Vol14-COVER-200px_69246

Welcome to All About Appliqué on this second 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.

Here’s my block for Volume 14, “Little Falling Star.”

QM100-MACK

When I sent the block in, I called it “Shooting Star,” because it’s traveling upwards. You could make it more of a falling star just by rotating it a quarter turn.

QM100-MACK-falling

And if you want to to travel the other way just reverse it from there.

QM100-MACK-falling-rev

I used some beautiful batiks to make this version. You could also make it look very playful by using colorful prints. Here’s another version.

shooting star

You’ll notice that here I chose to leave out the inner trail and let the groovy flower print shine. :)

Of course, shooting or falling stars are really meteoroids, but it’s much more fun visually to render them as stars!

Hope you have fun with your star, and also enjoy the 99 other fantastic blocks in Volume 14. I already have my advance copy, and let me tell you, it is a feast for the eyes. If you’d like to win a copy, just leave a comment at the bottom of this post before noon California time on Friday, November 18.

(Remember that if you are subscribed by email, clicking “reply” will not enter you in the drawing. Click over to the blog itself on the internet to leave your comment at the bottom of the post. Thanks!!)

And don’t forget to start every day the rest of the week at Quilty Pleasures to take part in the blog hop.

Happy sitiching!

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

The blog tourist who came up the winner of a copy of 100 Blocks Volume 11 is… Julie in WA! Congratulations to Julie, who reports that she enjoys every minute of the blog hop and is always sad when it ends. Julie will receive a copy of Volume 11 from Quiltmaker.

Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by, and for your lovely, wonderful words.

The magazine gave instructions for the block using fusible appliqué, applying the black scroll on top of the heart. QuiltMouse, who tested my block for the magazine, used fusible as well but cut the scroll out of the heart and laid it on top of the black, thus devising a form of raw-edge reverse appliqué. Genius!

Some readers referred to Celtic appliqué.

I like it, it has a celtic feel to it.

I’ve always wanted to try celtic applique. This would be a good way to get a feel for it.

I love it! I would do bias tape fusible, Celtic-style.

Celtic-style would be another way to go about it! I haven’t done a lot of Celtic appliqué, but I understand how it’s done. Bias strips with turned edges are interwoven and stitched down to create beautiful knots and border designs. This is regular appliqué. Here’s a current book on the subject.

When we submit our blocks to 100 Blocks, we don’t send any instructions. The editors of the magazine write the instructions. Though the magazine gives directions for fusible appliqué, I stitched mine by hand. I mentioned this in my blog hop post… the outer edges are regular appliqué, and the scroll is reverse appliqué. When reviewing the comments, I noticed a trend.

I love hearts I really like applique but your block looks very difficult

The only time I tried reverse appliqué it was a disaster; it’s definitely time I tried again with good instructions!

that sure is a lot of work, you must love applique.

Stunning – it looks like a load of work but I bet it’s not that bad!

I can’t imagine how you did that reverse applique on those tiny pieces.

I would have loved to look over your shoulder as you created this and learned how you did the turned edge/reverse appliqué.

I have never tried reverse applique before, but it needs to happen soon.

I have been wanting to try reverse applique.

Darling block, got to try reverse applique – I love needle turn applique – so this hopefully won’t be a big stretch to learn!

I’d love to learn reverse appliqué one day.

Maybe this is my chance to take a stab at trying reverse applique.

I have never tried reverse applique before…this looks like the perfect block to try it on!

I think I might try the reverse applique method. It might even be easier than hand applique.

Reverse applique on a curve – wow. I need to try that!

Reverse applique is something for me to learn as it looks amazing in your scrolls on that lovely heart.

I’ve tried a bit of hand applique and really enjoy it, but I’ve not tried reverse applique yet.

Gorgeous heart block! I haven’t tried reverse appliqué, but it is on my list of techniques to try.

This could be a good way to ease into reverse applique–only a few corners.

I have never tried reverse applique, I may have to come back if I decide to attempt with this block.

I have never done reverse applique but think your block would be a good one to try it on.

I find reverse applique to be very interesting but I have never tried it.

I haven’t tried reverse applique in years, but your block tempts me.

