It’s nice to freshen things up once in awhile… fluff and plump and dust, simplify and rearrange. With that in mind, I recently challenged myself to give my website a complete overhaul.

The old site served me well, and I was proud of myself for rolling up my sleeves and learning how to code html, but the internet has come so far just in the last 12 years that it was time to change to something simpler.

It took awhile, but now it’s all done! The By Kay Mackenzie shop is now powered by Square. It’s much easier to navigate, and you can see everything for one item all together in one spot! That’s worth celebrating!

Celebrate the grand reopening with a coupon worth 10% off your entire order! Enter FRESH as a promo code during checkout. Normal shipping charges apply. Expires May 31, 2016.

new-store

Note: The url for my website stays the same. You’ll land on the home page, and from there you can click “Come on in the shop” and you’ll go to the new Square online store.

Happy dancing,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Kay’s Etsy Shop

Volume 13 winner!

Filed Under Magazines | Comments Off on Volume 13 winner!

Congratulations go to Lori Butler! She came up the winner of a copy of 100 Blocks, Volume 13, courtesy of the editors at Quiltmaker!

100-9

If you still need to get your copy, you can look for it at your favorite newsstand, or order from quiltmaker.com. They have hard copy and download.

Until next time, with some exciting news!
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Kay’s Etsy Shop

Welcome to All About Appliqué on this third day of the 100 Blocks Blog Tour!

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, I’m so glad you’re here! You’ll find a wealth of information about all kinds of appliqué here, so take your time clicking around the categories, and use the keyword search as well.

My block was inspired by the famous and beloved quilt by Susan McCord, Trailing Vines, which is in the Henry Ford Museum. Here’s a closeup of her fantastical leaves (photo courtesy of the museum). I have passionately loved and admired the inclusion of red and blue.

trailing-vines-closeup

I design my appliqué blocks in Adobe Illustrator, a vector graphics program. Usually I do not use color to fill in the shapes, because what happens is that I become attached to those colors and drive myself crazy trying to match them in fabric.

Well guess what, that’s exactly what happened this time LOL. I started playing around with color, and it was all over. Here’s my digital mockup, seeing what the leaves would look like cut out of strip sets.

illos-make-beleaf

Predictably, I couldn’t rest until I replicated what I saw on my computer screen. Most of the colors I found with ease, but I tore my stash apart looking for that just-right light tan. Finally found it! Yay!

fabrics-beleaf

The background is a light misty gray hand-dyed fabric from Always Unique. It’s gonna give it somewhat of a moderny look.

Here’s my pile o’ strips.

strips-beleaf

Laid out into two different strip sets.

strip-sets-beleaf

And here’s my finished block, Make Beleaf. I used raw-edge fusible machine appliqué.

I love combining patchwork with appliqué, so these stripped leaves are right up my alley. Of course you can use all sorts of different colors, and the leaves can be used in a million different ways. Templates and complete instructions are found in the magazine. Have fun making yours!

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 Tuesday, May 10.

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 (click on the title of the article) and leave your comment at the bottom of the post. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by on the blog hop!

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Kay’s Etsy Shop