While I was on the road to Road to California, I got an email from my longtime friend, fellow designer and publisher Darcy Ashton. If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you know how much I admire Darcy’s designs. In addition, for years and years she has been to me a boon companion, consultant, source of support and freely given information, in short a wonderful mentor.

Now I find out that Darcy will be at the show as well! I’m so surprised and delighted! Darcy hails from Oklahoma and this is her first trip west of the Rockies. She’s with the Anna’s Awesome Appliqué Designs booth. Anna digitizes designs so that you can stitch them in the hoop if you have one of those nifty embroidery machines.

I couldn’t wait to see Darcy in person!

me-n-darcyMe ‘n Darcy.

It was thoroughly wonderful to get a chance to meet, greet, sit down, and chat in person. At a show like this, you have to steal the minutes, but we visited as much as we could, and I had a chance to look around Anna’s booth.

owl-quiltThe quilt behind the two of us is “Owls With Attitude,” featuring designs from Darcy’s newest book, Outstanding Owls for Appliqué. I wrote about the book in September.

bunniesI also spied some of Darcy’s other animals, including her famous bunnies and the Darling Little Dogs.

Anna works with other designers to digitize their designs.

talaveraFiesta de Talavera, designed by J. Michelle Watts based on Mexican hand-painted tiles.

pillowThe incredible Jacobean appliqué of the late great Pat Campbell.

I hope Darcy had a great time in California and comes back soon!!

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

An amazing, amazing appliqué icon is the latest to be inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame.

So lovely. Do you recognize whose work this is? Click on over to the Martingale blog Stitch This to read all about it!

In other news, I received a message from the Road to California show that class registration for 2016 opens tomorrow morning. If you’re planning on attending this fantastic show and convention, jump on it so you don’t miss out on registering for your favorite class or event.

More news on a local Santa Cruz event coming up!

Until then,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Kay’s Etsy Shop

Greetings gentle quilters, here’s wishing that the new year treats you well!

The delightful Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs is launching a new free-pattern-every-month that she’s calling the Snow Happy Hearts Club. It’s a series of ornaments, one a month that you can make featuring Anne’s super adorable designs. Check it out!

Myself I’ve been working hard on a couple of projects over the holidays… one is a super secret piecing project (that’s right, I said piecing believe it or not) that I will be able to reveal soon. The other is a new appliqué pattern featuring an animal that popped into my head one day and wouldn’t leave :) Stay tuned. also coming soon.

Update to Kitten Cavalcade:

Giselle, now called Corkie, has gone to live with Minnie! That’s right, Helen decided to get her kitten a kitten, and these buddies are now lifelong companions.

Gunther was adopted the same day by a nice family that I was lucky enough to meet down at the shelter. He’s now known as Milo.

We thought we were done for the season and packed everything up. However, on new Year’s Eve I received a call from the shelter that there was one more, very late little kitten that needed foster. I couldn’t get her off my mind, so the next day I went down there to see if they had found anyone yet. They had not, so I brought the tiny little black thing home with me.

It’s hard to get a photo of Molly… she’s a kitten in motion, a spunky, feisty little mighty mite.


Dana got this shot of her in a moment of repose.


Single kittens tend to treat human hands like other kittens and treat them accordingly, but we’re working on it and she is learning to be an exceedingly sweet kitty. She’s a total lap cat, and sleeps on our heads at night.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Chock full!

Filed Under Books, Designers, Patterns, Quilt shows | Comments Off on Chock full!

I’ve got a lot of fun stuff to mention today!

First off, Martingale is commemorating Worldwide Quilting Day, March 15, with several suggestions for things to do. One of them is, “Start a spark—make just one block!” To support this notion they’ve got some of their favorite block eBooks on sale. And my Easy Appliqué Blocks is one of them!

Go see the Martingale blog post!

Golly, it’s good to see those EAB blocks again.

I might just have to cook up something myself this Saturday to celebrate what is both Worldwide Quilting Day and National Quilting Day. Got my thinking cap on…

While I’m thinking, you have got to go and see what the phenomenal Darcy Ashton is working on now.

The gorgeous Miss Mermaid.

My next show is the Glendale Quilt Guild, March 21-22, newly held at the Pasadena Convention Center. After many years in Burbank, they’re moving to this new venue where the entire show can be in one giant happy room. Can’t wait, especially since I’ll get to see my special pal Cathy, she of GefiilteQuilt. Note that this is a Friday-Saturday show.


