Appliqué Books
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Dec
21
Sharp notches
Filed Under Hand appliqué, Holiday, Needleturn, Photo tutorial | 5 Comments
When I posted my illustrated guide to points back in September, I had some requests for the same type of thing for sharp notches. It’s been on my list and I’ve been checking it twice, so here you go. A very happy holiday to you in all the flavors!
Stitches are exaggerated for illustration purposes.
Clip almost to the turn line.
Sew to within 2 or 3 stitches of the notch. There will be very little turning allowance in this area. That’s okay. Use very small stitches and tuck under any loose threads.
Turn the project. Tuck under the first bit of turning allowance on the other side of the notch. In this illustration, some threads from the motif fabric are sticking up in the notch. The needle is not stitching; it is behind the motif, ready to sweep the misbehaving threads under.
Use the shaft of the needle to sweep across the notch, creating a tiny fold and encouraging any threads to go under. The needle is still not stitching, just sweeping.
Take the remaining stitches down to the notch. The last one, directly in the notch, should pick up 3 or 4 threads of the motif fabric.
Sweep again if needed. With the tip of the needle, dig under the motif fabric and insert the needle exactly where the current stitch came out. Swing the needle and come out going uphill for the next stitch. Snug the thread down well to create a sharp notch.
I hope that whatever Santa you celebrate brings you all good things
this year.
“A Happy Christmas to All” by Kay Mackenzie (detail), designs from
A Merry Little Christmas to Applique
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Dec
14
Double the Artful Appliqué!
Filed Under Books, Color, Cutaway, Designers, Hand appliqué, Needleturn, Patterns, Prizes | 80 Comments
To celebrate my birthday on December 17 (not to mention the holiday season), I’m doing a super-duper, extra, extra-special, double-the-appliqué giveaway! Because you see, these things are as much fun for me as they are for you.
I happen to have copies of both Artful Appliqué: The Easy Way from the year 2000 and still in print, and the brand-new Artful Appliqué II: Introducing Scrappliqué and 12 New Floral Designs by Jane Townswick, provided by Martingale & Company / That Patchwork Place. I’m putting them together and giving you guys an opportunity to win them as a package deal. How festive is that for an appliqué enthusiast?
“Having been a die-hard patchwork fan for many years,” begins Jane in the introduction, “I thought there was very little reason for appliqué quilts to exist — until Nancy Pearson’s “Techny Chimes” stopped me dead in my tracks.”
I’m right there with you on that one, Jane. Here’s a page from my inspiration scrapbook. That’s Techny Chimes on the lower right.
“Beautiful hand appliqué is as individual as a fingerprint,” Jane continues.
I really appreciate this sentiment of encouraging individuality and de-emphasizing the need for exact copying and perfection, which IMO takes away from the pleasure of the work.
In the book Jane presents many unusual (to me) and innovative techniques for creating motifs — partial stitching, modified cutwork, and unit construction. (Just goes to show how different brains work differently.) These methods enable tiny, rich details that still have turned edges.
The appliqué information also shows how to achieve precision where precision is important, and individual, artful results where precision is less important.
Leaves don’t have to be green, did you know that? I know that, but I mostly forget it when I reach for my fabrics. You’ll see some stunning results in the book’s gallery of quilts where the quilters have reached past the green box.
The gallery includes many beautiful quilts made by Jane and her students. The author then includes 16 appliqué blocks, each one with complete skill-building instructions. It’s easy to see why this one is still in print after nine years, it’s a classic.
Artful Appliqué II: Introducing Scrapliqué and 12 New Floral Designs
I just received this one from Martingale so it’s hot off the presses! I can tell from the cover that the floral designs are even more free-form, natural, and detailed. Never fear, Jane takes you step-by-step through her way of mastering this realism. She does advises beginners to consult one of her previous books or another reference book for the basics of appliqué.
In this book Jane introduces Scrapliqué, a technique for creating mosaic-like fabric compositions for your motifs without having to stitch tiny pieces together. There’s also information on unit appliqué, where you can stitch an entire flower before stitching it to the background. Jane explains several advantages to this strategy.
The book has sections on color blending, free-form stems and branches, and a unique way of stitching sharp points. There’s a gorgeous gallery of quilts and 12 floral blocks with step-by-step instructions and photos. You’ll find anemone, camellia, iris, lady’s slipper, pansies, sweet peas, and more! All so detailed you wouldn’t believe it.
Martingale recently published an interview with Jane on their blog. Be sure to go and read that for more information on the artist.
Leave a comment before 7:00 p.m. California time on Thursday, December 17 (my bday 
), for a chance to win this fantastic combo platter. U.S. and Canada only, unless you’d be willing to pay the shipping.
Happiest holidays to you!
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Dec
6
Victorian Baskets
Filed Under Books, Color, Hand appliqué, Needleturn, Patterns, Show & Tell | 3 Comments
I met Gloria Foley a couple years ago at my home guild’s quilt show when she came into my booth and spotted my Baskets to Appliqué designs. Gloria is the proprietress of The Victorian Quilter, a traveling quilt-show shop specializing in patterns and fabrics with that romantic, Victorian patina.
Gloria gave me an order on the spot for a batch of the books and told me of her plans to make a sample to hang in her booth. Since that time she has become a wonderful friend and a mentor to me, sharing her knowledge of area quilt shows and giving me great tips. Every time I would talk to her or see her at a show she would tell me that the baskets were coming along. Last spring I saw the blocks, completed but not set together yet. They were just gorgeous… soft and rich looking.
Well, at the recent River City Quilt Guild show in Sacramento, I checked in with her during setup and there was the quilt, finished and up on the wall.
Victorian Baskets by Gloria Foley
Wow!!! Look at that red setting. Talk about punch! It looks so different from mine, I love it! Gloria used needleturn appliqué and, instead of a dogtooth border, she used prairie points in the border.
Sixteen Baskets by Kay Mackenzie
At the Sacramento show, people had fun walking back and forth between our booths to look at the two versions.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Dec
1
Baltimore Basics
Filed Under Baltimore Album, Books, Borders, Designers, Hand appliqué, History, Needleturn, Patterns, Prizes | 46 Comments
Have I got a good one for you this time! December’s giveaway, sponsored by Martingale & Company / That Patchwork Place, is Mimi Dietrich’s classic, Baltimore Basics: Album Quilts from Start to Finish.
What a delight for the appliqué enthusiast! Mimi, a Baltimore native and lifelong resident, is an authority on this amazing quilt form that has hooked so many of us on appliqué.
Mimi begins by presenting food for thought in planning your quilt, considering options, making decisions, and getting organized. This is not your quick-and-easy type o’ deal. These are more like thoughtful, measured, long-range projects that you should enjoy all along the way.
Next comes a great idea — printed layout mockups! You can photocopy the block thumbnails, cut them apart, and try them out in several pre-printed arrangements to see what you like best. Very cool.
Then there’s a whole beautiful section giving fabric yardage and cutting instructions for a wide variety of sizes and settings. Mimi really helps you design your own quilt.
After giving information on fabrics and supplies, Mimi takes you step-by-step through several methods of preparation for hand appliqué. She encourages you to try them all to see which is your favorite. Then comes detailed information on hand stitching, plus sections on the stems, circles, baskets, and bows that we see so commonly in Baltimore Album. Since Mimi also knows dimensional appliqué, she throws in folded rosebuds and ruched flowers.
Then, of course, there are the 12 beautiful block patterns reminiscent of old, each one accompanied by a color photo of the stitched design.
The book ends with how to sew your blocks together, how to make appliquéd borders, and quilting and finishing your big or little masterpiece.
