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Recent Awards

New DVD "Multiple Ways to Applique" in my store.

1st Place Nature Quilts Houston 2012 IQA show

1st Place Domestic machine quilted  2012 Paducah AQS

Viewers Choice Award Audubon's Christmas AQS 2012

Best of Show Road to California International

Runner up to Best of Show Pacific International

2nd place wall Mid Atlantic 2013

1st place Innovative Denver National

2nd place Pictorial Quilts Pacific West

1st Place Applique, 2nd place wall and 3rd place applique



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Jingle Bells

Hello my friends,

Twenty more gray hairs, 5 bags of Cheetos, dark bags under my eyes.... but hey I DID IT!!. I made my goal. "Jingle Bells" is done and entered into the IQA show this year. These deadlines are called that for a reason. 


Now for the backstory. We always take a family Christmas vacation. This year we went to a lodge in Eastern WA. They had an old fashioned sleigh ride.  Over the river and thru the woods to a tent for dinner. The drover looked like he had been doing this for the last hundred years. Beat up cowboy hat, oilskin coat down to his boots, beard, and a gruff weathered look to his face. My grand daughters were the only kids on the sleigh. He turned to my petite little 4 yr old and asked her what she got for Christmas. "A bow and arrow", she replied. He did a double take and said, " Really, a bow and arrow? What are you going to shoot?" "Bears", she replied. At that he let out a big belly laugh. "Bears?"        "Well, just the mean ones", she said. That old red neck was roped and tied in seconds by my little mighty mite. "Do you want to drive the horses little missy, he asked?' "Well yes sir I do". He obviously was not familiar with Disney's newest Princess - Merida. 

   

Thread Embellishments.  Thank you to Carol Stocking for the great idea to do Sea Fans with thread. I apologize for not recognizing you last month. Love that idea! Check out the several new student project photos in my student gallery this month too.

Border choices. The majority of you chose our Rooster with the stripes all around.  Laura, (the artist and I) choose the dark strip on the left side. Competition with the main subject of the quilt was my problem with the stripes. They are so visually powerful. I felt like your eye went there first, instead of the Rooster. On Jingle Bells, I chose a dark colored border to frame in the dark horses. The lettering was done with machine embroidery on two pieces of tear away stabilizer behind the border fabric.  I did that prior to the quilting. There are real jingle bells attached to the little holly berry flourish.

News from Walrus Designs-

More than a Memory won an Honorable Mention at this years show in Paducah.

"Quilter's World" magazine has asked me to make a 18 inch block pattern for them.

 It will be coming out this fall with an article on my "Multiple Ways to Applique" approach to quilting. AQS has asked me to partner with them in publishing two more patterns. One is the "Dancing Cranes" pattern. I am pushing for a CD to accompany it with directions and photos, as it's a complex pattern.  The other is "Greeting the Golden Grandchild".

I am sometimes asked about how it works when you want to write a book or sell your patterns?  Did you know that it is standard for authors to receive 5% royalty on each pattern or book sold? It is not a great way to become rich.  Most of us do it out of our love for teaching and sharing our work with others. It often takes an author a year of work to make a book with all of the requisite samples and photos. Books generally cost $28.00. You do the math.  Authors and designers have to buy back our own books and patterns at the whole sale price, just like any quilt shop. If you want to thank teachers for writing books or making patterns, -  buy your books or patterns directly from them instead of the publishers. That way they will make a little more.

Great Gadgets.  

Combining pieced skies with the more curvo-linear shapes found in nature is a easy way to add interest to your quilts.  The contrast between techniques also adds a dynamic touch. It is a great way to change the color and brightness across the sky section. Use half triangles, or diamonds. 2.5 inch squares set on point look great. They need to be square! If you are a little off on one, you will be a lot of by the time you have sewn 75 together. I like this new ruler. Loc bloc. It has a groove in it. The seam allowance slides into that groove and then there is no rocking when cutting. The square can be firmly held down to your cutting mat. Sew them together in strips. Sew two strips together. Then another two. Sew the pairs together. If you just keep adding more strips to the side, the whole section becomes stretched and out of square.