Lovely block, I’ve never tried reverse appliqué.

Will you be offering a tutorial?

What’s all this mystery surrounding reverse appliqué? To those who say they have never done it… guess what! It’s the same as regular appliqué!

That’s right, let me say it again. Reverse appliqué is no different than regular appliqué. You’re just revealing the background instead of covering it up.

Under the terms of my agreement with Quiltmaker, I cannot give instructions for the block at this time. However, when the rights revert to me (three months after publication, in mid-August), I will be more than happy to put up a photo tutorial of how I made this block. I’ll take Julie’s suggestion: “I would love to see it tone on tone, with the scroll being a bit darker shade than the heart.” You got it!

In the meantime, check out my earlier post about reverse appliqué for a gentle demystification. :)

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Kay’s Etsy Shop

Greetings gentle quilters!! It’s Wrap-up Day for the 100 Blocks Volume 11 blog tour! I hope you’ve been having a rollicking week visiting all of the designers. I’m so proud to have one of the 100 once again. This marks the 10th time for me, how very cool!!!


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

Like many quilters, I love hearts, and hearts find their way into many of my designs. I also happen to love spirals, so for my latest block I combined the two.

Scroll Heart by Kay Mackenzie

The magazine gives instructions and templates for making the block using fusible appliqué. But I actually stitched this block by hand, using a combination of regular and reverse appliqué. It gives the scroll an inlaid look.

I used regular hand appliqué around the edge of the heart. For the scroll, I used reverse appliqué to open and stitch the red fabric, exposing an inserted piece of black underneath.

However which-a-way you like to appliqué, I hope you enjoy the block and all the other 99 fabulous and varied designs in Volume 11!

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 Wednesday, May 13.

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 and leave your comment at the bottom of the post. :)

Many thanks for your visit!
Cheerio,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Kay’s Etsy Shop

The Mackenzies have a new family member! We couldn’t be happier to welcome our new puppy, Daisy.

Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile will remember Wilie, our darling dog who lived to almost 17. It’s been over 3 years since he left us, and for those 3 years we’ve been thinking about getting another dog, talking about it, not doing much about it, and then, all of a sudden we were ready!

Daisy and her sister came into our shelter as strays, about 3 months old. Her sister looks more like a chihuahua, and Daisy looks more like a terrier. As far as we can tell she’s some sort of Yorkie-or-other-terrier/chihuahua mix. Whatever she is, she’s 100% cute!


Daisy and Max, our great big cat, are working it out in mostly civilized fashion :). It’s great to have a dog in the house again, especially a champion snuggler sweetie pie.

Thanks for letting me show off my new pup,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Kay’s Etsy Shop

P.S. Don’t forget the 100 Blocks Volume 11 Blog tour, starting Monday! My day is Friday, but you’ll want to start the tour on Monday at Quilty Pleasures.

It’s almost time for Volume 11 of 100 Blocks to come out!

The editors of Quiltmaker, who put together this very special magazine issue every six months, are once again organizing a blog hop amongst the designers. Mark your calendars for the week of May 4!

There will be lots of prize-winning opportunities all week long. Start each day at the Quiltmaker blog Quilty Pleasures and they’ll send you on your way to visit the blogs of many of the designers who have blocks in the issue.

My day is Friday, May 8. See you then if not before!

Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Kay’s Etsy Shop

Greetings gentle quilters!! It’s Kickoff Day of the 100 Blocks Volume 10 blog tour! I’m so happy to have a block in this landmark issue.

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

I’m delighted and proud to say that this is my ninth time having one of the 100 Blocks. (I must have been asleep at the switch for Volume 2.) I just love participating in these special issues, and golly! Ten times ten, that’s 100 different original blocks that have been published since the whole thing started. Quite an accomplishment… comgratulations to the Quiltmaker staff!

My latest title from Martingale, Scrap-Appliqué Playground, is all about different ways to put scraps together and cut appliqués out of them. After the book came out, I started playing around with more ideas for cutting appliqués out of something other than just one fabric. In the last issue I had Half-Log-Cabin Tulips. Another clever way to use a traditional pieced quilt block for appliqué is Nine-Patch Posies!


Cutting a flower “just so” from a traditional nine-patch block gives a fun, stylized look to a very traditional appliqué motif. Of course you can change up the colors as you like.

The magazine gives complete instructions for making the block, and includes the flower template that fits just right on the pieced nine-patch. Awesome.

I hope you enjoy this block and all the other 99 fabulous and varied designs in Volume 10!

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 Friday, November 21.

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 and leave your comment at the bottom of the post. :)

Many thanks for your visit!
Cheerio,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Just finished one of the most hectic times ever. Palm Springs, followed by PIQF, followed by a visit from the in-laws, followed by a guild show. All I can say is, I lived through it, and am mighty glad to be home amid peace and quiet and down time. Happy rabbit. :)

Over this last weekend I was in Roseville, California, for the Pioneer Quilt Guild show. A quilter stopped by to let me know that she had a quilt in the show made using my Teapots 2 to Appliqué patterns. What a treat for me!

Asian Teapots by Karen Price

Thank you for the shout-out, Karen!

Beautifully hand appliquéd.

And hand quilted!

On another note, Volume 10 of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks comes out later this month.


I have a block in there once again, I’m happy to say. The kickoff blog tour is November 17-21.

These blog tours are lots of fun, with many prize-winning opportunities along the way. My day is Monday, November 17. See you then!

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Welcome gentle quilters!! It’s Day 3 of the 100 Blocks Volume 9 blog tour! These tours are always a rollicking good time, and I’m happy to be part of things once again.

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 All About Appliqué, I’m glad you’re here! You’ll find a wealth of information about all kinds of appliqué here on the blog. And, we have a featured appliqué book at the beginning of every month, given away in a drawing, which is way fun.

I’m delighted and proud to say that this is my eighth time having one of the 100 Blocks. I just love participating in these special issues!

My latest title from Martingale, Scrap-Appliqué Playground, is all about different ways to put scraps together and cut appliqués out of them. After the book came out, I started playing around with more ideas for cutting appliqués out of something other than just one fabric. I let my mind run wild, and realized that there are clever ways to use traditional pieced quilt blocks for this! It’s the best of both worlds!

Half-Log-Cabin Tulip by Kay Mackenzie.

Cutting a tulip “just so” from a traditional half-log-cabin block gives a fun, stylized look to a very traditional appliqué flower. Split leaves and a patched background complement the pieced nature of the tulip.

The magazine gives complete instructions for making the block, and includes the tulip template that fits just right on the half-log-cabin once it’s pieced. Very cool.

Of course you can change up the color of the background and the flowers. Here are just a couple of possibilities!

I hope you enjoy this block and all the other 99 fabulous and varied designs in Volume 9!

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 Sunday, May 4.

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 and leave your comment at the bottom of the post. :)

Many thanks for your visit!
Cheerio,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Volume 9 of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks is coming out soon!

To celebrate the release of their newest block collection, Quiltmaker is throwing a big party in the form of a blog tour with lots of prize-winning opportunities along the way.


The tour goes Monday, April 28, through Friday, May 2. Start each day at the Quiltmaker blog Quilty Pleasures and they’ll send you on your way to visit the blogs of many of the designers who have blocks in the issue.

My day is Wednesday, April 30. See you then!

My block is the one on the right :).

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

I’m subscribed to the appliqué book feed on Amazon, and as soon as I saw the announcement of a new book that was coming out, I was intrigued and followed the link right away.

The Quilter’s Appliqué Workshop by Kevin Kosbab, from Interweave/F+W Media.

I pulled up the “Look Inside” on Amazon, started reading the section on “Give Appliqué a Chance,”, and honestly, I got chills. Kevin and I could have one brain on the subject of appliqué hesitation. As you know I had just been working on The Appliqué Self-Help Brochure!

I contacted Interweave to see if they would be willing to send a review copy. Not only were they quite gracious about doing so, they set up an interview with Kevin! I’m so happy to share our email conversation, a little later in the post.

The Quilter’s Appliqué Workshop combines traditional methods with a fresh design eye. Kevin gently introduces and thoroughly explains several methods of hand and machine appliqué, including raw-edge, prepared-edge, and needle-turn, all presented with striking projects that fall toward the modern aesthetic. The old and the new… what a great combo platter!

Cobblestones Quilt

Here’s what Kevin and I talked about.

• Kay: I love the front matter in your book… “Give Appliqué a Chance.” You and I both have heard what you aptly call “the old chestnuts,” such as “I don’t have the patience.” Me, in my booth at shows… how about you?

• Kevin: There’s a healthy die-hard appliqué contingent at my local quilt guild, but other members are more hesitant to approach the “A-word”. Just attending quilt shows gives ample opportunity to overhear similar sentiments as people browse the vendors and displays. The most puzzling thing I’ve heard is, “I don’t appliqué, but I do fusible”–which, as you point out in your flier, IS appliqué!

• Kay: You and I think alike when it comes to appliqué method. There are so many ways to go about it, and there’s no one correct way! I really like how you present this concept, both in the section called “Choosing a Method” and as each is introduced. Most books just announce the method, and plow right into it! You start out by asking “Why?” and then delivering an explanation of why one might choose that particular method. Is that the way your mind works?

• Kevin: Definitely! High school calculus baffled me because nobody would (or could) explain the “why” of the processes, so I wanted to lay out actual reasons why one appliqué method might be beneficial in certain circumstances. Projects in the book like Eccentric Concentrics and the All Seasons Pillows take advantage of the freeform nature of needle-turn, while the crisp shapes of the Pineapple Rings and Counterbalance quilts make more sense as prepared-edge projects. And to define edges with decorative stitching or contrasting thread, you can’t beat raw-edge fusible appliqué. I really believe there’s no one-size-fits-all method, and each offers unique opportunities and challenges.

Counterbalance Quilt

• Kay: The subtitle of the book is “Timeless Techniques for Modern Designs.” Its seems to act as a bridge between what’s time-honored and what’s coming up new and fresh in quilting today. Was that your thinking going into the project?

• Kevin: It was definitely one of the thoughts floating around in my head–in a wider sense, that’s how I like to approach quilting and needlework in general, learning from the experience of people before me while applying those skills to a newer aesthetic. I love digging through old needlework books and figuring out how to extract the basic techniques from the often dated examples.

• Kay: The book gives information on very precise ways to achieve results, and also more freeform strategies. I appreciate the way you encourage imprecision and improvisation in appliqué.

• Kevin: I’m so glad to hear that. I think concentration on precision is one of the biggest barriers to enjoyment of appliqué, so I wanted to counter that with a different perspective. There’s been lots of interest in improvisational piecing over the last several years, and it felt to me that improvisation was an even more natural component of appliqué, even though it’s not an aspect I often see associated with appliqué (or encouraged). Historical quilts are rarely absolutely precise, but they have a vitality that’s lost when we try too hard to emulate computer-aided perfection. Improvisation shouldn’t be about shoddy craftsmanship, but about embracing the handmade nature of the things we are taking the time to make by hand.

All Seasons Pillows

• Kay: The sidebar on “Quilt Police, Appliqué Division” had me cracking up! I’ll just quote the first couple of sentences. “Every branch of quilting has its share of self-appointed authoritarians on a mission to ensure compliance with their version of The Right Way To Do Things. Appliqué seems to attract an especially large police force, but as in real law enforcement, their statutes vary by jurisdiction.” Well said!

• Kevin: Thanks, I had fun writing it! Writing pages and pages of detailed technical instructions can provoke occasional outbursts like that. ;-) And besides, who said quilting had to be all serious business?

• Kay: You talk about how when you first became interested in appliqué, there were calls to mom. Can you describe how those calls went?

• Kevin: Well, to start with, my mom was quite surprised that I was considering quilting, since I’d been insistent she not make me a quilt when I went away to college (“Mo-om, it’ll be embarrassing!”). But she offered to quilt my first (pieced) quilt top, and quite fortuitously left the binding for me to do. I told her I found hand-sewing the binding strangely enjoyable, to which she said, “You know, if you like sewing the binding, you’d probably like appliqué.”

She’s an expert appliquér, so since she was my main point of quilting contact then, she didn’t instill any of the fear many quilters feel about appliqué. She encouraged me to try a freezer paper and starch-turned method to start with and gave me a basic run-down of how it worked, and I set off to do a large-scale appliqué across the better part of a full-size bed quilt–not how I’d recommend starting, but it got me hooked. After I’d done a couple quilts that way, I lamented to my mom how the starching and ironing started to feel tedious, a feeling she shared (neither of us get our kicks from ironing laundry), so she promised to show me needle-turn applique the next time we got together in person.

Fruit Market Quilt

The rest of my family couldn’t believe the sight of the two of us messing about with fabric and needles, but since then my younger brother’s also become a costume designer, so my father and other brother (both engineers) really wonder what happened.

My mom also gave lots of advice on tools and supplies, though what I had available at the time was pretty much limited to what was available on foot in downtown Philadelphia (which meant hand-quilting thread for appliqué–again, not what I’d recommend for a beginner!). We still compare notes on new supplies, techniques, and ideas. Though our quilts look totally different, our attitudes about quilting are pretty close, so she’s been very generous in helping me out with pattern samples. Call me a mamma’s boy if you must, but we do live thousands miles apart!

• Kay: The book has full-size patterns in a plastic bag attached to the inside back cover! Excellent! Was that your concept?

• Kevin: The publisher decided the ultimate format, but I felt strongly that the patterns should be printed full size. It’s so frustrating when a book requires patterns to be enlarged–it always seems to take a huge amount of trial and error to get the photocopies to come out right. If people have bought the book, they shouldn’t have to pay a copy shop too.

That said, I did have to work out an enlargement percentage for the Eccentric Concentrics Quilt in the book because the pattern is the size of the entire quilt, but I hope people will prefer to sketch out their own interpretation.

• Kay: How did you and Interweave get together?

• Kevin: I’ve been designing sewing projects for Stitch, one of Interweave’s magazines, since their second issue, so that’s how their books division found me. The acquisitions editor asked if I’d thought about writing a book, to which I replied, “As a matter of fact, yes!” I’d worked as a book editor myself, so a quilting book had been knocking around in my head for a while.

• Kay: When, why, and how did you become interested in quilting and appliqué? Do you teach classes? How do we pronounce your last name?

• Kevin: Still with neither of us thinking I’d get into quilting, my mom bought me my first sewing machine when I started talking about making curtains for my first apartment. That apartment never had its curtains finished, though, because I soon got distracted with quilting: I made a really simple quilt for my bed from Denyse Schmidt‘s first book, then another bed quilt from Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr‘s book shortly after, and then I started designing my own patterns. I actually picked up appliqué shortly after those first two quilts, encouraged by my enjoyment of binding. I’d never planned to get into quilting, but it gave a medium to my lifelong interest in graphic design–appliqué was the last piece of the puzzle, opening up infinite possibilities in designing quilts.

I do teach classes, including some new ones based on the improvisational approaches in my book. Confirmed teaching engagements are posted on my website on the Class Schedule page.

My last name has been mispronounced in lots of ways over the years, but per the U.S. Air Force it’s KOZ-bab, just like it’s spelled but with a Z sound instead of an S. It previously had a more Germanic pronunciation, but my grandfather decided his name was whatever his superiors called him, so that’s what we’ve been running with since.

Thanks for your kind words and thoughtful questions. It’s hugely rewarding to hear that someone “gets it” after all the work of putting the book together.

• Kay: I get it! Been going there and doing that! You did a great job.

Kevin Kosbab, photo by John Lessard

Kevin on Facebook.

Kevin’s putting together a blog tour to celebrate the upcoming release of his book! It’ll be going on February 20-28 over on Kevin’s blog, Feed Dog Designs. Be sure to mark your calendars!

In the meantime, I have a copy of The Quilter’s Appliqué Workshop to give away here! If you’d like to enter my drawing, leave a comment here on the blog before 7:00 p.m. on Monday, February 17.

Open to U.S. and Canada mailing addresses only. And remember, step away from the “reply” button if you’re getting this by email. Come to the blog itself to leave your comment.

Thanks Kevin for taking the time to share some inside info with us!

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

A great big welcome to you!! It’s Day 5 of the 100 Blocks Volume 8 blog tour! I know you’ve been having a blast and a half on the tour so far!


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 All About Appliqué, I’m glad you’re here! You’ll find a wealth of information about appliqué — all kinds — here on the blog. If you’re a regular reader or you’ve been here before for one of these hops, welcome back!

I’m delighted and proud to say that this is my seventh time having one of the 100 Blocks. I just love participating in these special issues!

My block this time is traditional in nature. Baskets of fruit and flowers abound in our appliqué heritage. Here’s my Basket of Oranges.

One of my very favorite color schemes is the complementary combination of orange and teal. Putting oranges in the basket led me very naturally to choose a tealy blue for the basket!

There are many other possibilities of course.

Brown is a natural choice for baskets.

Making a bright quilt? How about a purple basket?

I hope you enjoy this block and all the other ninety-nine scrumptious and varied designs in Volume 8.

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 Wednesday, November 20.

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 and leave your comment there. :)

Many thanks!
Cheerio,
Kay

The lucky reader who came up the winner of the Quilt Art 2014 Engagement Calendar is… No. 1, Carolyn! Congratulations Carolyn! May it help you stay very organized and quilty in 2014.

Before I talk about what’s coming down the pike, my heartfelt thanks to everyone who chimed in on the subject of an appliqué self-help brochure. Your very thoughtful observations are all going into the pot as I think the subject over. I’ll revisit this in a later post.

Now: Some fun things are coming!

My last show of the year is put on by the Pioneer Quilt Guild in Roseville, California, November 9-10. I really enjoyed this show the last two years and am looking forward to it once again. It’s a nice facility, and a really nice group of gals.

Next: Volume 8 of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks is coming out soon!

To celebrate the release of this newest block collection, Quiltmaker is throwing a big party in the form of a blog tour with lots of prize-winning opportunities along the way.

The tour goes Monday, November 11, through Friday, November 15. Start each day at the Quiltmaker blog Quilty Pleasures and they’ll send you on your way to visit the blogs of many of the designers who have blocks in the issue.

My day is Friday, November 15. And here comes another fun thing… I’ll be auto-scheduling the post to go up that day, because DH Dana and I will be in the U.K.!

Dana’s attending a statistics conference in London.

You knew that it’s The International Year of Statistics, right?

As soon as my quilt show and Dana’s conference are over, I’m flying out to join him. We’ll spend a few days in London and then travel north to Scotland, from whence my Grandmother Logan hailed. I’ll meet a second cousin and tour Inverurie, the ancestral homeplace.

Inverurie is just a little north of Aberdeen. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.

See you when I get back! I’m hoping to visit some fabric and quilt stores while I’m across the pond.

Cheerio,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

The All About Appliqué reader who won a copy of 100 Blocks, Volume 7 in last week’s blog tour is #225, Lovie Ball! Congratulations Lovie! The magazine has already put your copy in the mail. :)

Lovie said that she loved unicorns as a child and that the pony block could be a unicorn with the addition of a little horn. Absolutely! I would love to see that variation.

If you didn’t win a copy during the tour, there’s still a chance! Shayla Wolf, editorial assistant at Quiltmaker, had her first block in this volume and is so excited about it that she’s doing an extra, special giveaway right now. Head on over to Quilty Pleasures to see Shayla’s adorable block “Hootie” and find out how to enter the draw in a couple of different ways.

And, if you’re still not in luck, I’ve added the issue to my website and you can order it there, on the Patterns page.

I made the cover again! Happy dance!

Until next time,
Kay

A hearty welcome to you!! It’s Day 2 of the 100 Blocks Volume 7 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 All About Appliqué, I’m glad you’re here! You’ll find a wealth of information about appliqué — all kinds — here on the blog. If you’re a regular reader or you’ve been here before for one of these hops, welcome back!

I’m delighted to say that this is my sixth time having a block in an issue of 100 Blocks. It’s so much fun! Dogs and cats often work their way into my appliqué designs. This time, I went back to my first love in animals. I was one of those horse-crazy girls, and for awhile we had a little horse Zora, named after the beloved ninth-grade English teacher that all of us kids had going through school.