I get to play Santa! U.S. and Canada only, unless you’d be willing to pay the shipping. Leave a comment before 7:00 p.m. California time on Friday, December 4. The lucky winner will receive Baltimore Basics plus my book Easy Appliqué Blocks: 50 Designs in 5 Sizes.
Ho ho ho!
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Nov
26
The big things
Filed Under Hand appliqué, Holiday, Needleturn, Photo tutorial | 2 Comments
My husband of 20 years, Dana Mackenzie.
Our dog of 15 years, Bertram Wilberforce Woofster Mackenzie III, aka Willie.
The Last of the Mohicans, Pixel, 19 years old and sleeping snugly in the closet with my old Bernina.
Chutney and Maikai, our two kitty friends of 18 years, to whom we bid a furry farewell this year.
My hands. I was thinking about this after the quilt show in Sacramento last weekend. Sometimes ladies come into my booth, look around, and say, “I used to appliqué but my hands don’t work any more.” That’s a sadness to me. So I’m thankful that I have my hands. Not many people know this, but I’m what I call a ‘closet arthritic.’ Two major bouts earlier in my life stiffened my joints and crimped up my toes but, very thankfully, spared my hands. I can appliqué.
The above photo is a staging shot that I sent to Martingale for their reference in creating an illustration. Here’s the corresponding figure from Easy Appliqué Blocks, showing how I pinch the turning allowance under ahead of my stitching.
Those are the really big things. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Oct
28
Applique Petal Party
Filed Under Books, Borders, Designers, Hand appliqué, Needleturn, Prizes | 40 Comments
Susan Brubaker Knapp and I became acquainted through a Yahoo discussion group for pattern designers. Her Blue Moon River blog was one of the stops on my Easy Applique Blocks Book-a-Round in April. In May, Susan and I were able to meet in person during Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh. (See my post-Market post.)
We were both as high as kites above Pittsburgh. Me because my book had just come out, and Susan because she had just found out that not one but two of her quilts had been chosen for the 2010 Quilting Arts Calendar, one of them actually being on the cover! That’s right, those stunning citrus slices are Susan’s. Not only that, she and C&T Publishing were hard at work on Susan’s first book due out in the fall.
During the summer, C&T contacted me to ask if I would like to write an blurb about Susan’s book. Would I! They sent me an advance galley copy of Applique Petal Party so I was able to pore over the gorgeous floral designs and the written information. I wrote my blurb and sent it in.
Check out the interview with Susan on the C&T blog.
Now the book is out!
Appliqué Petal Party by Susan Brubaker Knapp
Applique Petal Party is presented in a unique format… a glossy heavyweight sleeve contains an instruction booklet and… get this… 16 full-size patterns! Each block is 13”, so what a convenience. You can make the Petal Party quilt, a smaller wall quilt, or use these designs whenever you need an appliqué block. Click here to see the full quilt on the C&T site..
The booklet gives great hand appliqué instructions plus construction information for the Petal Party quilt that goes from cutting to quilting to binding and labeling. The quilt has scalloped borders so here’s your chance to learn how to do those, including the binding part.
My blurb? It just flowed from my brain through my fingertips to the keyboard. When I got the book, I saw that my quote had made the back cover! In fact, it’s the only one!!! Wow!
Susan has generously sent me an autographed copy to give away in a drawing to a lucky reader. Leave a comment before 7:00 p.m. on Halloween to enter the drawing. (U.S. and Canada only unless you’re willing to pay the shipping.)
Boo!
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Sep
25
Pointy points
Filed Under Hand appliqué, Needleturn, Photo tutorial | 8 Comments
Today I thought I’d post my illustrations showing how to hand-appliqué points. When I was learning to appliqué, this was one of the biggest mysteries to me, and when I finally “got it” my confidence took a big boost.
To begin with, you’ll want a turning allowance of no more than 3/16″. A quarter inch is just too much bulk to stuff under a point.
The stitches are exaggerated for illustration purposes.
Sew to within two or three stitches of the point.
Trim off the folded-under puppydog ear that is sticking out the other side of the point.
Fold the tip down square across.
Take the remaining stitches to the point, the last one coming right out of the tip.
Turn the project.
Starting at the point, tuck the turning allowance under. Don’t try to start further up and work down to the point. There will be no room at the point for the turning allowance if you try to do that. Work from the very point upwards.
When all is arranged satisfactorily, continue to stitch.
I hope this is helpful to you if you’ve found pointy points to be a mystery too.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
All graphics © Kay Mackenzie
Jul
8
Hand vs. Machine Appliqué: A Timed Experiment
Filed Under Articles, Freezer paper on top, Fusible web, Hand appliqué, Machine appliqué, Needleturn, Patterns | 13 Comments
I wrote this article awhile ago. I couldn’t get a magazine interested in it, so
I publish it for you here, because I think it’s quite an interesting proposition. This was before I learned back-basting.
Hand vs. Machine Appliqué: A Timed Experiment
by Kay Mackenzie
For quite a long time I was a hand appliquér only. But when I started designing appliqué patterns for publication, I turned to machine appliqué as a speedier way of creating second and third examples of the designs. After all, machine appliqué is a lot faster, right?
Somewhere along the way I became curious about how much time I was actually saving. I decided to conduct a personal timed study to compare a hand method and a machine method. I used a block from A Spin in the Garden, a pattern I was designing.
The spinning vine block in the middle
is the one I used.
I’ll begin by briefly describing the two methods I compared:
| HAND Traditional needle-turn using bias tape maker, freezer-paper templates, and a tracing-paper placement overlay. |
MACHINE Raw edge, small machine blanket stitch using paper-backed fusible web and a tracing-paper placement overlay. |
I used the same block and the same fabrics for both methods. I did not time the initial steps that were common to both methods, including selecting fabrics, cutting background squares, finding my glasses, gathering all materials, supplies, and notions, numbering the shapes in placement sequence, and assigning the colors on the pattern.
After organizing my thoughts and the projects, I set to work, watching the clock and recording the time for each step. I did one method all the way through, then the other. Here are my results.
| HAND | Minutes | MACHINE | Minutes |
| Trace pattern quickly onto tracing paper to make placement overlay. | 2 | Trace pattern carefully onto tracing paper with a heavy marker to make placement overlay, also serves as reversed pattern. | 5 |
| Using front of pattern, trace a freezer-paper template for each shape except vine. Cut out templates precisely on drawn lines. | 8 | Using reversed pattern, trace a fusible-web template for each shape, including vine. Cut out templates roughly outside drawn lines. Cut away centers of flower and leaf templates. | 14 |
| Iron templates onto right side of assigned fabrics. | 4 | Iron templates onto wrong side of assigned fabrics. | 7 |
| Cut out shapes, leaving a turn-under margin outside template. Clip notches. | 6 | Cut out shapes on drawn line. | 8 |
| Make vine using bias tape maker. Apply thin strip of fusible to back of vine. Trace vine placement onto background fabric. | 6 | ||
| Clean and oil sewing machine, change presser foot, insert new needle. Wind bobbin for each thread color. Adjust blanket-stitch setting, test stitching. | 8 | ||
| PREPARATION SUBTOTAL | 26 | 42 | |
| Fuse vine in place. Stitch vine. Then, one shape at a time, using placement overlay, remove templates and place, baste, stitch using thread to match each shape. | 160 | All at once, using placement overlay, remove paper backing and place, fuse, stitch using thread to match each shape (all of one color is stitched before changing thread). Pull thread tails to the back, knot, and bury. | 91 |
| TOTAL | 3 hours 6 min | 2 hours 13 min | |
Hand
Machine
Click either block for a close-up.
It was interesting to note that the pre-stitching phase took longer for machine appliqué than for hand appliqué. Cutting out the centers of the fusible web templates is not applicable for freezer-paper templates, and ironing time for fusible web templates is longer than for freezer-paper templates. For hand appliqué, I didn’t need to set up my machine, and I could trace the overlay quickly and with less care, since it was for placement purposes only.
The time savings for machine appliqué showed up in the last stage, where the shapes were placed, secured, and stitched. The grand total difference in time represented about a 30% overall time savings for machine appliqué.
There’s a lot to think about when looking at these time results. You may be faster or slower at any of these steps than I am. There are many ways to appliqué, and you may use differing techniques that are slower or faster within either hand or machine methods.
Also worth noting is that when I first took up machine appliqué, I don’t think I saved any time at all, because I made a lot of mistakes. Forgetting to reverse the pattern, neglecting to remove the centers of the templates, having the fusible come apart from the paper backing before I had a chance to use it, fusing to the right side of the fabric (force of habit from hand appliqué), and probably a few other embarrassing ways to get things wrong — mistakes in machine appliqué are not a time saver! Now I am comfortable and practiced at both methods, and the times noted in this experiment refer to a “clean run.”
Time, of course, is not the only factor for choosing one method over another. Personal enjoyment, skill level, preference for appearance, portability, appropriateness for the chosen project, type of sewing machine, these things and more can come into play when choosing an appliqué method.
I’m so glad I decided to conduct this personal timed study. Now I have learned that when either method is equally appropriate for my project, and time is the deciding factor, I’ll be saving almost a third by using machine appliqué.
I’d love to hear what you think about this! Did I save as much time as you thought I would?
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Apr
17
My favorite quilt
Filed Under Borders, Color, Embellishment, Freezer paper on top, Hand appliqué, Needleturn, Quilt shows, Stems/vines | 29 Comments
Today I’m writing about my favorite quilt as part of the Bloggers Quilt Festival put on by Amy of
Park City Girl.
My favorite quilt is usually the one I just started but if I had to pick just one, I’d have to say that it’s my Sixteen Baskets.
Here are the reasons why:
In many ways I think this is my best work. It’s hand appliquéd, back during the time that I favored the freezer-paper-template-on-top method (before I learned back-basting). The tiniest motifs are machine appliquéd or hand embroidered.
Each of the blocks is my original design… they’re published in my book Baskets to Appliqué. It was an exciting, emotional, fulfilling process developing the concept for each basket, and I still remember that time…. the mischevious kitty, the fat quarters rolled up, the nod to Baltimore, the pastel eggs inspired by Janet’s chickens who gave us eggs exactly those colors.
This quilt is also hand quilted. I took a picture that’s unevenly lit on purpose to try to get the quilting to show up. I love hand quilting and don’t get the chance to do it as much as I used to.
I love the soldier blue and the dogtooth border. (Also that it’s called a dogtooth border, because I love dogs.)
So that’s my favorite quilt. Thanks for visiting to see my entry in the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival! Visit Park City Girl every day through April 24 and get a ringside seat for other bloggers’ favorite quilts! It’s quite a show!
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Sep
26
American Quilter celebrates appliqué
Filed Under Articles, Baltimore Album, Designers, Hand appliqué, Machine appliqué, Needleturn | Leave a Comment
The November 2008 issue of American Quilter magazine, put out by the American Quilters Society, features “Appliqué Your Way” … yay!
Faye Labanaris contributes an article with photo tutorials for four different kinds of needleturn hand appliqué. Suzanne Marshall shares her method for creating bias stems. And Ann Holmes shows how she constructs her pieces for machine appliqué, in which “there’s no sewing until you quilt it.”
Not only is this issue full of great appliqué information, there’s a bagful of eye candy in the form of the winners of the recent Nashville show. Best of Show and Best Hand Workmanship Award both went to Baltimore Album-style quilts .
The celebration continues in the next issue with Jeana Kimball’s back-basting technique. Jeana is one of my all-time favorite appliqué idols and I can’t wait to see this article.
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
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