Got a lot to do to get ready! I’m also working on yet another new pattern. Stay tuned!

Until Saturday,
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 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

The highways and byways have brought me home from the wonderful Road to California show. It was so exciting to be there… thousands of quilters enjoyed the spectacular displays and varied merchant offerings. My booth was busy as bees; many readers stopped by to say that they enjoy the blog, and thank you so much for your words of encouragement.

The blue drapes were lovely, the lighting was good, and I liked my position just one space inside the doors to the ballroom. My neighbors on the corner were the Pin Peddlers. They’re from my home state of North Carolina and this was their first show in California! The ladies lined up to ooh and aah over their cute, cute cloisonne pins and charms.

I took photos of some grand appliqué quilts.

Spring Blooms by the Pass Patchers Quilt Guild and Lynette S. Harlan. I loved the colors in this one.

Welcome to My Tea Party by Joan Lebsack. Verna Mosquera's patterns are always right up my alley.

Once is Enough by Fairy Earnest and Diane Beauchamp. I had to laugh at the name.

Here's a detail of this incredible Sue Garman design.

More info from Road next time!

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

I got home from Market last night at 8:00 p.m., one tired puppy. I had to check my carryon bag because it was so heavy with all of the “stuff” that I dragged home. I have swag to share!

During the Schoolhouse breakout session on Thursday, fabric companies were very generous in handing out totebags made with the latest and greatest lines. Here are three that I’m sending out into the world to live with you.

The beautiful brown one is from Jo Morton‘s newest fabric collection with Andover, Alexandria.

The black one is from Jane Dixon‘s line City Scenes, also with Andover.

The blue floral bag was gifted by Amy Butler, whose fabrics are with Westminster. Amy told us that a friend of hers makes thousands of these bags and gives them away, asking only that they be used as shopping bags instead of accepting a bag from a merchant.

I ask the same of the winners of these bags. Keep them in your car and the next time you purchase something, skip the shop bag and use this one. It’s a great habit to get into.

If you’d like to win one of these, please leave a comment here on this post by 7:00 pm. on Wednesday, May 23.

The fine print: Open to U.S. and Canada mailing addresses only. Don’t reply to your email feed; instead, click over to the blog itself and leave your comment at the bottom of the post.

More to come from Market, including an astonishing aspect of this huge trade show.

Until then,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Awhile ago, a reader suggested that I might highlight the work of incredible appliqué artist Deborah Kemball. I agree! I don’t know Deborah but I have been admiring her gorgeous work and have been collecting references to her as I come across them.

Deborah is the author of the very successful and lovely book Beautiful Botanicals.

In an interview in the newsletter of The Appliqué Society, I learned that Deborah does all of her work by hand, including the quilting. I was truly gratified to learn that she works quickly because she is not a perfectionist! If she’s unhappy with anything she makes it work later with embroidery or an additional motif.

At the 2011 AQS Lancaster Show, Deborah’s Midnight Garden won First Place in the Appliquéd Quilts, Hand Quilted division. You can see this beauty on Deborah’s Gallery page.

It’s one of two quilts in her pattern pack Twilight Garden Quilts.

Deborah currently lives in Chile and has started to include information about her techniques on her blog. We will all continue to look forward to more beautiful appliqué from this gifted self-taught quilter.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Cheryl Lynch, well known for her charming Judaic quilt designs, took a trip to Mexico to go deep-sea fishing and whale-watching. While she was there she became enchanted with the colors and patterns of hand-painted Mexican folk art. On a return trip south of the border she traveled to Puebla, known as “The City of Tiles,” and steeped herself in the world of Talavera tilemaking. It is these little pieces of Mexican folk art, where “perfection is not a goal,” and “at their heart is the simple joy of creation,” that serve as the inspiration for the designs in Cheryl’s book Quilt Fiesta!

quilt-fiesta

The books starts out by with beautiful photographs of Mexican pottery and architecture. As Cheryl says, “Inspiration for quilt designs can be found everywhere,” and what a great idea to translate these into quilt patterns, especially since some of the tiles have corner motifs that result in a secondary design when blocks are put together. Very quilty!

Cheryl shares information about the appliqué method that she used for the motifs in the book, raw-edge fusible appliqué sewn by machine. There’s also a bit of foundation paper piecing instruction for when that’s needed, then a whole section on quilt construction and finishing. Then we’re on to 10 glorious decorative projects reflecting the beauty of Talavera ceramic tiles. There are quilts, placemats, a bed runner, and more. Here are just a few.

Frida's Flowers

Frida's Flowers

Puebla Posies

Puebla Posies

Floral Fiesta place mat. So cute!

Floral Fiesta place mat. So cute!

So vibrant! I love folk art. Cheryl helps you translate the solid colors of tilework into lively quilt designs using the array of fabrics at our disposal today.

Courtesy of That Patchwork Place, I have a copy to give away in a drawing. If you’d like a chance to win Quilt Fiesta, leave a comment on this post before 7:00 p.m. California time on Friday, February 10.

The fine print: Open to U.S. and Canada mailing addresses only. Do not reply to your email feed; instead, click over the blog itself and leave your comment at the bottom of the post. Good luck!

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

This just in from my pal Holly Mabutas of Eat Cake Graphics:

I’m SO excited to announce a new project! I’ve teamed up with author Terri Thayer, actually she’s the one that approached me with the project over a year ago. She’s writing an 8 month series of stories called Tales of the Quilt Shop, and I’m creating an applique project to go along with it called Sugarplums.

You have GOT to go and take a look at the first block on Holly’s Blog Sprinkles of Thought. If there were anything cuter it wouldn’t be allowed by law. Way to go Holly! Not only that, Holly includes a link to her glue-stick turned-edge hand-appliqué tutorial.

Back soon,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

I got home from Phoenix yesterday, safe and sound. I was looking through the mail that had accumulated and what should I discover but the March/April issue of Quiltmaker magazine with my project in it!

qm-mag

I met the magazine’s editors while I was in Salt Lake City last May for Spring Market, and we’ve been working on getting a design of mine into the magazine ever since. It’s finally here!

peta-path

This was made entirely out of one line of fabric, Memories of Provence by Monique Dillard for Maywood Studio. The fabric line was a pleasure to work with and gave me every single thing I needed to make the quilt. It’s hand appliquéd and machine quilted.

Update: the pattern, now called Climbing Vines, is available at my website.

Until then,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

I am in awe. The ingenious Darcy Ashton has done it again! You have got to go and see her fabulous new design for making an appliquéd clock!!!

Sewing Room Clocks

Who knew?

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

At Spring Market, I stopped by the Lizzie B Cre8ive booth to visit with Beth Hawkins. Beth is half of the Lizzie B team. The other half, Liz, was manning a booth at another show the same weekend.

These gals are sisters-in-law who are both named Elizabeth Hawkins. Besides the name, I think they share a brain! They have the same design sensibility, the same upbeat humor, the same sense of whimsy and fun, and they even have identical handwriting!

This team seems to have a boundless supply of energy. They design and make quilts, they have a huge line of fun patterns, they have their own fabric with Henry Glass, they have books with the Kansas City Star, they publish an on-line magazine, and now I find out they’ve put out their own new book, Quiltin’ Happy!

quiltin-happy

The subtitle is “simple hip quilts to make ya smile.” There are seven fast, fun, fresh quilts included, with complete instructions, easy-to-follow diagrams, and full color photos of all the projects All the quilts in the book are made from the Hip Happy collection of fabrics designed by the Lizzie B girls. Hip Happy offers colorful brights combined with blacks and whites to make modern-looking quilts that pop.

Playful Posies and Happy Dancin'

Playful Posies and Happy Dancin'

Their links:

Lizzie B website
Lizzie B on-line store
Lizzie B blog
Lizzie B magazine

Beth gave me a copy of the new book for a giveaway. Thanks Beth! If you’d like to win a copy of Quiltin’ Happy, leave a comment on this post by 7:00 p.m. California time on Wednesday, August 10. Contest open to U.S. and Canada addresses only.

Remember that if you are subscribed by email, you’ll need to click over to the blog itself to leave a comment. Replying to your email feed won’t get it done :).

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Do you know who these good-looking gentlemen are?

orion-chris

On the left that’s Orion Burns, son of the illustrious Eleanor Burns. On the right that’s Chris Burns, Orion’s half-brother-from-another-mother. Both of them are instrumental in running Eleanor’s Quilt in a Day store in San Marcos, California.

These guys are a hoot! Both just as friendly as can be, as cool as cucumbers, 100% knowledgeable about quilting products, and comfortable (to say the least) around the ladies. They kept me entertained all weekend. They let me take their picture once I promised to say how smart and handsome they both are.

I was right across the aisle from Eleanor this time at Festival-Long Beach.

thats-eleanor

The lady herself!

rubbing-elbows

Rubbing elbows with a quilting luminary.

At one point Eleanor came over and asked if I had an extra plug so she could charge up her phone. At first I didn’t think so, but then I realized that the extension cord for my cash register had a couple extra outlets on it, so we plugged it in. Awhile later it rang. Eleanor was surrounded by her adoring public, and for a wild second I thought of picking it up and saying, “Eleanor Burns’s phone,” or “Joe’s bar, Joe ain’t here,” or something equally clever, but I was too chicken so I let it go to voicemail LOL.

After that, Orion came hustling over, handed me his cell phone, asked me to tell his wife how to get there, and fled back to their busy cash register. Thanks goodness I used to live in the area a long time ago! I directed her as best as I could. I think she still managed to go the wrong way on the 710. After a couple more calls and helpful passersby, she finally arrived with the baby.

I had such a great time this year! I felt that the energy and spirit in the quilting world was really up. And I enjoyed my neighbors very much.

eleanor-hug

Eleanor gave me a hug and made me promise to tell the cell-phone-charging story.

Back soon with a very cool book from the Lizzie B gals!

Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

The winner of the Quilted Crow Girls pattern is… ! Congratulations

One of the Schoolhouse sessions that I attended during Spring Market was a presentation by Tri-State Printing. Tri-State is a well know name in the quilting industry. I’ve never used them, but I’ve been aware of them for a long time. They are extremely knowledgeable about our industry and its printing needs, and they print for a ton of quilt designers. If you need a little or a lot of help with your printed materials, from pattern covers to brochures to self-published books, they would be a good company to contact.

I went to a fun presentation from the Quilted Frog! Aka Carla Scott and Leanne Smith, who just came out with a new book from AQS Publishing called Lady Bug & Friends Quilts.

lady-bug

The Quilted Frog gals have developed a distinctive, cartoony, and very fun style they call Easy Outline Appliqué™. You have to go to their website and see the quilts from the new book! They are so different looking, really fresh and appealing!

Over on their website they also have tutorials and videos, so be sure to poke around all the great resources they offer.

There’s more from Schoolhouse and Market. I’m trying to wrangle some guest posts, so stay tuned!

Whilst I was tramping around the aisles of Market, I stopped by the Creative Crafts Group booth. They’re the ones who publish Quiltmaker and the special 100 Blocks issues, among many other publications. I was tickled to see the cover of the recent 100 Blocks Volume 3 blown up to poster size. A staffer insisted on taking my picture, and she told me to point to my block. This cheesy maneuver caused me to slump down, which made me look like I gained back that 10 pounds I just lost, but oh well. :)

ccg-booth

In case you ‘re interested in getting that special issue and haven’t found it yet, I have it available on my website now, on the Patterns page.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

In the recent call for topics, Susan wrote: “I would like more information on wool appliqué (fusing) and the decorative stitches (not limited to blanket stitch) that can be used to embellish the wool.”

The next Schoolhouse that I went to was presented by the Quilted Crow Girls, Leonie and Deirdre, who came all the way from Tasmania! That’s a small island off the coast of Australia! They were delightful to listen to.

The Girls specialize in felted-wool appliqué, and at the session they shared their techniques for achieving a neat and soft finished product. First of all, they do not fuse the wool, they simply stick the appliqué to the background with a bit of water-soluble glue stick and then staple it in place! That’s right, staple! “The wool is self healing,” they point out, “and will not leave a mark when staples are removed.”

Their preferred stitch is the blanket stitch. However, in response to Susan’s question, I’m sure there are many others ways to stitch the edges of the wool. A primitive running stitch comes to mind. At Market, there were tons of “woolies,” i.e. designers featuring wool appliqué. Here are the ones that I’ve just added to the blogroll, fresh from Market:

Quilted Crow Girls
Heart to Hand
Reets’ Rags to Stitches
Woolylady

In addition to these, there are many more woolies in the blogroll (right-hand sidebar, at the bottom). Did you know that if you hover your mouse over a link, a little tag will pop up? Look for “wool” in the pop-ups and you’ll find a bunch.

Also, click on the category “Wool” in the left-hand sidebar and you’ll get all of the articles pertaining to wool that have already been published on the blog. A really good one is Kaye Moore’s guest post, and there’s a fabulous photo tutorial on the Cottons ‘n Wool blog.

The Quilted Crow Girls laid a free pattern on their Schoolhouse attendees. Nice!

quilted-crow-pattern

I’m passing along this gorgeous wool appliqué runner pattern in a drawing. If you’d like to win, leave a comment by 7:00 p.m. California time on Saturday, May 28. In your comment, feel free to pass along any wool tips that you might have to share. Contest open to U.S. and Canada addresses only.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who visited during the recent blog hop and left nice comments about my Party Frock. Several people suggested that the block would look nice done up in multiples, with different dresses. Great idea! That may just to be something that I need to revisit in the future!

A couple designing buddies of mine have just come out with new patterns that are extremely high on the cuteness scale.

Last fall I blogged about the Tokay Stitchers show, where I had the good fortune to be next-door-neighbors with Rita and Debbie of Lady Bug Lace.

The gals just put out a new pattern called No More Monkeys.

no-more-monkeys-quiltIs that fun or what??

Rita and Debbie told me that since some of the appliqué pieces in the pattern are large, they decided to print one large copy of the design, thinking this would be easier for the quilter than taping several smaller pieces together. The drawing can be taped up onto a sliding glass door or a large window to trace the appliqué pieces, and you can also use the whole drawing to place under the background fabric for placement of the appliqué pieces.

That is certainly an added convenience for the quilter! No More Monkeys is available from their Etsy store.

Neeext… Holly Mabutas of Eat Cake Graphics is at it again! She has just released a darling new quilt pattern called To The World.

to-the-world

This pattern started out life as a rubber stamp, like many of Holly’s do, and is now available for quilters. The very cool thing about Holly’s patterns (besides their adorability) is that Holy includes instructions for her freezer-paper-on-top-glue-to-the-back method of preparation for hand appliqué.

To The World is available over on the quilt pattern page at Eat Cake Graphics.

I’m off to Salt Lake City tomorrow for International Quilt Market, Spring Edition. My publisher has lined up a couple book signings for me, which are so much fun and quite a heady experience. See you after I get home!

Until then,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

The wonderful Pat Sloan has invited me to be a guest on her internet radio show tomorrow afternoon!

creative-talk-button

I met Pat a couple years ago. Here’s a link to the story of how we met, in a post called A funny thing happened in Long Beach.

If you’d like to hear my dulcet tones (that’s a joke) then click over to Pat Sloan’s Creative Talk Network at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time to listen to the live broadcast. The first guest is designer Vanessa Christenson of V and Co. My segment will start at approximately 4:30 p.m. That’s Eastern time, so remember to adjust for your time zone.

kay-banner

Part of the fun of my talk with Pat will be giveaways of my new book Inspired by Tradition. Follow Pat’s information on how to enter the drawing on her blog. (BTW the program will be taped and if you miss it live, you can always listen to it later.)

ibt-450

And just as a reminder, the very next day, March 22, we embark on a 10-day journey through cyberspace on the virtual Book-A-Round 2! Come on along… there will be more chances to win a copy of Inspired by Tradition. Start here each day to be whisked away to that day’s stop on the tour!

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Seasons Greetings fellow appliqué enthusiasts! December is such a fun month. Let’s start it out with a festive book giveaway! A thoughtful present from That Patchwork Place to a lucky winner.

Our featured book this month is Folk-Art Favorites: Quilts from Joined at the Hip.

folk-art-favorites

Joined at the Hip is a design company specializing in folk art that consists of Tammy Johnson and Avis Shirer. Their husbands inspired that name for the company, as the men knew that between them they could always track down the quilting twosome LOL.

When I think of folk art, I think of fun, funky, primitive shapes that are not necessarily the right size for one another, like a crow being way too big for the tree it’s sitting in. The Hip girls agree: “We are draw to objects that are out of proportion, whimsical, and offbreat.” Me too!

The authors begin by giving basic instruction in quiltmaking and machine appliqué, then dive right into the projects. If you’re a fan of that rustic, un-fussy look, you’ll love the designs from Joined at the Hip.

pomegranate-christmas

The pomegranate motif is always pleasing, here done in country holiday colors.

bundle-up

This is one of four seasonal banners, the winter one of course for this time of year.

There are also pillows, wall quilts and small quilts embellished with wool and buttons, a schoolhouse sampler, and a beautiful table runner with rickrack and penny-rug ‘tongues.’

To enter the drawing to win Folk-Art Favorites, leave a comment by 7:00 p.m. California time on Sunday, December 5. Those subscribed by email or feed reader, remember click over to the blog itself and scroll to the bottom of the post to leave a comment. Drawing open to U.S. and Canada only due to the cost of shipping.

Until then,
Happy holidays!!
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Next Page →