Dec
22
Teapot winners, and Show & Tell!
Filed Under Patterns, Prizes, Show & Tell | 4 Comments
Thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes!!! That was fun, and it was really fun to pull three winners this time. The readers who will receive a copy of my Teapots 2 to Appliqué are #56, Lee; #2, JuliaP; and #15, Debra. I appreciate you all so much for joining me on this blog, throughout the year.
Regular reader Beverly Schueneman made my Plum Pudding pattern to hang on her kitchen door!
So cute! I love the fabrics that she chose for the patched backgrounds, and the hard-to-find mottled browns for the puddings.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Jun
8
Seasonal Silhouettes winner, and more!
Filed Under Embroidery, Fabrics, Prizes, Show & Tell | 1 Comment
The reader who won Edyta Sitar’s Seasonal Silhouettes is No. 56, Maureen! Congratulations Maureen! I know you will enjoy these beautiful designs.
In other news, my buddy Kim of Chatterbox Quilts has been cooking up some HEAT: “Hand Embroidery Appliqué Technique.” It’s so charming, and be sure to check out the introductory pattern that’s free for a short time on Kim’s blog Chatterbox Quilts Chitchat.
At the Moonlight Quilters show last weekend, I had to stop and fish out my camera on the spot when I saw this:
Mazie of Sonoma County by Sue Gragg
What a cow!!
Sue cites artist Carolee Clark as her inspiration, along with some fancifully decorated cows that are famous in Sonoma County. To me, Mazie looked like Kaffe Fassett fabric.
May
20
Pennies From Heaven
Filed Under Books, Show & Tell | 2 Comments
Had a great time at the Delta Quilters Guild Show over the weekend! My favorite quilt in the show was Shirley Coble and Isabel Maya’s “Pennies From Heaven.”
So beautiful. The design is from Gretchen Gibbons‘ book Pennies From Heaven.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Mar
26
Couture studio sign
Filed Under Books, Patched appliqué, Show & Tell, Words | 3 Comments
At the recent Glendale guild show, a quilter told me that she had made one of the projects from Scrap-Appliqué Playground. I’m always thrilled to learn these things!
My version of Studio. You can make any sewing room or nook into a studio if you hang up a sign!
Marilyn said, “I made my own version of the black, white and red studio quilt. This wall hanging was made for Cindy, a friend of mine who tried quilting, but decided she prefers making clothing. Nuts, in my opinion, hence the name Crazy Couture.”
Crazy Couture
Marilyn Robinson
Hawthorne, CA
Size: 18 x 12
I love it! Very Project Runway, don’t you think?
When I told Marilyn that it means so much to me when other quilters take my designs and personalize them, she said, “I am trying to develop my creativity now, instead of just copying what others do. This is my first baby step. :-)”
I’d call it a giant step. Thanks for the Show & Tell Marilyn!
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Aug
10
Drink tea, watch birds
Filed Under Patterns, Show & Tell | 9 Comments
Today I am utterly delighted to turn the blog over to Iris Frank, contributing editor to American Quilter magazine, friend, and and current president of my home guild, PVQA.
Iris has a wonderful Show & Tell for us. Take it away Iris!
Marina Rosario was a member of our PVQA Small Quilt Group and is very accomplished appliquér. She was such a loss when she left the area and we still talk about how much we miss her and her inspiration. The year after she moved to Oregon, Marina sent me a quilt entitled Tea is for the Birds for entry in our local annual PVQA Quilt Show.
Tea is For the Birds by Marina Rosario
I’m an avid feeder of backyard birds and the minute I opened the box and saw the quilt, I fell in love with it! I emailed Marina to ask if she would consider selling it. Her reply was, “Oh, no, I spent over a year making that quilt.” After the show, I was asked if I thought Marina would consider letting the quilt stay in Santa Cruz for a couple of months so it could be used as a decoration for the upcoming UC-Santa Cruz Mother’s Day Tea, since it was so perfect. Marina agreed and I had the privilege of enjoying the quilt for the intervening time period.
