Appliqué Books
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Apr
3
Jump out of your box!
Filed Under Books, Borders, Color, Designers, Embellishment, Fabrics, Improvisational appliqué, Words | 18 Comments
Mary Lou Weidman is one of my most favorite admired quiltmakers and authors. Her Whimsies & Whynots: A Playful Approach to Quiltmaking has been on my bookshelf for years.
And so it was with great pleasure that I received a copy of Mary Lou’s latest book Out of the Box: Unleash Your Creativity Through Quilts from Martingale & Company as our featured appliqué book for this month.
Mary Lou’s quiltmaking style is one of riotous, colorful fun, personal meaning, and brave and fearless fabric choices. (It was through her that I first noticed and learned to appreciate the color “cheddar.”) This book is an inspiration to anyone who is willing to be inspired, and Mary Lou writes at length about the process of discovering your inner artist, inviting play and discovery, and listening to yourself instead of to your friends and/or critics.
Every day you have at your disposal the ability to think big, think colorful, think happy, think with large imaginative images, think clever, think expressive, think funny, think lofty, think about the past, think about the future, and think things that no one but you can think of. You have the ability to think ‘out of the box’ and to share your wonderful thoughts and your imagination with others in the form of art, in this case, quilts.
How different is that from the quilting rut of choosing colors and fabrics that “go” with our living rooms, of fretting over “perfect” precise blocks, of fearing the quilt police so that our childlike creative voices are stifled?
What is out of the box? “Push the lid open and jump out!” says Mary Lou, and she gives us a checklist of 24 sample items to test our position in relation to the box. After administering this self-test I discovered that I am not quite out LOL, but I can peep over the lid.
This book holds quite a bit of wisdom, more reading and thoughtiness that your average quilting book I’d say. It’s a process book rather than a product book. I really appreciate that approach. When I’m in my booth at quilt shows, I’m often asked, “How long did it take you to make that?” or, “How long would it take to learn to do that?” Wow, that’s a really product-oriented type of thinking. I want to reply, “Does it matter, if you’re enjoying yourself?”
Mary Lou emphasizes the need to think and daydream, and this struck a chord with me as well. Often, what happens to me during shows is that when I have some down time… slow periods on the show floor, or upon waking up too early in the morning… I seize a pen and paper and write down long list of thoughts that flood into my brain. The inspiration and energy that comes from being at a quilt show turns on a tap for me and I love it when the daydreaming flow of creativity starts. Mary Lou says we need to set aside time for this every day to doodle, think, and imagine.
(Yes, you really can find a half an hour each day.)
There’s a list of creativity stoppers to watch out for (like, ‘there is only one right answer’), pages and pages of inspiration exercises and sources found in our everyday lives, how the author shops for fabric, a section on words in quilts, and lots of information on color. How about being shown the eight styles of fabric! This was an eye-opener for me and something I especially enjoyed.
Then there’s an extensive gallery of the author’s quilts and short-story quilts made by her friends and students. Martingale has done their usual fantastic job on the photography… kudos Brent Kane!!! The quilts burst from the pages. Mary Lou finishes up the book by talking about the making of short-story quilts and how you can derive them from your own life. She shares “secrets” of scale, theme, focus, design elements, drawing, creating patterns, and also shares her own methods of appliqué. Borders, quilting, finishing, and embellishing (’the icing on the cake’) are also included.
Out of the Box is quite a pep talk and an energizing boost! If you’d like to win a copy, leave a comment before 7:00 p.m. California time on Tuesday, April 6, 2010. (U.S. and Canada only.) Tell us why you need this book in your quiltmaking life!
The winner will also receive a copy of my book Easy Appliqué Blocks: 50 Designs in 5 Sizes. Thank you Martingale!
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Aug
19
Mermaids Like Margaritas with Salt!
Filed Under Books, Designers, Embellishment, Words | 10 Comments
ellen edith, a fellow Santa Cruz quilter and a fabulous fabric designer, just came out with a the cutest book ever. It’s called Mermaids Like Margaritas with Salt!
If you knew ellen, you would not think this an unusual title at all. ellen, who is possessed of the most wonderful spirit, tells hilarious stories about growing up in her wacky family, and she puts the stories in quilts! Mermaids, a little 7″ book, is crammed with 14 of ellen’s funny, colorful story quilts, complete with close-up details and tips. The book also includes step-by-step photos and instructions for you to use in creating a personal story quilt of your own.
On the ellen edith website, you can see a slideshow of images from inside the book. My favorite is “Why Should I Bake a Pie? They are Just Going to Eat it.”
You could win a copy of the book, plus one of ellen’s bookmarks and a magnet! Leave a comment telling a funny family story that you’d like to commemorate with a quilt, in 100 words or less. I’ll draw the winner at random on Friday at 7:00 p.m. California time. Can’t wait to read your stories.
Until then,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Mar
26
The Appliqué Society
Filed Under Articles, Designers, Patterns, Spotlights, Words | Leave a Comment
When I started a blog about appliqué, I said to myself, “You outghta be a member of The Appliqué Society.” So I joined up. I’ve received three newsletters so far, which have given me some sense of what the organization is all about. This from the TAS website:
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“The Appliqué Society’s mission is To Promote, to Teach, and to Encourage the Love of All Types of Appliqué in Quilting. We work to educate and promote public interest in the world of appliqué, as well as encourage and inspire creativity. The Appliqué Society (TAS) and its members want to ensure that the art of appliqué will continue through the generations.”
Membership benefits include a newsletter every other month. This publication is not a slick, overly produced piece. Printed in black and white, with hand-drawn patterns, it's reminiscent of real hometown quilters and appliqué fans. The content is wonderful. So far, the cover stories have been interviews with designers Elizabeth Scott, author of The ABCs of Words on Quilts, Pamela Humphries, author of Award-Winning Appliqué Birds, and Ricky Tims, author of Rhapsody Quilts. Within each interview there’s always a question or two about the designers’ techniques, which I’ve found truly illuminating in each case.
There are free patterns, as I said in many cases lovingly hand-drawn, features on specific topics in appliqué, product reviews, etc. In three issues I’ve picked up at least six tips! I’ll share just one of them, to give you an example. Member Jan Walter from central Illinois contributed a darling Santa pattern, and gives advice about the white beard and mustache: “For iron-on appliqué, back your whites by ironing a medium-weight interfacing on the back before ironing on the fusible web.” Thank you, Jan! We’ve all struggled with what do do about shadow-through with white appliqué pieces.
TAS has many noted professional members among its midst, who do a lot to support the organization by contributing patterns and articles. TAS membership also gives you the opportunity to join or start a local chapter, and stitch with like-minded quilters.
You might enjoy belonging to the Society as well. Visit the TAS website.
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Mar
22
Willie’s a homebody
Filed Under Machine appliqué, Stems/vines, Words, Zigzag | Leave a Comment
My little dog Willie loves to go places, and loves to come back. He’s a good traveler, but I think he’s the very happiest when all of his pack are at home.
As you know, he helps me in the studio and is my boon companion while I’m working on all of my “stuff.” Here he is checking out my latest project, Home.
Yes, that’s right, the ink was hardly dry on Teapots 2 to Appliqué when I was already hard at work on another quilt design. I’ve been in a phase of doing things I haven’t done before, and it’s great! Home is more primitive and folksy than what I’ve done before, and I love it.
I knew the word “Home” would be front and center, and didn’t worry about how I was going to get it on there until I was ready to do it. After all, I co-wrote an article about words in quilts, which appeared in American Quilter. I knew I had some tricks up my sleeve! But when it came to it, I ended up doing… guess what… something I hadn’t done before.
Okay, so I’ve made plenty of bias tape in my life with my trusty green gadget (see the post on stems and skinny stems) but I’ve usually stitched both sides, either by hand or machine. This time I just zig-zagged down the center of each strip with black thread. Then I made a trip to the store to get some fresh Fray Chek (the bottle in my drawer was ancient, probably came with me from Ohio 11 years ago). I used a tiny bit of this seam sealant on the raw ends of the letters to prevent fraying. I ended up with the folksy look I was after for this project.
Home’s going to be a booklet with full-size patterns printed in it. Stay tuned!
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Feb
11
Heart seeds
Filed Under Embellishment, Freezer paper on top, Hand appliqué, Holiday, Needleturn, Turned edge, Words | Leave a Comment
Here’s another block from Growing Hearts to Appliqué. A fun one, yes?
When brainstorming on a theme,”growing hearts” or whatever, it’s so wonderful to let your imagination roam free and think up all sorts of notions about how to portray your ideas.
For this crazy design, I used freezer-paper templates on top, and I hand-embroidered the letters. The little black heart seeds are inked on with a permanent fabric marker.
And don’t faint, but maybe you can see that this quilt is hand-quilted. It still happens now and again.
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Oct
4
Promote your sewing room!
Filed Under Articles, Improvisational appliqué, Machine appliqué, Prepared edge, Stems/vines, Topstitch, Words | Leave a Comment
One more quilt from “the article” (see previous two posts). This one had its own sidebar!
I made this quilted sign to hang in my sewing room, thereby elevating its status to a “studio.” If you make a sign for your sewing room it can be a studio too!
To form the letters, I made bias tape with my trusty green gadget, the original Clover® ¼” bias tape maker.
Then I used the fusible strip that comes on a roll, except I cut it in half lengthwise to make a very thin strip applied to the center of the bias tape only. That keeps things more flexible.
A fat eighth of fabric formed the backdrop as I played with the arrangement of the letters, sticking pins straight down into them to hold them until I was happy with how they looked. Then I fused them in place. I put tearaway stabilizer behind, and topstitched the letters on both sides. After removing the stabilizer, I added the strippy borders and machine-quilted the sign. Then I got into my button box and tied buttons through the quilt over all of the raw edges of the letters, and now it looks like a quirky typeface!
Bias tape letters are informal, folksy, and fun. Save this technique for a project where the letters are meant to be tall and skinny, because the wider the strips the less flexible they are.
Until next time,
Kay
Oct
2
Ultrasuede letters
Filed Under Blanket stitch, Embellishment, Fabrics, Fusible web, Raw edge, Words | Leave a Comment
This cutie was also made for the “Ways With Words” article (see previous post). In the article there are some notes about using Ultrasuede™ for making letters, but there wasn’t room for a photo example, so the quilt didn’t make it into the article.
It’s called “Peek A Boo” (as distinguished from my “Peekaboo” quilt pattern, which was named for a traditional quilt block).
The shy bear was needle-turned and then hand-buttonhole-stitched around the edges. For the letters in his sign, I used fusible web, being careful not to smash down the texture of the ultrasuede when fusing.
Ultrasuede is a slightly fluffy synthetic material that doesn’t ravel, so you don’t have to finish the edges. I used some embroidery floss in a running stitch to embellish the letters and to hold them in place permanently.
The frame and post of the sign are also ultrasuede, which I machine-buttonhole-stitched.
So, quite a mixture of techniques from my appliqué bag of tricks for this little quilt!
Until next time,
Kay
P.S. I got the ultrasuede scraps inexpensively on ebay.
P.P.S. If you’d like to see the other Peekaboo, you are invited to visit my patterns page at Quilt Puppy.
Sep
29
Ways With Words
Filed Under Articles, Words | Leave a Comment
I conspired with my friend ellen edith on an article in the latest issue of American Quilter Magazine (Projects 2007). I called the article “Ways With Words.” It ended up being “The Write Stuff: Ways With Words.” As you might be able to tell, the article talks about several different ways of including words in quilts. Appliqué is of course a natural choice.
For the article, I made a little quilt called “Time 4 Tea.” It’s 24″x 18″, and in the magazine is living large on about a half a page!
The letters, the large curly 4, the clock frame, and the teapot are fused and machine blanket-stitched. The clockface numerals are inked on with a permanent fabric pen.
Over at the Quilt Puppy Show & Tell Center, there’s a beautiful quilt (also tea-themed) with words on it that were exquisitely hand-appliquéd by Cheryl Booton. Go see Tea Time For Good Friends.
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