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

Janice Vaine’s beautiful book The Art of Elegant Hand Embroidery, Embellishment, and Appliqué goes to Lea Rae Kuntner! Congratulations Lea Rae! Enjoy.

Happy holidays to you, all the other commenters, and to everyone who reads All About Appliqué. I appreciate sharing an enthusiasm for appliqué with you so much!

Quiltmaker magazine is having a fun Countdown to Christmas over on their blog, Quilty Pleasures. It started on December 3 so be sure to scroll back and catch all the very fun articles they’ve posted full of quilty holiday goodies. I’m pleased to report that you’ll see my Plum Puddings in the countdown!

After I posted Goofy Santa, many of you commented that you felt Dana could have a second career as an appliqué artist. I’ll share with you that back in the day, before I learned computer illustration, I used to ask Dana to draw things for me sometimes. He drew the scene that won me an Honorable Mention in the 1996 Keepsake Challenge!

It’s the one in the middle, with the cat on the sofa. It reads, “Quilts are the next best thing to cats” and “Cats are the best thing next to quilts.” That’s a Dana-ism. :)

Dana also drew the plum pudding for me. There’s a story there. Dana’s mom always made plum pudding for the holidays, the kind you steam on the top of the stove. Dana never thought he liked it because it had hard sauce on top of it. A few years went by and then he found out that hard sauce was “frosting.” All of a sudden plum pudding wasn’t so bad!

Holiday cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

I have a super-sized holiday treat this month as our featured book and giveaway! Landauer Publishing sent me a copy of Janice Vaine’s The Art of Elegant Hand Embroidery, Embellishment, and Appliqué.


It’s truly something special. It’s a great big, hard-cover, spiral-bound book, and with it Landauer also sent me the companion pack of 124 Block Patterns.

If you like hand embroidery and embellishment, you are sure to drool over this fantastic award-winning publication. Go on over to the Landauer website and watch the short video about the book. Click on “Look Inside the Book.”

Here’s an inside sneak peak:

The book and the companion patterns will both go to one lucky reader. If you’d like to win them, please leave a comment here on this post before 7:00 p.m. California time on Sunday, December 9.

The fine print: Open to U.S. and Canada mailing addresses only. Comments left on a different post are not eligible. Replies to an email feed are not eligible.

Many thanks to Landauer for providing us this wonderful resource for appliqué, embroidery, and embellishment enthusiasts. Good luck and happy holidays to all!!

Cheers,
Kay