
9
Dana’s choice
Filed Under Embellishment, Fabrics, Improvisational appliqué, Show & Tell, Turned edge | 57 Comments
I asked Dana which quilt should be my quilter’s choice for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival put on by Amy of Park City Girl. Immediately he said, “Shopping Bags.”
Shopping Bags by Kay Mackenzie
The bag popped into my head a number of years ago whilst tromping the aisles at Pacific International Quilt Festival. It must have been the heavenly combination of quilts, fabric, and shopping!
It took awhile for the concept to get from my head to a design. Yes, kids, each bag has set-in seams in two places. That did not deter me. I used freezer-paper templates and sewed carefully, and they came together just fine.
Shopping Bags detail
It was gobs of fun rummaging through my stash for fabrics to make the fronts, sides, and backs. For the sides, I chose fabrics where I could use both the back and the front, to add to the illusion of a folding pleat.
After the bags were all sewn together (by machine), I turned over a quarter of an inch all around the edges and pressed. I chose a swirly background fabric and made my best stab at an artistic arrangement. In fact this may have been my very first quilt to come even close to being an “art quilt.” I just wanted them to hang there in space and overlap and float in and out from each other.
Once the bags were arranged, I basted them down and stitched the turned edges like appliqué, changing threads to match or blend with each fabric.
I went to the craft store to get something for the handles. I made my choice and as I was standing in line I saw the manager. Susan!” I yelled. “Whaddya call this stuff?” “That’s rat-tail cord,” she replied. Who knew. I couched the cord into place using one of those curve-bar thingies for placement.
Get this… I totally forgot to leave enough background fabric at the top for the handles. I quickly figured out that the topmost handles were going to stick up off the quilt. A happy accident… I get comments on how creative and clever this is.
Along with a different version of the quilt, the Shopping Bag block pattern was published the Fall 2005 issue of American Quilter magazine.
Hope you like Dana’s choice! Visit Park City Girl every day through October 16 and get a ringside seat for other bloggers’ quilt picks.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Dec
23
‘Tis the Season
Filed Under Books, Borders, Embellishment, Fusible web, Holiday, Improvisational appliqué, Machine appliqué, Patterns, Raw edge | 3 Comments
And here’s my quilt of the same name.
I made this little 18 x 18 wall quilt last year, just putting together some motifs from A Merry Little Christmas to Appliqué and filling in the white space with some cute red and green buttons. I used different prints and widths for side and top and bottom borders, something I’ve become fond of doing. The Christmas cracker is tied with embroidery thread. This one’s machine appliquéd and machine quilted.
If you’d like to see more Christmassy quilts, click on the ‘Holiday’ category in the left sidebar and that’ll bring up the ones I posted last year.
A very happy holiday time to you all! See you next year.
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Dec
8
What I’m giving this year
Filed Under Fusible web, Holiday, Improvisational appliqué, Raw edge | 1 Comment
The past few years, I’ve really been trying to avoid that horrible credit card bill that comes in January. So I’ve been putting my thinking cap on to figure out ways to make gifts instead of buying them. After all, I’m a creative, crafty person, right? Last year I unearthed some small stained-glass quilts that I’d made umpteen years ago, added some more quilting to them, wrapped them up, and sent them to all the relatives. This year I hit upon the idea of making some quilty note cards.
I had fused fabric to paper once before, when we moved to California and I decorated moving announcements that way. And, although I haven’t read it, I knew that Elly Sienkiewicz had done a whole book about it called Appliqué Paper Greetings. Elly Sienkiewicz Applique Paper Greetings: A Quilt Approach to Scrapbooking
A quick Google search found me CardBlanks.com, and I immediately knew what I wanted. A flecked line of blank note cards came in coffee, cream, and sugar LOL! I ordered the sugar.
A rummage through my stash turned up a set of pieced borders that had never made it onto a quilt. There were my fabrics, all color-coordinated! I drew some very simple appliqué motifs that would fit on the cards and printed them out in reverse for fusible appliqué.
I wasn’t sure whether I needed to use regular-weight or heavy-duty fusible for this, so I started with the regular. Worked fine. My favorite is Wonder Under; your mileage may vary.
For fusing on paper, I didn’t bother with cutting out the interior of each motif (although that does make it easier to get the paper backing off) and I didn’t worry about precise placement either. I just eyeballed it, and used a dry iron throughout.
How simple, yet cute. A creative, crafty, handmade gift.
I even signed the back of each card. The relatives like that.
I slipped four with matching envelopes into some flat cellophane bags that I had had kicking around forever, and voila! Ready to put in with the holiday card, shipping cost an extra Nutcracker stamp.
When we were kids we used to ask my Scottish grandmother, “Grandma, what do you want for Christmas?” Or, “What do you want for your birthday?” She just would shrug and reply in her thick brogue, “I don’t need all that I’ve got.” Really, most of the people on my gift list have all that they need and want, for that matter. I think they really appreciate receiving something original and unique, even if it’s just a little something.
Now admittedly this isn’t going to fly for the teenaged nephews, but I think it’ll work for just about everybody else on my list. What’s your creative, crafty solution?
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Nov
12
Off the Bed — On the Back
Filed Under Baltimore Album, Blanket stitch, Designers, Embellishment, Fusible web, Improvisational appliqué, Machine appliqué, Patterns, Raw edge | 4 Comments
Before Elly’s lecture began (see the November 6 post), I was looking around the shop when I heard my name called. I turned around and, happy day! it was the podcaster extraordinaire Annie Smith, whom I hardly ever get to see due to her incredibly active traveling, teaching, and speaking schedule.
Annie was teaching a class next door to our lecture and had just a minute before her class was going to start. “Did you see my coat at PIQF?” she asked me with excitement. I had to confess that although I had admired the garments, I missed entirely the fact that one of them was hers and also that the special exhibit “Off the Bed — On the Back” had been curated by one of my own guild members, Rachel Clark.
Annie sent me pictures of the coat and the accompanying quilt, along with the story of how they were made (which reads a little like The Perils of Pauline). Here’s the sometimes harrowing account:
“Rachel asked me to be a part of the exhibit when she saw my West of Baltimore quilt.
Each of the pieces in the exhibit was to be a specific technique of quilt making, (i.e.: log cabin, paper piecing, Hawaiian quilting, Baltimore appliqué — which was mine).
My quilter, Melodee Wade, quilted each of the coat pieces first, then the appliqué was designed and stitched to the coat. The hard part was that I was working like crazy to get the coat finished and Rachel asked me what the name of my quilt was.
Quilt?!
Oh yeah, I remember now… after a conversation LAST October…. little quilts, the quilt design is put on the coat… yeah, right. So I stopped working on the coat design — I was having quilter’s block anyway after being seized with ultimate stress of doing a quilt too — and began the quilt. The vase in the center of the quilt is on the back of the coat, and then I wanted to do some simple vines for the border. Or at least, what I thought was simple. I have to remember that the quilt will always tell you what it wants, and the quilt just grew on my design wall. I knew when to stop and that it was perfect — when I added all of the little yellow dots as detail.
My friend Aneda Phillips, who made the West of Baltimore pattern cover quilt, stitched all of the appliqué while I went back to finishing the coat. When she returned the pieces of the quilt so I could assemble it, I mis-cut the center [Ed. note: GASP] and had to make another one from scratch and do all of the stitching on it, as Aneda was finishing up her quilts for her Market booth.
Then back to the coat. It had to be done in panels, appliqué then sew the seams together, then connect the design. The hardest part was the two flowers that are on the side seams of the coat. At that point, the coat was wearing me while I stitched them down! I do fusible, fine machine appliqué where I use a tiny blanket stitch and match all of the threads to the appliqué fabrics. There is some hand embroidery on the quilt and coat. I even made covered buttons with little appliqué flowers on them.
The name of the quilt is “Midnight in the Garden” and the coat is “A Rose Tree in a Baltimore Garden”. A Rose Tree is a traditional Baltimore appliqué pattern which I used for the shawl collar of the coat.
The appliqué fabrics and coat lining were generously donated by Robert Kaufman Fabrics. I used Peggy Toole’s “Florentine II” fabric as the lining and focus fabric for all of the appliqué. You can a little bit of the gorgeous lining fabric in the front collar picture. The fabric is amazing.
All in all, I worked on the quilt and coat for three weeks, 12 to 18 hours a day to get it done in time for PIQF. And then, I didn’t even get to attend the show, as I was teaching in Canada!
Melodee is an incredible quilter. I just gave her the pieces and let her do her thing. She did some neat swirled feathers in places that aren’t covered by appliqué — and that’s the thing, she had no idea where the appliqué was going. She just quilted as if they were separate whole cloth quilts. I was amazed when I sewed the panels together — the quilting from one dovetailed into the other and in some places it’s hard to see the seam line. I know that it was totally random, but I love when magic happens like that.
I use Melodee exclusively to do the quilting for me. She always enhances everything I do, making my pieces better. Mel does it all free-motion on a non-computerized Gammill.”
Kay here… I’ll add that in addition to her quilting talents, Melodee is one of the nicest, most gracious people you could ever hope to meet. Her contact is melodeewade@aol.com if you’re interested in contacting her for your longarm quilting needs.
On her latest podcast,(11/10/08), Annie tells more about the creation of the coat and jacket, describing how they grew on her design wall and what a wonderful experience it was for her to let go and let that happen. Go give a listen, and you’ll also hear a hilarious story of how dedicated a quilter can be when it comes to acquiring an industrial Bernina for $100.
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Jul
2
Little Homes
Filed Under Books, Fusible web, Improvisational appliqué, Machine appliqué, Patterns, Raw edge | Leave a Comment
While I was at Quilt Market in Portland, I saw the display by Ackfeld Manufacturing of bunches of darling wire hangers, and it got my mind spinning with ideas. I ordered some of the little hangers and as soon as I got home I set out making some little quilts. I love small things so this was a barrel of fun for me, and it also have me a chance to show off the motifs from my new book Home: A Heartfelt Nap Quilt and how you can use them different ways.
These are all machine appliquéd with a blanket stitch, and I just used scraps left over from making the original Home quilt. I didn’t really plan anything out in advance, just chose the motifs and played around until I thought, ‘hey, that looks good,’ then fused them down. It’s great working this way in between fussier projects!
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Mar
10
Laura Wasilowski on Quilting Stash
Filed Under Designers, Fusible web, Improvisational appliqué, Machine appliqué, Raw edge | 2 Comments
Annie Smith of Quilting Stash sat down and had a long talk with incredible art quilter Laura Wasilowski. Listen to the podcast at the Simple Arts website.
Of all the episodes of Simply Quilts that I DVR’d, Laura’s was one I watched back a couple times. Her information about fusible appliqué came in the form of several revelations for me, and I wanted to make sure it sunk in.
You’ll enjoy listening to this interview.
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Jan
14
Julie Hirota’s mosaic appliqué
Filed Under Designers, Fusible web, Improvisational appliqué, Machine appliqué, Raw edge | 3 Comments
Yesterday I took a workshop with Julie Hirota, an amazing appliqué artist and author of Art Glass Quilts. The last time she came to our guild, she taught her art glass, or “subtractive appliqué” technique.
Now Julie’s in a mosaic phase, and today we learned how to go about creating these gorgeous art quilts. Here are some highlights from the day.
We all made up our own designs. Here’s my improvisational mosaic flower.
Janet was sitting next to me. Here’s her project in progress.
And here’s Janet herself. She shared fabric with me. What a good workshop neighbor.
Julie Hirota, with her beautiful Queen of Hearts mosaic quilt.
Julie’s website is www.jhiro.com. If you’re in the mood for some eye candy, be sure to visit. Her work doesn’t look quite like anybody else’s, and it’s stunning.
Julie’s also into handbags lately (you can see some of them peeking out from behind her on the table.) They’re available at Julie’s Etsy shop.
Thanks Julie! I had a great time!
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Dec
3
Positioning
Filed Under Hand appliqué, Improvisational appliqué, Machine appliqué | Leave a Comment
What are some ways of positioning appliqué motifs on the background fabric?
• Freestyle
This is where you don’t worry about matching the pattern too exactly, and just place your pieces where you like. Maybe you’re not even using a pattern, just creating a design as you go!
• Eyeballing
Referring to the pattern, place your motifs on the background so that they look enough like the original for government work. Again, this is an admirable, freeing mentailty, and probably gives the blocks that attractive vintage look.
• Creasing the background
If an appliqué design is set on the diagonal, you can fold and crease the background to provide reference lines for positioning the motifs.
• Tracing paper overlay
Now we’re getting to my territory (I have the curse of the precise. It’s not that much fun.) You can trace the pattern onto tracing paper to create a placement guide. Use vertical and horizontal centering lines to line up the guide with the background square.
• Vinyl overlay
The Piece O’ Cake gals advocate using upholstery vinyl to make a placement guide. They’ve even started offering their own Quilter’s Vinyl by the yard, and there are instructions on how to use it, on their website.
• Light box
This is good for tracing the placement guides, of course, but is also an direct and ingenious way of placing motifs for machine appliqué. Once you’ve gotten all of your pieces fused and cut out, put your pattern on the light box, put the background fabric over it (lined up with centering marks) and place all of the pieces for the block at once. Carefully transfer to the ironing board for fusing.
For dark backgrounds, you’ll need to use one of the overlay methods.
Okay quilters, what other ways are there to position your appliqué? There’s something about a lightweight interfacing overlay… help me out. I’ve heard of it but don’t know too much about it.
Until next time,
Kay
Oct
16
A personal challenge
Filed Under Fusible web, Improvisational appliqué, Raw edge | 1 Comment
A couple of months ago, I set out to make an appliqué project where I would challenge myself in two ways. I would use no pattern, and I would finish no edges.
Both of these precepts were new territory for me. Ever the one to follow the pattern was I, in the last few years particularly so that the samples I made would represent the patterns I created. And, I’ve always been a “neat and pretty” girl, turning the edges when working by hand, or finishing the edges with a buttonhole stitch for machine appliqué. Now I wanted to shake off those constraints and make an improvisational piece.
I selected a stack of fabrics and ironed paper-backed fusible web to chunks of them in advance. (If you’re wondering, I’ve found that regular Wonder Under works the best for me.) I got a piece of black fabric to use for the base. I put this on my table and stood over it, scissor-cutting freeform flowers, stems, and leaves.
The process went on for several days. I had to guard the work-in-progress from cats and dog wanting to walk over it. Every day I worked a little more at it, cutting more shapes and arranging and rearranging them. (I wish I had taken pictures as things progressed… next time I will.)
At last the shapes were packed as densely as I wanted and everything was in place. I removed the paper backing from all of the shapes and fused the entire project.
Now, since the second part of my personal challenge was to finish no edges, I was ready to skip straight to the layering and quilting stage! I had read about how quilters “finish” the edges of their motifs during the quilting process by quilting close to the edge, and I had seen this many times in quilt shows, but I had always considered myself allergic to the idea. This was my chance to try it for myself.
Here is the result of my personal twofold challenge: Free Flowers.
When I showed this to my quilting friends they could hardly believe that it came from me, so different it was from my usual style. I’m so happy with the result of my challenge to myself!
Here are a few things I learned along the way.
- As Laura Wasilowski advises, use fabrics for fusing where the color goes all the way through. Avoid fabrics with whitish or sketchy-looking backs.
- Use densely woven fabrics. Avoid fabrics that are woven from heavy/ravelly threads.
- Be prepared to relax a little bit about raveling around the edges. Since I chose a few fabrics that were contrary to the above recommendations, I spent awhile giving my quilt a shave and a haircut with a sharp little pair of scissors. If you know how to preclude raveling altogether, please let us all know.
- Black backgrounds, especially batik, attract cat hair with a strong magnetic force.
- I would try this again, and choose my fabrics better. I really am a little allergic to fraying edges.
I highly recommend setting a personal challenge for yourself!
Until next time,
Kay
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