Here’s the project from the class, photo courtesy of Quilter’s Paradise.

LOVE the exotic fabrics. Thanks gals for being fabulous neighbors and for using my teapots!!

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Teapots 2 to Appliqué!

Tea With Jane, 51 x 43

Isn’t it beautiful? I especially love how Marion mixed scale in the teapots. Dynamic!

Marion told me that the colours in the quilt were inspired by the tiles in Jane’s new kitchen.

That’s my kind of comfortable, lived-in kitchen, complete with funny kid! And does Marion’s daughter not look like Victoria Beckham??

Marion was visiting America at the time of the Lancaster show this year and bought the fabric from those vendors.

Thank you, Marion for choosing Teapots 2 for your daughter’s kitchen. It’s a beautiful project and I hope you all will enjoy it for years to come.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

The story of this bright, beautiful quilt, which uses patterns from my Teapots to Appliqué:

My quilting bee was asked by by son’s girlfriend, Lyndsay Benson, to help her DAR chapter make a teapot quilt. The name of their chapter is the Wilmington Ladies Tea Walk Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

We began this project in October of 2008. My bee, which is part of the Quilters by the Sea Guild of Wilmington, North Carolina, attended one of the Tea Walk meetings to show them how to applique and quilt. Each person in my bee and each lady in the chapter were given a choice of the teapot patterns and then made their block from material that was chosen for the project.

The quilt will be used as a raffle to make money for the projects that the chapter does for the community. As you can see there was hand quilting, machine quilting, hand applique, and machine applique as each person did their own thing. After getting all the blocks back, I then put them together and added the teacups in the corners and the border. It was really a fun quilt to do.

Ann, this bright quilt is brightening your community in so many ways. Your bee took time to teach appliqué and quilting to the chapter, and you all collaborated to benefit the good programs of the DAR. I love the fact that all kinds of appliqué and quilting come together in this way. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for choosing my teapot patterns for this wonderful group project. I hope it raises lots of $$ for the cause. By the way, did you know that North Carolina is my home state? I grew up in Chapel Hill.

I think those are picnic ants making off with a chocolate chip cookie.

Teapots to Appliqué, which was my first collection of teapots, is now out of print, but an unbound pattern pack is available on my website. Teapots 2 to Appliqué is still in print.

Still smiling at the cheerful teapots,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

I’m so proud.

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Lo and behold, there’s an absolutely beautiful teapot quilt made by Pat Besenhofer, and I recognize it as being from my Teapots 2 to Appliqué. What an internet find! Pat and Nancy both graciously agreed to let me use the photos and put up a Show & Tell of my own.

Asian Teapot quilt made by Pat Besenhofer, quilted by Nancy Gambrel.

Look at the elegant quilted frames surrounding each teapot, setting them off just so.

Pat writes,

This is so cool. My quilt is indeed based on your book Teapots to Applique 2. I would be thrilled to have my quilt shown on your website. And to think it isn’t even bound yet! I’m glad that Nancy and I spent so much time exchanging ideas about the quilting, I think the frame she did works beautifully with the teapots and the corner diamonds.

I’ve been a tea person all of my life, and I get so tired of patterns featuring coffee, espresso’s and latte’s, etc., so I snatched up this book (as well as the first one) when I saw it at the all-the-quilt-books-in-the-world vendor at the Rosemont, Illinois, Quilt Festival a a year or two ago.

This is the first quilt I’ve made with a definite location in mind; it’s going to go in my kitchen. I’ve been second-guessing myself on the pattern, wondering if I should have placed one or more teapots going the other way, or adding a teacup in one spot for a bit of whimsy. I’m happy that you like it as is.

Pat told me that the quilt was done with fusible raw-edge applique. In order to get the teapots facing the ‘correct’ way, she copied the positive images, then flipped the paper to create a reverse image to draw on the fusible web. Pat, that’s just the way I do it. Nancy stitched down the edges of the fusible applique with clear thread.

A beautiful job, both Pat and Nancy!

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

That first collection is now out of print (though you can still get pattern packs over at quiltpuppy.com, but when I contacted the shop owner, Judy Hansen, she told me they carry Teapots 2 to Appliqué now and sent me a picture of their shop sample.

Teapots 2 to Appliqué banner

Wow, eh what? Check out teapot number three… it’s the same one that’s shown on the cover of the book, but what a difference a really groovy fabric choice can make! That’s what I love about seeing my designs done up by someone else.

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

I started thinking about what I could stitch up to go in that space. I looked back over the designs in Teapots 2 to Appliqué and the apple teapot caught my eye. What about three teapots… Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, and Granny Smith? To top it off, I was pretty sure I had a piece of apple fabric in my stash for the border. I went digging and found it, and it was perfect.

I prepared all of the fusible-web pieces for the teapots. My intention had been to make one yellow, one red, and one green teapot. But when I went to assemble them, they told me, “Mix us up! Mix us up!” When your fabric speaks to you, you must obey.

Here’s my “Delicious Tea” banner.

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

Cathy says, “I’m calling this Constant Comment. Nothing gets more comment these days than Obama.

“I picked your teapot with the top handle that looks like a question mark, because, of course there are so many questions around presidential elections and candidates (not only whether they will be elected, but especially whether they will make a good president–I do like Obama, but, of course, one never knows).

“On the curvaceous Mackenzie teacup, there’s an exhortation to vote; a helpful Mackenzie spoon just to stir things up more… and the ‘Constant Comment’ tea box (note attempt at perspective) was, of course was my own brilliant design (LOL!) The steam from the teapot spells 2008.

“Please tell the world that this small quilt in no way reflects any political views held by Kay Mackenzie, Quilt Puppy Publications, or even my own mother, who comments constantly about her dislike of Obama (and McCain, for that
matter).”

Whatever your political preference, you gotta love the thought and wit behind this little wall quilt, not to mention the message to get out and vote (and the roses).

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

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

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