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Apr
14
I’ve been saving some great news to tell you. Always Quilting in San Mateo, California, is running a block-of-the-month program with Teapots 2 to Appliqué!
It was through their BOM with the original Teapots book that I got to know the shop’s owners, Kit and Julie. They contacted me with an emergency book order, and told me about their popular “Sunday Tea” program.
Last year, when I told them that I was putting out Teapots 2, they asked if they could make a sample to go in the book. Could they ever! I was delighted at the proposition. They made “Tea With the Empress” using the Empress Garden collection by Hoffman Fabrics, and these are the fabrics they’re using for the new BOM program (while supplies last of course).
You don’t have to live nearby to participate in the BOM, as it is also offered online. Their website is www.alwaysquiltingonline.com. Go there and click on On-Line Catalog, then Block of the Month. You’ll see “Tea with the Empress” among many other offerings.
The book comes with the program, but if you already have your copy of Teapots 2, just let them know. They’ll give you a different price structure.
When the new BOM program came out, there was also renewed interest in the first Teapots BOM. Though the original Teapots to Appliqué book is now out of print, I’m happy to say that Always Quiting continues to offer the original BOM using my pattern packs.
Thank you, Kit and Julie!
Until next time,
Kay
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Mar
29
Pam, you’ve done it again! Pam Crooks is one of the members of the small quilt group I’ve been stitching with for over 11 years. She’s a super-busy gal, working full-time and traveling for her position with a banking institution, plus participating in so many appliqué projects it could make your head spin. Yet she has been a fabulous supporter of my publishing work, finding the time to contribute beautiful original samples when I have a new book in the works.
Here’s what she made for Teapots 2 to Appliqué. I just love it!
Pam was at Round Robin Fabrics here in Santa Cruz, a quilt shop that specializes in ethnic, beachy, and not-your-ordinary-calicoes. Some Kaffe Fassett prints and some rusty batiks captured her imagination that day.
Pam has a habit of giving me her projects for photography without telling me a name for it. I was considering “Sugar, No Milk” or maybe “With Sugar Please” because of her adorable vine-and-sugar-bowl border. Before the book went to print, I ran my ideas past her, and a funny look came over her face. “Not so much,” I said to myself. Turns out that Pam was thinking more like “Tea With Kaffe” because of the K.F. print she used for the teapot. Well, I already had a “Tea with…” quilt, so we came up with “Tea Garden” to include the beautiful twining vines.
Get this… Pam was on the road so much during the making of this quilt that it’s hand-pieced! Yes, all those little squares. What a trooper!
Until next time,
Kay
Filed Under Appliqué, Teapots 2 to Appliqué | 2 Comments
Mar
21
The next quilt I’m showing you from Teapots 2 to Appliqué is very cool. Verona Flint hand-appliquéd a beautiful batik teapot with a shimmery gold handle and spout on plain white fabric, and handed it back to me. When I looked at it I immediately started brainstorming on a setting to show it off. Something round with a square top was speaking to me.,
I went to the fabric store and spotted an unusual fabric that just made the teapot sing. This fabric was unlike anything I’d used before. The salesperson said it was cotton. It had a somewhat rough, crepe-like texture.
I used a plate to mark the circle and a platter to mark the semi-circle, and reverse-appliquéd the print fabric around the teapot.
Then I did something else I hadn’t done before. I went to the store and got some gold rayon thread. This thread was not metallic, but had a sheen to it. I used a couple of decorative stitches on my Bernina for the quilting, including filling in the plain white area behind the teapot.
I’m very pleased with the result. Thanks a million, Verona, for providing the inspiration for me to branch out! I love our joint project.
Until next time,
Kay
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Mar
13
The last quilt I showed you from Teapots 2 to Appliqué was by Shannon (see the March 4 post). Now here’s one from her mom, Janet.
Janet and Shannon are mother-and-daughter quilters from Hollister, California.
I put these two quilts together on a page in Teapots 2 because I just loved how each piece reflected the quiltmaker’s own style. Not to mention their respective stashes!
Janet drew from her collection of Civil-War reproduction fabrics and used Thangles™ to make the half-square triangles for the pinwheels. Janet carries Thangles on her website.
Until next time,
Kay
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Mar
9
Blue Willow was my mother’s china pattern. Whenever I see it, it brings back warm memories of childhood. Imagine my delight when Reeze Hanson of Ottawa, Kansas, sent me pictures of a whole collection of Blue Willow teapots!
