Curious about fusible appliqué?

Filed Under Admin notes, Classes, Fusible web, Machine appliqué | Comments Off on Curious about fusible appliqué?

The wonderful Kim Jamieson-Hirst has launched her Essential Guide to Fusible Web Appliqué at Curious.com!

This is the most comprehensive on-line course imaginable, including over 20 lessons that will show you everything you ever wanted to know about fusible web appliqué.

You won’t believe how complete it is, with exercises and assignments and personalized teacher feedback. I’ve know Kim over the interweb for years now and I can tell you there isn’t a more pleasant person that you’ll meet. My favorite feature is that there are 172 minutes of learning-packed video “that isn’t sleep-inducing.” I love that LOL!

Go on over to Curious.com and check out all the many features of the course.

Some Admin Notes:

There’s a new internet special on my website. The BOGO book is now Dolls & Dresses to Appliqué. It comes free with any other book purchase at kaymackenzie.com, including the ones that are on overstock sale!


I don’t believe I’ve mentioned here that for the past year or so I’ve been having the most fun with buttons. Oh my gosh, I’m in deep. Introducing Kay’s one-of-a-kind Button Magnet Sets, available at my Etsy shop. They make fantastic gifts, for a friend or for yourself.


Lastly, I’ll be at the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association’s biannual show this weekend, at the Convention Center. Hope to see you there if you’re in NorCal!

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

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

Take a class with Cheryl

Filed Under Classes, Fusible web, Quilt shops, Quilt shows | Comments Off on Take a class with Cheryl

Cheryl Almgren Taylor, whom we’ve met before on the blog as the author of Deck the Halls and Inspirational Appliqué, dropped me a note to let me know that there’s still room in her classes at the upcoming International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, July 27-19, 2012.

Cheryl’s teaching three classes:

• “It Takes a Village,” where students learn how to construct a variety of houses and buildings for different projects using a basic template and fusible-web techniques.

• “Wrapped Up in Ribbons,” where you’ll create a Happy Birthday table runner using easy piecing and basic fusible-web applique. It’s quick and easy and great for beginners.

• A pictorial applique class using a fusible-web technique Cheryl calls ‘jigsaw applique.’ The class is called “Inspirational Applique: Psalm 100:3” and students will make a small pastoral wall hanging with sheep. The project appears in her Inpirational Applique book.

There’s currently room in all three but hurry because registration can fill up fast! You can find out more information about Festival and register for classes at the Quilts.com website.

(I’ll be at Long Beach too! My cozy little booth will be in the first row, next to the exhibits, on the right-hand side. Hope to see you there!)

And, how about a cruise this fall? Cheryl will be teaching on a quilting, appliqué, and thread-painting cruise along with Nancy Prince and Chris Eichner from October 4-12, 2012. The Royal Caribbean ship leaves out of Baltimore and cruises up the Atlantic coastline, stopping at Portland and Bar Harbor, and on to St. John’s and Halifax, Nova Scotia. There will be three classes available, plus a bus trip to Keepsake Quilting and all the other sights of a fall foliage cruise. Full information on the cruise is available at SeaCruises.com.

I’m off to Newark, California, tomorrow to set up for the Piecemaker’s Guild show this weekend.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

What a great week I had. Not only did Quiltmaker feature my Petal Path in an alternate colorway on their Quilty Pleasures blog, my home guild had its annual quilt show! It was a blast and a half, seeing old friends and making new ones.

AND on top of those two wonderful things, All About Appliqué was featured in a Best of the Web post on the Craft Corners blog!! Thank you so much!

craft-corners-logo-norm

Be sure to take some time to poke around Craft Corners, “a little workshop with corners for stitching, handmade jewelry, recycled crafts and ideas for home & garden or your art and design projects.”

In other news, I came across this announcement of an upcoming appliqué retreat in Texas, Appliqué Away on Galveston Bay. Sounds like great fun.

I’m on the road again tomorrow, headed toward Palm Springs for the Desert Guilds Quilt Show, March 2-3. If you’re out that way, I hope to see you at the show! Full information is at desertguildsquiltshow.com.

It’s a Friday-Saturday show, and on Sunday, March 4, my pal Debby is hosting a special tea party event at her quilt shop The Quilter’s Faire in nearby Palm Desert. I’ll be there 11-2 ish, and I can’t wait to see what the Debby’s BOM gals have done! It’s a teapot challenge, and I get to present a special “Designer’s Choice” award. How fun.

Then, on the way home, I get to see Cathy, always a super-special treat.

Lastly, you’ve heard of the Five-Dollar Foot-Long?

How about the Five-Month-Old Yard-Long?

How about the Five-Month-Old Yard-Long?

Stretch. Yawn.

Stretch. Yawn.

The Force of Grabbity is strong on a floppy cat.

The Force of Grabbity is strong on a floppy cat.

See you next week with a feature on a fantastic appliqué book!