After the tea, I emailed Marina to let her know I was packing it up to return to her and begged her again to sell it to me. To my delight, after explaining her cats would probably just use the quilt as their bed anyway since she didn’t have enough wall space to hang it, she guessed she would let me purchase it!! It’s currently decorating my living room wall and everyone who sees it has a positive comment about it…the design (a Marina original) is wonderful and the workmanship is absolutely exquisite! And I love it!!
I love it too! What a masterpiece. Good news! All nine block patterns are available in Marina’s Runs With Scizzors Etsy shop.
Here are a few closeups for your enjoyment.
Thanks Iris!
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Jul
20
Quilt Out Loud!
Filed Under Books, Patched appliqué, Show & Tell | 2 Comments
A little bird told me that my new book Scrap-Appliqué Playground is a guest star on this week’s Part 3 of Quilt Out Loud!
Have you seen Quilt Out Loud? If not, then be sure to check out this lighthearted, fun-filled internet TV show hosted by Jodie Davis and Mark Lipinski over on QNNtv.com. The segments are free to watch for a week following their debut, so give it a whirl!
P.S. Mark obviously did not read the caption in the book for my Studio quilt LOL!
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Apr
19
Karen visits the Playground!
Filed Under Books, Patched appliqué, Show & Tell, The road to Book 3 | 11 Comments
Tuesday was the Official Publication Day for Scrap-Appliqué Playground. Happy dancing, happy dancing! It doesn’t get much more exciting for an author than that!
The publisher, Martingale, recently launched a wonderful new blog called Stitch This! (You’ll want to subscribe.)
I’m so excited that today there’s a post by Karen Johnson of the marketing team, in which she recounts her eagerness to visit the Playground, and the fun she had on her first trip! I couldn’t love it more. It’s so cool, you have to go and see. Not only that, they’re giving away a copy of the eBook hot off the digital presses!
Stitch This!
My copies are en route, in fact Brown should be paying me a visit later today. Just as soon as I have them in hand I’ll be updating my website, hopefully as early as tonight.
They’re here! The new book is now available on my website, kaymackenzie.com!
Martingale sent me this button. Notice the new birdy logo. Very cute.
Back soon,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Dec
6
Winner and a little Show & Tell
Filed Under Prizes, Show & Tell | 10 Comments
The winner of Bloom Creek Quilts is Michele of Manitouwadge, Ontario, Canada! Congratulations! Michele says, “Yippeee Skippeee!! This is fantastic news!! Now I know what I’ll be doing over the holidays!”
During the fall, at the quilt show in Reedley, somebody sent a friend to come see me in my booth and to look at all my appliqué quilts, but I had stepped away for a moment. Later they came back and this friend pronounced that she couldn’t find me because my booth had no sign. (This despite the appliqué quilts hung everywhere LOL.)
It got me thinking. Well, the larger shows often provide signage, but the smaller ones usually don’t. Hmm, I said to myself. Other vendors have really cute quilted signs, maybe I should have one too. So I sat down and sketched out an idea for something simple but graphic. I’ve been working on it the last couple weeks and just finished it up.
That oughta fill the bill, don’t you think? And, maybe it will pre-answer the question that I often get, which is, “Did you do all these???”
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
P.S. The $5 off any order of $10 or more is still on at the website, through December 10! The code is 5OFF.
Oct
23
Hearts of Joy
Filed Under Quilt shops, Show & Tell | 1 Comment
I just posted the most heartwarming story over on my Show & Tell Center. Please go see the post about Hearts of Joy.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Sep
26
The Biology Quilts
Filed Under Quilt shows, Show & Tell, Spotlights | 10 Comments
Over the weekend I was in Reedley, California, for their semiannual quilt show. Reedley is not far from Fresno. That’s right, Fresno, where the hot sun turns grapes into raisins. It was 99 degrees on Friday. My neighbor Donna and I nearly suffered heat prostration trying to get everything loaded in and set up.
I was delighted to be there, though, because the amazing Janice Whittington was one of the featured artists!
Jan Whittington
Jan’s daughter Shamara runs Second Chance Fabrics, a genius concern that rescues unused fabric out of quilters’ stashes and gives it a second chance! Jan helps out at the booth at shows, and mom and daughter have become buddies of mine.
Part of Jan’s display was a collection of Biology Quilts. Let me see if I can get the story straight. Jan’s husband Nathan, Shamara’s dad, is a high-school biology teacher. When they moved to a new building, the high ceilings made the room echo. Plus, the articulated cow skeleton couldn’t come along, so the space that had been dedicated to it in the new classroom was now bare. On top of that, the school administration sent down a decree that there could be no nails in the new walls.
Now you know what a quilter does with bare spaces and echoing halls. Jan immediately started on a series of quilts to go in that new classroom. The rebel in her came out. She went down there herself to put the nails in the walls. “They’re not MY boss,” she says LOL!
Here are some of the pieces in her amazing biology series.
Octopi for Nathan
Inspired by her husband’s many coastal class field trips.
The Bug Collection
The first quilt Jan made to help baffle the echoes.
Wee Beasties
My personal favorite. Now how many people do you know who’ve made a bacteria quilt?
Here’s another of Jan’s quilts that I just loved.
Aztec Rose
From the Aztec Rose Garden pattern by Colette Belt. Longarm quilted by Cynthia McGunigle of Mac Quilting, Fresno.
Beautiful pattern, beautiful colors, beautiful appliqué.
Well done Jan!
By Sunday the temperature had gone down to “only” 85. The local residents said they were grateful for the cool weather.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Kay
Sep
14
Tea Ceremony
Filed Under Books, Freezer paper on the back, Machine appliqué, Show & Tell, Starch | 3 Comments
Before the lights went out in San Diego, I was tromping up the aisle, and someone was taking a picture of a quilt. Naturally I turned my head, and then I put on the brakes hard. I can spot my teapots at 50 paces! There was the most glorious oriental teapot quilt. I stood there with my jaw on the floor.
 Tea Ceremony by Marjorie Kilcrease, 109 x 120 |
Most of the teapots are from my Teapots 2 to Appliqué. I got the chance to talk with Marjorie a couple times during the show. She was beaming with pride over her quilt and so was I. Here’s the story of this masterpiece, from Marjorie herself.
When I saw Kay’s book on teapots, I fell in love with it. However, I kept thinking “Are you crazy? This is applique!” I collected oriental fabrics for about two years while I was trying to figure out how to display the teapots. Then I found the center panel with the Geisha holding the teacup.
Next, I found the block pattern called BQ2 by Maple Island Quilts and it looked very oriental to me. I was ready to sew!
This was my second appliqued quilt. I used the directions in the book to enlarge the patterns by 150% so they would fit on a 12″ block. I used a freezer-paper method (ironed to the back) with spray starch to anchor the edges down. Then I used the liquid basting to adhere the teapot parts to the block. The final step was machine-stitching the teapots. My husband designed three blocks for me too. The whole project took about four months.
The quilter, Wendy Knight, did custom quilting. In the black horizontal strips are names of tea or words like ‘happiness’, ‘peace’, etc. The vertical black strips have bamboo quilted in.
I had bought a large backing but still needed to enlarge it to make sure there was enough for the quilter. My husband helped me mimic the front design and we offset the black strips (instead of centering them) and then I used another panel that I found to add a decorative touch.
The quilt is for us and will take its turn on our king-size bed. However, all of my friends want me to put it in our will and leave it to them! They’ll need to discuss that with our two daughters though! :)
What Marjorie didn’t mention is that her quilt won First Place in Viewer’s Choice!
Congratulations Marjorie!!
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Sep
5
Winner for September
Filed Under Prizes, Quilt shows, Show & Tell | 2 Comments
Welcome to the North Pole goes to… Debbie St. Germain! Congratulations!
Debbie is a regular blog reader and reports that she has been trying to get this book from the library but apparently someone liked it a little too much to bring it back. She plans to use the designs for some Christmas things this year, so hopefully we’ll see some photos soon! But Debbie, no pressure :).
In other news, I’m about to embark on a busy spell of traveling to quilt shows. I just finished a couple of mini quilts made out of single blocks from my Baskets to Appliqué Pattern Pack to hang underneath the sampler quilt.
Daisy Basket
Knitting Basket. This one is actually a combination of two different designs. It's fun to mix and match the contents with the baskets.
Here’s where I’ll be.
Sept 8-10, 2011
San Diego Quilt Show
It’s the 30th annual show of the San Diego Quilt Association! The show is held at the beautiful San Diego Convention Center, right on the water.
Sept 17-18, 2011
Quilts & Threads Show
This is the Sierra Quilt Guild’s 22nd annual show, held at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds in Sonora, California.
Sept 24-25, 2011
Kings River Quilt Festival
The Kings River Quilt Guild puts on this 300-quilt show in Reedley, California.
I’ll be home in between times, so I hope to get a few posts in there.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
May
18
Schoolhouse cont’
Filed Under Books, Show & Tell | 1 Comment
Next I went to see Cynthia Tomaszewski present her new book Quilting Those Flirty ’30s.
All the projects in this book are super cute, ’30s style, and all incorporate a touch of appliqué. I’ll try to get my hands on a copy of this book in the future.
By then it was time for a little lunch. At Market you sit down wherever, and usually end up striking up a conversation with your neighbors. I started chatting with a couple gals and found out that they were sisters and co-authors of the new book Circle of Nine.
The subtitle is “24 Stunning and Creative Quilts: One Unique Quilt Setting.” A beautiful way to set a collection of nine blocks!
Holy cow, these gals are Janet Houts and Jean Ann Wright, who was editor-in-chief of Quilt Magazine for 20 years! What a great lunch!
The Checker Distributors Newsletter has a lot of great photos from Market. Pat Sloan also has fun Market recaps up on her blog, and recorded some radio interviews while she was there. More to come from me, including a lot of great information addressing some of the questions in the recent call for topics.
For those of you in the greater Los Angeles area, I’ll be in Northridge this weekend for Quilting in the Valley 2011, an annual show put on jointly by two area quilt guilds. Full information at quiltinginthevalley.com. Hope to see you there!
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
May
16
I survived Market!
Filed Under Books, Quilt shops, Show & Tell | 1 Comment
The trip to Salt Lake City for Spring Quilt Market went “like butter.” I had a blast and a half. The good times started just as soon as the plane out of San Jose finished loading. My seat neighbor turned out to be going where I was going, so naturally we chattered like magpies the whole flight.
Julie operates an on-line boutique fabric shop, The Intrepid Thread, stocked with fresh modern fabrics. (And a whole lot of new ones coming after she saw the fabulous lines debuting at Market.)
And get this… Julie said her friend Sally, who was picking her up at the airport, would give me a ride to my hotel too! How’s that for nice? No Supershuttling! They even picked me up and took me back to the airport for the flight home!
These are the sweet gals who adopted me. Julie, left, and Sally, right.
Sally Keller’s shop is Sally’s Angelworks, offering darling mini art quilts, unique fabric camera-strap covers, and other handmade items.
Julie and Sally were there to shop, of course, and also to help out Amanda Herring at the Quilted Fish booth. All of them are part of the Riley Blake design team. Whew, these young quilter gals! Enough energy to power Salt Lake City for a week! Both of them have nice Market photos and stories on their blogs.
Thursday was Schoolhouse, which is a series of short break-out sessions geared toward the shop owner, to introduce what’s new and exciting. This is how it works. Two hours before the whole deal starts, you can get the schedule. There was a huge room full of chairs where you could sit and study the offerings, plotting and scheming on which ones you wanted to go to. There were about 20 sessions in each time slot, so if there were two at once you liked, you had to pick the one you wanted most!
When each session ended, it was that silly thing that happens when elevator doors open… people wanting to get out and people wanting to get in at the same time. There were thousands of bodies, everybody had wheelie bags, and it was one great big milling churn dash. I’ll share the first couple sessions that I went to, and I’ll put up more information later, in bites.
First on the docket I chose to go hear Dan Purcell. Dan is the boy genius son of Bob and Heather Purcell of Superior Threads. Dan, a smartywhistle techie extraordinaire, grew up in the quilting industry and is the nicest, friendliest young guy you would ever want to meet. Dan operates Websites for Quilters, a company offering a whole bunch of services for quilters who want to be on the web and need a little or a lot of help.
One of the great things that Dan told us about is his FindMyFabric.com, a fabric, quilting, and sewing supply search engine. You can search for products offered by hundreds of online stores to find exactly what you are looking for. You can also search by uploading a photo of the fabric you need more of! How cool is that?? And totally free, this one.
Dan also operates QuilterBlogs.com, a directory of quilting blogs that you can check out to see what’s out there in the blogosphere.
I bought Dan’s book so I can learn more valuable nuggets about having a quilting website.
Next I went to the presentation by Stacey Michell of Shades Textiles. Stacey’s main product is SoftFuse, a paper-backed fusible web that has become my favorite. It’s the lightest weight, and it actually works the way this type of product is supposed to work! What a concept! It fuses quickly, the paper comes off right away, and like I said it is extremely lightweight and flexible.
Stacey’s mom is Marti Michell. They were both there at the session to show us how you can use the product to do a prepared-edge type of appliqué for either hand or machine stitching. It’s fused, and the edges are turned! Very interesting! I’ll be giving this a try myself and will report the results here on the blog. I ordered some SoftFuse so I’ll be able to offer it on my website soon.
This was my favorite entry in the quilt display.
I’m Watching You by Barbara McKie of Old Lyme, Connecticut.
Much more to come,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Nov
9
Sharon’s roses, Helen’s teapots
Filed Under Prizes, Quilt shows, Show & Tell | 3 Comments
The winner of the Rose of Sharon Block Book and note cards is… Jen! Congratulations! Enjoy these beautiful items, courtesy of That Patchwork Place.
I’d now like to go back two weeks in time to the Delta Quilters Guild show in Antioch, California. I was there as a merchant, and after I finished setting up my booth I took a tour of the show buildings. I came around a corner and was flabbergasted to see a beautiful quilt made from my first collection of teapot designs on special display against the wall.
As I drew closer, I saw that this was a memorial area for two of the guild’s members who had passed away during the year. My heart filled up and I felt so honored that the daughter of the lovely lady who had made this teapot quilt had chosen it to represent her mother in the display.
Helen Holoch, quiltmaker.
Her are some closeup shots of individual pots. This lady had a very special collection of fabrics, I’d say!
Thank you, Helen, and thanks to your daughter Nancy, and also to guild member Terry Matejcek, who helped me round up the information about the quilt and gave me permission to post the photos and the story.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Oct
27
Red Hot Red Hat dolls
Filed Under Embellishment, Show & Tell | 1 Comment
Several months ago I bumped into a fellow PVQA member in the elevator while at Festival in Long Beach. She started telling me about a project that she and a group of friends were working on, inspired by my Dolls & Dresses to Appliqué. Each member of the group was making a self-portrait Red Hat doll!
It wasn’t until the October PVQA meeting that I had a chance to see the completed quilt. So exciting!! It was red-hat-letter day for me, as there’s nothing better than seeing what others have done with your designs.
How darling! I didn’t know a lot about the Red Hat Society, so I asked them to send me some information about it.
The Red Hat Cats, who created this self-portrait quilt from your book, is a local chapter of the Red Hat Society. Two of us purchased your book at the last PVQA show, and the members worked from the books together to create the blocks in the quilt.
The Red Hat Society-Fun and Friendship After Fifty-is a “disorganization” of women. Sue Ellen Cooper, the founder and Exalted Queen Mother was inspired by the “When I am an Old Woman” poem written by Jenny Joseph. The very first Red Hat, given to a friend of hers who was turning 50, is now in the Smithsonian.
We get together to have fun, and we are very good at it. Our chapter meets once a month to sew together, and we have monthly field trips (most recently to Half Moon Bay for lunch and pumpkin picking) and what are now traditional yearly events such as a Holiday Cookie Exchange, Summer Potluck and Croquet tournament, and a Winter Soup Potluck. We all belong to other organizations, but we tell ourselves often that this group is the one that we cherish most. There’s a huge span of ages from a Pink Hat (under 50) teacher in her thirties to women in their late seventies. Everyone is supportive, active, and FUN. I’m sure you can tell that from the blocks on the quilt.
Thank you for inspiring us with your book. We loved making the quilt blocks, and Shary Lewis had fun assembling the quilt. Carole Donovan quilted it at one of our sewing sessions, and we are super pleased with the result.
For more information about the Red Hat Society, contact their website at www.redhatsociety.com.
Denise Martin, current Queen Mother of the Red Hat Cats of Los Gatos.
It was great to learn more about the disorganization and about the Red Hat Cats :).
Here are some closeups so you can see more of the personalization and detail that each member put on to portray themselves.
This flapper lost a shoe in all the excitement, poor dear.
I love all the little details, embellishments, and additions. They really took my patterns and soared! Not all of the members are quilters, but I heard that they enjoyed learning how to fuse from the ones who are.
We enjoyed sharing our quilt with you at the meeting. We really had a great time creating our “dolls.” Several gals had never done any fusing and they thought this was great fun. We hope to put it in the PVQA Quilt Show and also the SCVQA Quilt Show in 2011. We will take turns hosting the quilt for a month at a time in our homes. My whole family was able to pick out me immediately and it will be fun to hear if other families can do the same.
Participants were: Denise Martin (Queen Mum), Jacquie Christensen, Linda Collins, Karen Cognac, Kimberly Cognac, Carole Donovan, Dee Hallett, Pat Havey, Jeanne Holmes, Shary Lewis, Anhela Oropeza, Joyce Schellenberg, Fay Taylor and Janeanne Walters.
Thanks for a really fun pattern, I am hoping to do it with my granddaughter (she will be 8 in January).
Shary Lewis
My pleasure, one and all!!!
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Oct
6
Florida appliquérs do bang-up baskets
Filed Under Books, Patterns, Prizes, Show & Tell | 5 Comments
The Fall Into Fall Quilt Bloggers Giveaway is in full swing! If you haven’t checked it out yet, by all means do so. Winners will be drawn on October 15. Visit my giveaway here.
Now to today’s topic. I recently received the most amazing message from Rebecca Hoffmann of Plant City, Florida. It made my day and then some!!
I am a member of Feather Princess Appliqué Guild of Tampa, Florida. One of the sewing circles of the guild is “Sewrority Sisters Appliqué Sewciety.” We meet once a month for four hours of sewing and fun at one of the local libraries. We wanted to give something to the library for allowing us to use one of their rooms, so we decided to make a raffle quilt and donate all the proceeds to the Riverview Library.
I contacted you last year about using your basket patterns for a raffle quilt, and you gave us permission. My group has finally finished the quilt and I’m sending a photo of it.
Basket Quilt by the SSAS, 80 x 100
Is this not a masterpiece of a quilt? I am totally blown away. This is a group of gals who are not afraid of appliqué! They enlarged the blocks, designed a new setting, and embellished many of the blocks in a most delightful fashion, I love it!
Rebecca continues:
Each person donated $10 towards the cost of fabric, batting, etc., for the quilt. Sixteen women volunteered to make blocks, one person did the piecing, another the quilting and another the binding. We used your 16 patterns from Baskets to Appliqué, and I designed four more to make a total of 20 blocks.
My friend Shari Gillis and I designed the sashing for setting the 12″ blocks. Some of the women added their own designs to the baskets and one person changed it completely. The quilt is finished, and we are now in the process of selling the raffle tickets. This is a beautiful quilt, I wish you could see it in person. Thank you so much for allowing us to use your patterns. We are hoping to make a large donation to the library.
Oh my goodness, I should think so! Huge thanks to you and your group, Rebecca, for choosing my basket designs for your quilt. I feel honored. You have elevated the designs and you’ve inspired me!
Here are some closeups of the blocks.
I’m so glad Rebecca sent me closeups so that I could see the delightful sewing doodads that were added to these blocks. How fun! My hat’s off!
Here are the four blocks that Rebecca designed herself. As I told her, they’re so lovely and entirely to my taste. Do we see a new pattern designer emerging here?
Here are two labels for the quilt that Rebecca did up in EQ7.
Great job with the computer work!!
Now a word of news about Baskets to Appliqué. Gentle quilters, it’s very nearly out of print. That’s right, there are now exactly 14 copies left in captivity. But never fear, the designs will still be available once these copies are gone. I’ll be offering all 16 designs in a different format, an unbound pattern pack in a baggie. There won’t be any color photos or instructions, just the designs for your appliqué pleasure. The baskets will go on!
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Sep
15
ellen and larry’s first date
Filed Under Designers, Show & Tell, Words | 5 Comments
One of the most amazing women I know is fellow Santa Cruz quilter and fabric designer ellen edith. She makes story quilts about the many wacky and also meaningful things that have happened in her life. These quilts are so full of color, life, verve, and a million other energetic words. It’s a style I greatly admire.
Recently ellen sent out photos of her latest quilt, First Date.
ellen:
I just finished a new story quilt celebrating the day I met Larry. I want to share the finished quilt, story and a few close-up details with you:
My first date with Larry was bicycling to the monarch butterfly preserve. He was so cute & I was so nervous I was yacking away. He finally said “If you would lie down & be quiet the butterflies might land on you!” Right then I knew I could relax & be myself around him. We have had 15 wonderful years.
I painted his favorite shirt with dog paw prints & the motto “Down Boy Down!”
I used some of my own butterfly fabric, dressed myself in bright colors & added a vintage pin as a hair ornament.
Santa Cruz is in the migratory path of the Monarch Butterfly. Each fall we look forward to their visit. I can just picture this lovely scene at Natural Bridges State Park.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Apr
20
Mini gifties
Filed Under Fusible web, Improvisational appliqué, Machine appliqué, Raw edge, Show & Tell | 3 Comments
On Sunday night I had a date with four men.
My husband, my father-in-law, my father-in-law’s brother, my nephew, and me! It was a rare occasion that all of us would be in the same part of the U.S. at the same time, and it was a total blast.
I wanted to send the older menfolk home with little quilty tokens for their ladies, both of whom I am quite fond, so on Saturday I set out to make a couple of mini-quilts.
These are about 7″ x 9″. Conceived of, fused, stitched, quilted, signed, and bound, and all done by 4:00 p.m.
The men were crazy about them (it’s funny to see the light bulbs go off over relatives’ heads when they finally gain some small inkling of what it is that you do) and I hope the gals like them too.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Mar
21
Blanket for Baby Dev
Filed Under Show & Tell | 4 Comments
Over at Kay’s Show & Tell Center, I received a submission from a faraway land!
First of all, I need to tell you that this project is not made based on your design (not one of your books is available here in Indonesia, too bad), but I love to show you one of the blankets I made, it’s 97% hand-made.
I snagged this right over to All About Appliqué.
Blanket for Baby Dev by Nana of Depok, West Java, Indonesia
Sometimes I am desperate to find some new simple pattern that inspire me to make things, but other times the idea just popped up. This is my original idea. It just came up and I put it in paper and voila….
Dev is one of my grandkids. He was 3 months old at that time. We went on a weekend holiday. And one very early morning, Dev’s frantical cry woke me up. His mother told me that he couldn’t stand the chilly whether. That inspired me to make something to keep him warm, and one month later, I saw him sleeping like a rock tugged in the blanket I made. His mother appreciate me a lot for this. It gives me terrific feelings when people appreciate my projects.
I’m sure his mother did appreciate you a lot for this darling, original, one-of-a-kind quilt! And Baby Dev too!
I always finished the project I made with something I call ‘personal touch’ on which I wrote the name of the person who will have my project, date and what this person call me. For example as picture I attached, my personal touch says: made by dadong for Dev Oct 2009 (‘dadong’ is what Dev calls me, means grandma).
Nan would love to hear feedback about her project of love.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
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