Here's the link. 

http://shop.blocloc.com/Bloc-Loc-HST-Square-up-Ruler-25-BL-HST-25.htm

    Puffin pattern is available in my shop. Take me there.  63 x 50 sold.

Tips for trapunto -

  My favorite batting for trapunto work is Quilters Dream cotton. It cuts so easily and cleanly. No little feather tufts ! I use blue water dissolvable markers to mark my designs. The first layer of basting thread is lite weight dissolvable thread by Superior. Get the Vanish light weight!

www.superiorthreads.com/shop/product/vanish-lite-300-yds/

Heres the tricky part. Use only cold water to remove the blue marking lines. Hot water removes the thread better but you do not want to "heat set' those marking lines. Make sure they are totally gone before washing the remaining thread away in hotter water. If you want a faux trapunto look - (without the work of cutting away the extra layer of batting) - Use 100% wool batting. It inherently puffs better than cotton.

Remember to nurture your personal creative self this Spring too.

hugs Kathy.

www.kathymcneilquilts.com

Read More

Schedule

 2013   I am booking Fall 2013 and 2014 now! 2014

January 

Road to California- Judging, teaching  www.road2ca.com

January

Oklahoma Winter Quilt show.

8th-11th.

http://qscexpos.com/oklahoma.htm

February  February
   

Quilt Cruise to Caribbean

10-17th So much Fun!!! 360 degree view from our classroom aboard. E mail me if you have questions or go to www.quiltcruises.com to sign up!

 


March

 March

8th & 9th-Puyallup Quilters,WA

25 & 26th, Beaverton, OR

 Huntsville, Alabama 22 and 23th

Guild lecture and workshop

Empty Spools, Asilomar, CA

25-30th 

Learn to make your Landscapes come alive. Work from any of my landscape patterns or from a photo of your own. 

www.emptyspoolsseminars.com



April

 Apri

3rd, Gig Harbor Quilters, WA

9th and 10th,  Orange Country Quilters

Anaheim, CA 

 Hudson River Vallery Art School workshops

Greenville, New York

6th-12 Learn to make your Landscapes come alive. Work from any of my landscape patterns or from a photo of your own. Register at

www.artworkshops.com Phone:(518) 966 - 5219 

18th, Eastside Quilters, Bellevue, WA  


May

 

May

 2nd, Covington Quilters  
 10th, Issaquah Quilters  


June

 

June

 20 -22, Colorado Quilt Council Seams like home Quilting retreat  Homer, Alaska. 5th -15th more info to come.
 12 -15th. Minnesota Quilt Festival  

 www.mnquilt.org/ to register for workshops

2 day landscape workshop and Feathers R Flying.


 


July

July  Quilt Colorado. 16th-20 Workshops to be decided.

August

PWQS Tacoma, WA

August 22nd Thursday 10- 5p Dynamic Design for every Quilt Style. Design is my passion.  I promise to make this interesting and interactive. Learn about what appeals to you, so that you can include that in your work. Read more about this workshop on the workshops and lecture pag

August 

AQS Grand Rapids 20-24th 

www.AQSQuilt.com

 Santa Clara Valley CA  Quilters.

26 and 27th


 

 September

Vancouver Island, Canada Sept 19th-21st. Retreat Landscape quilting. 


September 

Cobblestone Quilters, Charleston, S.C. 11-13th

Hilton Head S.C., Palmentto Quilt Guild. Lecture and Cardinal workshop. 18th and 19th

October- 1st, 2nd and 3rd

Audubon's Cardinals 3 day workshop. To register call.

Becca Quilt Patch, Etc 806 West Main Street Mt. Pleasant, PA
 15666 724) 887-4160 www.quiltpatchetc.com 

 


Mukilteo Lighthouse Quilters 19, 20 , 21st
2 day workshop and lecture.
_______________________________________

 November. October 31st to November 2nd is the IQA show in Houston.  I will not be teaching, just joining friends for fun. See you there.


October 
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