Until then,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

In response to my query last time, Debbie wrote, “You got that right, Wonder Under is the lighter weight.” (That wouldn’t let its paper backing go.)

Debbie also reports that the wash-away product she referred to are Wash-Away Appliqué Sheets from C&T Publishing.

The website says that this product was inspired by Beth Ferrier. Now I happen to know that Beth uses a turned-edge machine appliqué method, not raw-edge. Just want to make sure we’re talking about apples and apples here, not apples and oranges. Here’s a portion of the product review from The Applique Society: “… When your project is finished you have the option of washing the sheet for a softer feeling piece or leaving it in and it will soften over time.”

I think this product is similar to the Appliqué Stabilizer that Sharon Schamber uses. Again, it’s meant for turned-edge appliqué. It remains in your quilt, and even though the stiffy part washes away, it leaves soft fibers behind.

Floriani has a similar thing too, called Stitch n Wash.

And Ricky Tims has one called Stable Stuff.

Whew!

In other news:

____________________________

Over the weekend, at Pacific International Quilt Festival, I picked up a flier from Amidon Quiltworks, home of the amazing Pearl P. Pereira of P3 Designs. The flier features a couple of exciting events coming up for appliqué enthusiasts.

The first is an Appliqué Weekend, May 31 through June 3, 2012. More details on the Special Events tab on their website.

The second is a Hawaiian Cruise in 2013, complete with appliqué classes on-board! They don’t have the dates set yet, but you can contact the shop for more information.

____________________________

I just posted a couple of amazing projects over on my Show & Tell Center. You’re cordially invited to go and see the beautiful teapots and baskets that quilters have been sharing with me.

And, I just heard from Janis Rink that the teapot quilt she made won a Blue ribbon over the weekend at the Empire QuiltFest in upstate New York! How very thrilling! You go Janis!

____________________________

Volume 4 of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks is coming out very soon! I’m happy to say that I have a block in this one too, and I think I spy with my little eye that it made the cover this time too! I’ll be participating in the blog tour that takes place November 7-11. My day to post is the last day, but I’ll remind you to go and join in the tour on Day 1, so you won’t miss out on all the fun and prize possibilties!

myblockisin4_200joinforblogtour4_200

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

keri-duke

Last month I had the privilege of taking a class in Hawaiian appliqué from Maui resident Keri Duke.

Keri was here for Pacific International Quilt Festival and came a week early to give a workshop for our guild. She’s snorkeling buddies with our program chair Tracey Brookshier so yay for us!

It was a beautiful day and a great location for a workshop. We were making a traditional breadfruit (ulu) appliqué. As Keri told us, this is usually the first pattern made by a quilter because it is supposed to bring fruitfulness and good luck in life.

keri-+-sample

Cutting out the motif, folded in eighths.

Cutting out the motif, folded in eighths.

big-basting

My big basting stitches. I was the first one done basting; some spent the whole morning just basting, using little bitty precise running stitches instead of big honking toenail catchers. Not necessary, gals. Just throw ’em in there.

other-colors

Some of the class members chose other colors for their projects.

other-colors-3

It looks good any which way you do it.

After the entire dark-green leaf motif was basted, we did traditional needle-turn hand appliqué. I’m a fast stitcher (well, you know, it isn’t my first rodeo) and I had my block all done for Show & Tell at quilt guild the next night. This type of Hawaiian appliqué is about the most fun, I think. Once you get it all prepped, you just sit and stitch and stitch to your heart’s content.

uluMy Ulu.

The following week was PIQF.

piqf-crowd

The crowd waiting to get in on Thursday morning.

Once I made it inside the doors, I chatted with Keri in her Keri Designs booth, and I was delighted to learn that she and another quilter had curated a special “Colors of Maui” exhibit for the show!

exhibit-sign

hibiscusThis hibiscus was my favorite entry, and come to find out, it was Keri’s!

hibis-descr

If you’d like to go on a tropical tour of the Colors of Maui, there’s a lovely slideshow posted over at The Quilt Show. Enjoy!

Aloha,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

alex-anderson

I just discovered that Alex Anderson is offering a series of videos on hand and machine appliqué over at The Quilt Show website.

If you’re not already a member you do need to register but no $$ involved, the classes are free. Check it out at the appliqué classroom page and follow Alex through many hand and machine techniques. A great resource!

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

At the Pacific International Quilt Festival last fall, I was delighted to see that a fellow PVQA guild member had won a big whopping prize!

meri-ribbon

Best of World! It’s a big world, and I was so impressed!

You can click on the photo to get a larger view.

I asked Meri to tell us something about herself and her work.

Meri ~

I was born just outside New York City in 1945 to a family which, on my father’s side, has had literally generations upon generations of artists (I have never met a Henriques who wasn’t one sort of artist or another!). I received a BA in Fine Art from the University of California at Berkeley, which wasn’t terribly useful when it came to making a living! Fortunately, my husband does that for us, so I’ve been able to live the life of a housewife and non-starving artist.