Here’s the story behind the quilts. As you’ll see, Reeze’s mother and mine shared an affinity for Blue Willow.
“I teach classes at Quilting Bits & Pieces in Eudora, Kansas (where I bought the first teapots book) and planned to make some small quilts using the patterns and a bolt of blue willow fabric I had recently purchased. My mother was a Blue Willow China collector and antique dealer, and our house was filled with (literally) thousands of pieces of blue willow china.
My mother was an active member of the International Willow Collector’s Society (which she helped establish many years ago) and very active in the local Ohio chapter for many years. She attending many of their annual meetings, until she passed away in 1993. My sister inherited most of the willow and has generously spread it around to all the grandchildren, friends and family that we knew would all want a few cherished pieces in memory of mother. Much was sold, and many pieces are still in the family.
My sister continued to attend the annual Willow Society conventions and later I joined her. Immediately I thought of your teapot patterns, as teapots were my mother’s favorite BW item to collect and she had dozens of them. So I designed and made each of the little quilts, and many more!
It was so fun. I only made one of each kind, no two were alike, and never even wrote down the patterns I designed. But I loved making these and plan to make more with the new book.
Thanks so much for your interest in my quilts! They really were a labor of love, done in honor of my mother.”
Here’s to mothers everywhere, and the cherished memories they leave us with.
Until next time,
Kay
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Mar
4
We all know the verse about the little “short and stout” teapot. My appliqué friend Shannon Wilkinson took some words from it and made the most adorable wall quilt with designs from Teapots 2.
Shannon used fusible machine appliqué for the teapot, the cups, and the letters. Too cute! This one appears in the book as inspiration.
Until next time,
Kay
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Mar
1
My show and tell today is my new book, Teapots 2 to Appliqué!
Today is the official publication date, but I actually had the book in time for last weekend’s quilt show put on by my home guild. It’s so much fun having a new book and having all of my quilter friends come by to check it out. I envisioned this one with a pink and girly cover, and I think I hit the mark!
The fabric used for the teapot is “Rose de la Bagatelle” by Holly Holderman of LakeHouse Dry Goods. I love it!
I’ll be putting up some pictures of what my appliqué friends did with the 16 new teapot designs, or, if you want to see them now, you can see them and more information about the book on my website, Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs.
I love my job!
Until next time,
Kay
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Feb
25
Due to a printing glitch and subsequent reprinting, I ended up with way more copies of In a Twinkle: Youthful Quilt Designs than I needed. It’s time for them to move away from home!
If you’re a member of a group that makes and donates quilts for kids in need, email me at “topdog at quiltpuppy.com” and tell me about your group. I’ll send you 6 copies (as many as I can stuff in a bubble mailer) by the “slow boat to China,” Media Mail. If you feel like paying me back for the postage, you can PayPal a couple bucks to the same address.
If you’re not a member of such a group but you know somebody who is, feel free to spread the word.
This book includes step-by-step. illustrated instructions for five easy quilts and a comfy cozy flannel blankie, plus detailed instructions on the fusible-interfacing method for machine-appliquéing big, simple shapes.
Until next time,
Kay
Filed Under Fusible interfacing appliqué, In a Twinkle | 6 Comments
Feb
8
My pal Janet Locey is teaching my Peekaboo pattern later this month. She made her version, and let’s just say, wow!
Janet started with a striking Kaffe Fassett print and pulled the other colors from there. Not only do we have some hot colors going on here, Janet reversed the values… she made the light areas dark and the dark areas light.
Tracey Brookshier of Brookshier Design Studio, who publishes this pattern, loves Janet’s wild colors so much that she’s thinking about putting it on the cover!
Here’s my version, in comparison.
Whichever way you like it, this is a great beginner quilt. It may look intricate, but there’s only two sewn units, the square-in-square and the rail fence. Then it’s all in how you set them!
Janet’s class is on February 18 at Cabrillo Sewing Center in Capitola, California.
Until next time,
Kay
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Feb
4
Just an administrative note to let you know that in honor of Leap Year, everything is 20% off this month on my website, Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs.
That’s right, all of the books and patterns that are design sources for the Show & Tell you see here are on special, through February 29, 2008.
On my appliqué blog, I put up a picture of A Spin in the Garden, aka “the bunny quilt,” and also relayed DH Dana’s explanation of how often Leap Year comes leaping along. (Hint: it’s every 4 years, except when it isn’t.)
Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day!
Until next time,
Kay
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