Me and Zora, circa 19$%&^ oh sorry got a finger cramp. Zora was white with black specks, known as a flea-bitten gray. She was a gentle soul and and she let me ride her bareback all around the countryside for hours.

When I was looking for the photo I found another one, this time of my beautiful late mother when she was young. Maybe it runs in the family. :)

Now you know why I was so pleased that the editors of 100 Blocks chose “Dream Pony” to be in Volume 7!

For my block that’s in the magazine, pictured above, I made a buckskin pony. You can easily change the coat color, mane, and tail to make a whole herd of others!

Palomino

Dapple Gray

Bay

Piebald

Apaloosa

Apaloosa


Just a few of the wide range of wonderful ponies in the world.

There are 99 more charming and delightful quilt blocks in Volume 7, made all different ways, so there’s something for everyone. The publishers are offering a free copy of the magazine to a lucky winner! If you’d like a chance to win one, leave a comment here on this post before 7:00 p.m. California time on Monday, May 6.

Thanks a million for visiting, enjoy the hop! Be sure to start each day this week at Quilty Pleasures.

Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Last weekend I was at the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association’s biannual show. My booth was right up front and I was delighted to find out that I was directly across from the featured quilters, one of whom was Bobbi Finley!

I first met Bobbi, who’s friends with a number of friends of mine, in 2010 at Road to California. In the years since then she’s popped by my booth at various shows to say hello. It was great having a chance to be neighbors for the weekend.

Bobbi is co-author with Carol Gilham Jones of the wonderful book Tile Quilt Revival, previously featured here on the blog. She had beautiful samples of tile quilts hung up, as well as some quilts from her new book with Carol, Fresh Perspectives.


Subtitled “Reinventing 18 Classic Quilts from the International Quilt Study Center & Museum,” this very cool book shows fresh, new updated versions side by side with the classic quilts that inspired them.

The cover quilt.

New houses!

There were some incredible appliqué quilts in the show.

Baltimore & Bali by Charlotte Scholberg

Olive Roses by Ratnes Siva

Penny Tucker is good buddies with my buddy Pam and is a fabulous appliqué teacher. Whiffle Tree is since closed, and Penny now teaches at Prairie Queens in San Jose, California.

Summer by Kathy McComas

Brenda's Wooly Garden by Brenda Croak

Kaye Moore is a buddy of mine in quilt-show land, and does the most incredible work with wool appliqué. If you haven’t seen Kaye’s article here on the blog, you should check it out!

And then there were a couple of old-timey quilts… okay, when I read their descriptions I kind of choked up. You’ll see what I mean.

Prairie Sunflowers by Karen Friedrichs

Sunbonnet Sue by Renee Rankin

Gulp. Quilts are mighty powerful things, aren’t they?

In other news:

This weekend I’m off to San Luis Obispo for the Seven Sisters Quilt Show. If you’re in that neighborhood, I hope to see you there!

Mark your calendars for the 100 Blocks Volume 7 blog tour! It’s April 29-May 3. Start each day at the Quilmaker blog, Quilty Pleasures. From there you’ll be sent off each day to blogs written by the designers who have a block in the issue. There are lots of great creative ideas along the way, not to mention giveaways, so don’t miss the tour. My day is Tuesday, April 30.

See you then!
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

I’m delighted today to turn the blog over to author, designer, and educator Margaret Bucklew!

Margaret just came out with a new book, Step by Step Portrait Art Quilts: Learn to Create Realistic Portrait and Pictorial Quilts, and today is the first day of a fun blog hop to celebrate its release!


Take it away, Margaret!

We each have our own first quilting experiences, some with more fanfare than others.

Once I had made quilts for everyone in the immediate family, I decided to include myself, and found a pattern with pieced triangular trees interspersed with schoolhouses. I wanted to use colors to reflect fall foliage and have some leaves falling within negative space on the quilt; however, those falling leaves presented a problem. They would need to be appliquéd onto the top. Uh-Oh! I had no idea how to appliqué. To me, the falling leaves had to be on the quilt, so I cut out shapes of leaves and pinned the fabric onto the top not knowing how they would permanently be affixed.

My one and only quilt class was needleturn appliqué. What a wonderful class! I was hooked. The leaves were appliquéd, the quilt was completed, and my appliqué adventure began. I love needleturn, but it is slow going. Machine appliqué is another option.

If you are like I was, a bit afraid to try appliqué, I have a super easy free block for you to use for practice and perhaps make more blocks and turn them into a quilt or a pillow.

This graphic indicates how the block would look if you needleturned, used a blanket stitch, or used a zig zag or satin stitch. Also shown in the pattern are easy-to-follow images indicating how to put on the back pieces covered by the front pieces.

I hope you’ll use the free pattern and give appliqué a try.

I migrated from being afraid of appliqué to designing appliqué quilts! A love of portrait work led me into developing a technique to create realistic portrait and pictorial appliqué quilts.

For a few more appliqué tips, please visit the next blog in the book blog tour.

If you are interested in giving portrait or pictorial quilts a try, my “Step by Step Portrait Art Quilts: Learn to Create Realistic Portrait and Pictorial Quilts” book might be just the answer for you. The book is available both in print and as an eBook.

The book’s Amazon page.

The eBook’s Kobo page.

Thank you Margaret! Be sure to follow the rest of the blog hop all this week for more fun with appliqué and information about the book. Here’s the schedule!

Tuesday
Sew Useful Designs

Wednesday
A Passion for Applique

Thursday
Jackie’s Art Quilts

Friday
Quilting and Sewing Videos

Thanks again Margaret, and congratulations! Enjoy every minute.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

The lucky winner of Baltimore’s Country Cousins is No. 6, Karen Crosby. Congratulations Karen! You’ll enjoy these folk-art influenced designs.

In other news: Right now, on the Quiltmaker blog Quilty Pleasures, they’re having a giveaway contest of the new issue of Quilts From 100 Blocks.

Go on over and enter for a chance to win one of 25 copies! The contest ends Friday so go now.

Speaking of 100 Blocks, I was thrilled to hear that I have a block in the upcoming Volume 7! My block is so very dear to my heart and I hope you’ll enjoy it too. (Yes, it’s an animal, but maybe not the one you’d expect.) I’ll be participating in the blog hop March 29 through May 3 and I’ll show it then.

Last bit of news! Next week author, designer, and educator Margaret Bucklew is celebrating the release of her brand-new book, and she asked me to be in her blog tour! I’m kicking off on Day 1 with a neat guest post from Margaret. You won’t want to miss it… she has a nice surprise for you.

Until Monday,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

The lucky blog hopper who came up the winner of 100 Blocks, Volume 6 is…. No. 274, Vivian!

Congratulations Vivian, enjoy the magazine, and thanks a million for visiting All About Appliqué.

The magazine hits the newsstands this week, so if you didn’t win a copy during the blog hop, it’s time to start looking out for it. Or, I just put it up on my website, on the Patterns page.

I’m home now for nine solid weeks. Stay tuned, ’cause there are some very fun and exciting things coming down the pike.

Max is on pins and needles.

Back soon,
Kay

By Kay Mackenzie

Greetings! It’s Day 1 of the 100 Blocks Volume 6 blog hop!

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 All About Appliqué, you are very welcome! If you’re a regular reader or you’ve been here before for one of these hops, welcome back!

This time around my block, Sleep Tight, is a whimsical combination of piecing and appliqué. An old-timey patchwork quilt is tucked into a comfy bunk just waiting for someone to snuggle in and dream away under a star-filled indigo sky.

You can click on the photo to bring up a larger version.

As you can see, the more fabrics the merrier, so this is a great chance to pull out your scrap bag. I used raw-edge fusible machine appliqué, but of course you can use any form of appliqué you like. It’s all good!

You could customize this design by making the background look like wallpaper.

Then decorate the wall with ornaments of your own choosing!

There are 99 more bottles of beer charming and delightful quilt blocks in Volume 6, something for everyone. The publishers are offering a free copy of the magazine to a lucky winner! So if you’d like to win one, leave a comment here on this post before 7:00 p.m. California time on Sunday, November 11.

Thanks a million for visiting, enjoy the hop! Be sure to start each day this week at Quilty Pleasures.

Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Next Page →