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
Dec
28
What I did over Christmas vacation
Filed Under Fusible web, Holiday, Machine appliqué, Photo tutorials | 7 Comments
First of all, thank you so much to everyone who responded with warm enthusiasm for my foster kitten stories. There’s a followup… but I’ll save that for later.
Several of the projects that appear in my book A Merry Little Christmas to Appliqué are on loan to my pal Debby at the Quilter’s Faire in Palm Desert, California.
When a traveling quilt-show vendor specializing in Christmas expressed an interest in carrying the book, I thought I’d make another version of the project that’s the most popular one… Plum Pudding!
 The original. |
It was loads of fun rummaging for the fabrics, and also a little scary. It’s been awhile now since the book came out, but in the scrap bag I found a few leftover squares of the original fabrics used for the patched background! I also had enough of the red sashing and all three fabrics that were used for the puddings!
In my files, I even found the original pattern and tracing-paper overlay! Since the pattern is blown up 200%, this saved me a step. That’s why I keep stuff. You never know.
Once I’d pulled all the fabrics, I started thinking about the great expanse of white that makes up the ‘hard sauce’ part of the pattern. It would be covering a weensy bit of the brown, and also the patched background, and I didn’t want those to shadow through.
Usually, for machine appliqué I would use a double layer to create a light-over-dark motif by first fusing two layers of fabric together and then using that composed fabric to create the motif. This time, the area was so large, and I didn’t want the stiffness from the extra fusible. I thought I’d try something new.
I started out by making two motifs just the same, both with the inside of the fusible web cut out.
Back
Front
I removed the paper backing from both, placed one on top of the other on a nontick appliqué pressing sheet, and tacked them together with a hot iron.
If there are are inconsistencies in the two shapes, just use your scissors and trim them to match.
A little haircut needed here.
All trimmed and tidy.
Now the motif is double-layer and with no fusible web in the middle to make it stiff! Try it! It worked for me.
Stitched block.
Finished project: Plum Pudding 2
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Oct
5
Winner, and overheard at the quilt show
Filed Under Prizes | 5 Comments
Sew the Perfect Gift goes to…. Kathy in NC! Congratulations Kathy! I hope you enjoy the very cute projects in the book.
The first time I heard the following, I laughed so hard. Then I kind of got used to it as it happened a few more times. Passersby, especially men it seems, would look at a little quilt that I hang in my booth and say, “Hmm… Baked Potatoes.”
This is what they’re looking at:
Baked Potatoes or Plum Pudding: |
At my last show I heard a new one. A teenaged girl looked at one of my quilts and said, “Oh, Prairie Dogs.”
 You be the judge. |
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
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