Meri

Meri


In past years, I’ve worked on building costumes for the San Francisco Lamplighters under the guidance of the brilliant designer Melissa Wortman, and I’ve costumed shows for the now-extinct Bay Shore Lyric Opera Company in Capitola.

In 2006, I took my first trip to Guatemala on one of Priscilla Bianchi‘s wonderful Guatemalan tours, and fell in love with what I’ve come to think of as the ‘Rainbow Country’. My first Guatemalan quilt, ‘Las Mujeres Azules de Guatemala (the Blue Ladies of Guatemala)”, a result of that trip, was just published in Lark Books 500 Art Quilts.

Las Mujeres Azules de Guatemala by Meri Henriques Vahl

Las Mujeres Azules de Guatemala by Meri Henriques Vahl

I made a return trip with Priscilla in the fall of 2008, and the ‘Flower Market’ (the first quilt shown here) was the result. Here’s a description of my process. I began by putting the quilt back face-down on my worktable. Over this, I spread a layer of natural cotton batting, and then took out my scissors: I was ready to start creating…

The main central picture in the ‘Flower Market’ quilt is a fabric collage using recycled Guatemalan belts and huipiles (woven blouses), Guatemalan fabric, some cotton batiks, and a few flower prints that were cut into very small units. Because I couldn’t find all the flower prints I needed, for example chrysanthemums, I fused cotton fabrics onto Wonder Under and then cut them into narrow strips and ironed them down (just in case I sneezed or the cats got into them!). I also included short lengths of yarn in several places for flower stems, and layers of dark blue tulle (in the flower buckets, for example) to create shadows. Note: there are no seams in this area – it’s all raw edges.

For the faces, I took the photographs I was working from to Kinko’s and blew them up in black and white to the size I wanted, then traced the outlines onto tracing paper, which I then reversed, drawing the image onto freezer paper. Now I had a reversed image.

Next, I ironed fine off-white cotton onto the freezer paper and drew the faces with Aquarelle Caran d’Ache colored pencils using a very interesting layering technique that dates from Medieval times: I first drew the outlines in dark blue pencil, then shaded in the shadows; then came more pencil over-layers of tan, rose, brown, yellow, and black around the eyes. Once I had achieved the effects I was after, I used Sharpie permanent pens to add accents to the eyes, eyebrows, mouths, etc. I also used this same coloring procedure to draw the small baskets and any flowers and fruits I didn’t have store-bought fabric for.

Once my picture was complete, I carefully spread a single layer of black (yes, black!) tulle over the entire surface, added lots of pins to hold the pieces in place, and then spent hours and hours free-motion quilting over the whole thing, to ‘trap’ everything in place. The stitching (finally!) completed, I squared up the picture and then added the borders, using the usual traditional piecing techniques.

I have taught this fabric collage technique in the past, and will be teaching it again at the Monterey Peninsula Quilters Guild on July 11, 2010, and also doing a presentation the next day for the Guild (I believe non-members are welcome to take their classes and attend the lectures). It’s a thrill to see my students take off on their own exciting explorations with this marvelous liberating and fun technique! Since there is no piecing involved, anything goes — and wonderful landscape can be achieved in just a brief couple of hours!

And, I can’t wait to go back to Guatemala and find out what else happens!

Kay here ~ thank you so much Meri for talking us through how your create your stunning quilts. I’ll also look forward to seeing what your next trip inspires!

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

An Appliqué-tion Vacation

Filed Under Classes | Comments Off on An Appliqué-tion Vacation

Just got a note from Teri Leigh Baird, Events Planner with Jaspers Events, who wrote to let me know about an upcoming appliqué retreat in Branson, Missouri. Does this sound like fun or what?

branson

* June 3-7, 2010
* 3 full days of quilting classes
* Award-winning instructors: Kathy Kansier, Connie Sue Haidle, Linda Carlson
* Quilting “room” with ironing stations, large cutting mats, rulers and design walls
* Includes 4 nights lodging at Howard Johnson Branson with Private Room
* Breakfast & lunch each day
* Wine and cheese welcome reception
* Trunk show
* Door prizes and Goody Bags

Visit the Jaspers Events web page for full information.

And, if you click on the Events tab at the top of their website you’ll see the many intriguing vacations they have planned, including several more quilting retreats.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

A couple of years ago I blogged about Sheril Drummond’s quilt Remembering Barbaro.

Last October at PIQF she had the most amazing, huge butterfly quilt called “Flights of Fancy.”

Flights of Fancy by Sheril Drummond

Flights of Fancy by Sheril Drummond

flights-closeup

I checked Sheril’s blog Serendipity and was delighted to learn that she is now offering patterns and on-line classes to help others achieve the stunning look of her quilts. While you’re there be sure to send virtual scritchies to the Cavalier King Charles spaniel :).

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie