Feb

21

Golden Quilter Awards

Filed Under Admin notes | 3 Comments

Whaat??!!! (Sorry, I just watched the Psych marathon.) I’ve been nominated for a Golden Quilter Award!


These are reader-nominated awards hosted by SewCalGal. Someone nominated me in the “Best Quilt Book Author” category. There’s some mighty powerful company over there… you’ve made my day!

The categories are:
Best Quilt Designer
Best Fabric Designer
Best Quilt Book Author
Best Teacher/Instructor
Best Quilt Store (physical)
Best Quilt Store (online)
Most Innovative Product (software)
Best New Product Introduced in 2012 (physical)
Best New Product Introduced in 2012 (software)
Best Quilt Book Published in 2012
Lifetime Achievement Award

To cast your vote in any of these categories, head on over to SewCalGal before the end of the month. Voting ends February 28, 2013.

Doin’ the happy dance!
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Feb

18

New patterns!

Filed Under Patterns | 6 Comments

As part of my 2013 New Year’s Day post, I mentioned that I’m starting up my own line of stand-alone patterns. I showed the first couple of new ones.



Well, I’ve been a very busy girl and now I have twelve! Here are the rest of them.











These are all available at kaymackenzie.com, on the . Some I appliquéd by hand, some by machine, but of course you can use your own favorite method. I’m pretty excited about the whole thing. It feels great to be doing something new!

Thanks for taking a look at my Show & Tell,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Feb

12

Raw-edge fusible demo

Filed Under Blanket stitch, Fusible web, Machine appliqué, Photo tutorials, Product demo, Raw edge | 8 Comments

My current favorite brand of paper-backed fusible web is SoftFuse.

I carry it on my website and I take it with me to shows.

Yesterday I made a new little visual demo of how to use the product, to lay on the table for those who are unfamiliar with raw-edge fusible appliqué.

I thought, aha! I can take photos as I go and stick them up on the blog!

First trace the shape onto the paper side and roughly cut out, leaving a small margin outside the drawn line.

Cut right through the line and trim away the center of the template, leaving a ring of fusible in the shape of the motif.

Put the cut-away part with your stash of fusible scraps, for future use on a smaller motif.

Fuse the floppy shape to the back of your appliqué fabric, meeting the cut ends together.

Now cut out the shape on the drawn line, through the template and the fabric together.

Remove the paper backing, fuse to the background fabric, and stitch.

The flip side. I used a small blanket stitch and buried the thread tails under the line of stitching.

That’s the basics!

Until next time,
Kay

Feb

7

February winner, plus this and that

Filed Under Classes, Designers, Machine appliqué, Prizes, Raw edge | 1 Comment

The winner of our February featured book is Barbara Burnham of Ellicott City, Maryland, who says “We can never have too much appliqué.” Hear, hear! Congratulations Barbara, and enjoy the book.

The first show of the year that I did was in Modesto, California, a couple of weeks back. The guild was so excited that they had been chosen to host a Ricky Tims Super Seminar! It’s next year, February 6-8, 2014.

I talked with one of my vendor buddies, who attended one of these seminars in the past. She said that you don’t do a lick of stitching, that’s not the idea, and you come away greatly inspired with ideas, concepts, lessons, and information. She loved it.

Watch for full details on Ricky’s website rickytims.com and the guild website, Country Crossroads Quilters.

Fast forward one week to Ontario, California. A super-nice gal, Gina Darlington, stopped by my booth and mentioned that she was the organizer for Celebrate! Quilt Camp & Show this June 12-15 in Flagstaff, Arizona. I smiled when I saw that the keynote speaker is my pal Annie Smith. There are some extremely appealing appliqué classes in there, so be sure to check it out if you’re in the area or will be in the market for a trip to the “cool mountains of Flagstaff” this June.

I met another nice Arizona quilter, Vanessa Fromm (there were several busses from Arizona for the show) who told me about her new designing adventure, Fabric Confetti. These are fun projects that involve raw edges and bits of colorful fabrics to make darling appliqués.

Very high on the cute!

Last tidbit for today: the Martingale blog Stitch This! has seven easy, quick, and free downloadable patterns for Valentine’s Day!


Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Feb

1

Appliqué & Embroidery Fundamentals

Filed Under Books, Prizes | 66 Comments

For those who were fans of our December featured book by Janice Vaine, I have another one of her titles!

A is for Appliqué!

Thank you, Landauer, for sending this very lovely book.

For hand appliqué, Janice uses a form of back-basting preparation that she calls “Perfect Placement.” Her method and her stitching information is thoroughly explained and handsomely illustrated with great big graphics… you can’t miss it, every stitch!

She also includes a comprehensive guide to the basics of embroidery and embellishment, with an entire collection of alphabet blocks to practice on.

To see more, go to the book’s page on the Landauer site and click on the tab “Look Inside” about halfway down the page to watch a lovely video.

If you’d like to win Appliqué and Embroidery Fundamentals, please leave a comment by 7:00 p.m. California time on Wednesday, February 6. Open to U.S. and Canada mailing addresses only.

Important note: I always get a few who reply to their email feed. This won’t get you in the drawing. Click on the title of the post and that’ll take you to to blog on the internet. You can leave your comment there, at the bottom of the post.

Good luck!
Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie