Sep

3

Liberty Teapots

Filed Under Hand appliqué, Quilt shows, Show & Tell | 3 Comments

I recently received an order for my book Teapots 2 to Appliqué from a quilter living in New Zealand. She told me she had see a quilt made from the designs in a show in Orewa.

I was intrigued!! I asked her for a little more information, and she sent me a photo of the gorgeous quilt. It’s made with all Liberty fabrics!!

liberty-tpots-450

liberty-label

The Hibiscus Coast Quilters of Whangaparaoa, New Zealand, put me in touch with the maker, Julie Davis. Julie shared the following about her project.

“I would be very happy for you to use my quilt on your blog. It is such a lovely pattern and I thoroughly enjoyed hand appliquéing the teapots. The Liberty fabrics I purchased from a Liberty club at my regular quilting shop. There were six different Liberty fabrics in a pack for six months. I couldn’t wait out the six months so I purchased them altogether. I am going to use this as a tablecloth when I have a High Tea for my quilting friends.”

Those are some lucky friends! Thank you Julie, for allowing me to share, and I’m so glad you had a good time with the designs. And thank you Tish for letting me know about the beautiful quilt. Will look forward to seeing your teapot creations as well!

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Kay’s Etsy Shop

Feb

24

Winner winner

Filed Under Prizes | 1 Comment

The ‘lucky” reader who won the Ugly Christmas Sweater block is… Beverly! Beverly claims that she is planning a Christmas quilt that will welcome and enfold this block. Nice. I love a happy ending.

Speaking of winning, a teapot quilt that I put in my guild’s show over the weekend received a Judge’s Choice ribbon!

A Spot of Tea by Kay Mackenzie

The theme of this year’s show was “The Way We Were.”


Our show is not juried or judged, but we do have visiting dignitaries come and put ribbons on their favorites. I never found out who the judge was… whoever you are, thank you so much!

The quilt features nine of the teapots in my Teapots 2 to Appliqué, on the book page at kaymackenzie.com.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Nov

4

Home, sweet home

Filed Under Blog hops, Magazines, Show & Tell | 7 Comments

Just finished one of the most hectic times ever. Palm Springs, followed by PIQF, followed by a visit from the in-laws, followed by a guild show. All I can say is, I lived through it, and am mighty glad to be home amid peace and quiet and down time. Happy rabbit. :)

Over this last weekend I was in Roseville, California, for the Pioneer Quilt Guild show. A quilter stopped by to let me know that she had a quilt in the show made using my Teapots 2 to Appliqué patterns. What a treat for me!

Asian Teapots by Karen Price

Thank you for the shout-out, Karen!

Beautifully hand appliquéd.

And hand quilted!

On another note, Volume 10 of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks comes out later this month.


I have a block in there once again, I’m happy to say. The kickoff blog tour is November 17-21.

These blog tours are lots of fun, with many prize-winning opportunities along the way. My day is Monday, November 17. See you then!

Cheers,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Jan

19

New year, new teapots

Filed Under Quilt shows | 2 Comments

First of all, thank you so much for all of the nice words about the brochure. The encouragement is highly appreciated, and I’ll let you know how it goes over!

Those of you who have visited my booth have seen the nine-block teapot sampler that I hang to show some of the designs in Teapots 2 to Appliqué.

That quilt has been universally loved. People exclaim over it, and those who get the book want to take photos of it, so they can “remember the colors.” (I point out that it’s red, white, and blue LOL.)

In the last little while, those teapots have started to whisper to me. “Mackenzie,” they say, “We’re tired. We want to stay home.” It’s true they have done a yeoman’s service. So over the holiday hiatus I made a new nine-block sampler. Here are a couple of the new teapots.

As you can see, they’re still red, white, and blue, but in a richer scheme. The white is now ivory, the 30s and toile prints now French and Civil War. I hope this new collection will hit the spot for viewers.

The quilt will make its debut at the upcoming Road to California show. If you’re planning on attending this quilting extravaganza, come on by and see it! I’ll be in the ballroom.

I’m on the road to Road on Tuesday, for a week. See you when I get back, if not before!

Cheers,
Kay

Sep

14

Tea Ceremony

Filed Under Books, Freezer paper on the back, Machine appliqué, Show & Tell, Starch | 3 Comments

Before the lights went out in San Diego, I was tromping up the aisle, and someone was taking a picture of a quilt. Naturally I turned my head, and then I put on the brakes hard. I can spot my teapots at 50 paces! There was the most glorious oriental teapot quilt. I stood there with my jaw on the floor.

Tea Ceremony by Marjorie Kilcrease, 109 x 120

Tea Ceremony by Marjorie Kilcrease, 109 x 120

Most of the teapots are from my Teapots 2 to Appliqué. I got the chance to talk with Marjorie a couple times during the show. She was beaming with pride over her quilt and so was I. Here’s the story of this masterpiece, from Marjorie herself.

When I saw Kay’s book on teapots, I fell in love with it. However, I kept thinking “Are you crazy? This is applique!” I collected oriental fabrics for about two years while I was trying to figure out how to display the teapots. Then I found the center panel with the Geisha holding the teacup.

center-panel

Next, I found the block pattern called BQ2 by Maple Island Quilts and it looked very oriental to me. I was ready to sew!

This was my second appliqued quilt. I used the directions in the book to enlarge the patterns by 150% so they would fit on a 12″ block. I used a freezer-paper method (ironed to the back) with spray starch to anchor the edges down. Then I used the liquid basting to adhere the teapot parts to the block. The final step was machine-stitching the teapots. My husband designed three blocks for me too. The whole project took about four months.

cer-1cer-2cer-3

The quilter, Wendy Knight, did custom quilting. In the black horizontal strips are names of tea or words like ‘happiness’, ‘peace’, etc. The vertical black strips have bamboo quilted in.

I had bought a large backing but still needed to enlarge it to make sure there was enough for the quilter. My husband helped me mimic the front design and we offset the black strips (instead of centering them) and then I used another panel that I found to add a decorative touch.

other-panelstea-ceremony-back

The quilt is for us and will take its turn on our king-size bed. However, all of my friends want me to put it in our will and leave it to them! They’ll need to discuss that with our two daughters though! :)

What Marjorie didn’t mention is that her quilt won First Place in Viewer’s Choice!

ribbon

Congratulations Marjorie!!

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie