Yesterday I launched my new book
The Quilter’s Appliqué Workshop with a trunk show, book signing, and demo at the annual retreat held by my home guild, the
Tuleburg Quilt Guild. After the relatively solitary process of putting the book together, it was a real treat to share the quilts with my friends and fellow quilters, and to hear what they made of them. So to kick off my blog tour, I thought I’d share a few pics from the event with you too.
Keep following the blog tour through the official publication date of February 28 to get more ideas for appliqué and hear more about
The Quilter’s Appliqué Workshop from these bloggers:
Don’t forget to check out the grand-prize giveaway details at the end of this post!
Since my Fruit Market quilt got shipped to the publisher almost immediately after I got it back from the quilter, it was great to get it out into the light of day.
Speaking of the light of day, how’s this for dramatic lighting? The sun decided to act as a natural spotlight for Pineapple Rings.
Cover quilt Cobblestones got the spotlight treatment too.
Check out these treat boxes my super friend, cashier, and cheerleader
Sandy made for the retreat using the Cobblestones blocks! Even better, they were filled with her homemade caramely, chocolatey shortbread.
My lovely assistants, Deborah and Sandy, with my Mod Flowers Table Runner. The runners were too small for them to hide their faces behind; I do believe there were some secrets whispered behind the larger quilts....
Counterbalance turned on its side reminded some audience members of snakes who’d gobbling up a rat, which I had to admit was a pretty fair assessment. So the quilt’s nickname will now be Well-Fed Snakes.
Garden Allotments was one of the crowd favorites—broderie perse is great with fairly large-scale prints like these florals.
Round the Block was another crowd pleaser, not that you’d know it from the faces we’re pulling.
Having a TED Talks moment.
One of our guild members is named Dessie. As I was unfurling this banner and only the left half was showing, one of our VPs was momentarily puzzled as to why I’d made a quilt that said “Feed Dessie”—was she hungry?? (The pattern for the full pieced alphabet is forthcoming, so you can spell out the name of whoever needs to be fed in your own guild.)
After lunch, I demonstrated needle-turn appliqué with freehand tree shapes as in the All Seasons Pillows peeking out to the left of me (a free pattern for the project is coming later in the blog tour). Not having a precise line to follow takes the stress out of needle-turning so you can focus instead on learning the process and hand movements. I was thrilled to see guild mates discovering (to their surprise) that the process was easy and fun! There’s really no need for all that “A-word” name-calling.
For the duration blog tour, enter to win the “grand prize” giveaway of a signed copy of the book, a stack of my other appliqué patterns, and my home-dec sewing DVD. Just tell me what intrigues you about appliqué in a comment on this post, whether you’re a beginner or an appliqué aficionado. Comments will be open through March 1, 11:59 pm Pacific Time, then a winner will be randomly chosen. (U.S. addresses only please; one entry per person.) Good luck, and make sure to check out all the other stops on the tour too! Thanks for your entries—
the winner is announced here!
The Quilter’s Appliqué Workshop
By Kevin Kosbab
Interweave/F+W Media; $26.99
bit.ly/JFVK4U
Thanks JD for taking the retreat photos!
Blog Hop! I'm posting late in the day because I'm busy (and having a blast!) teaching appliqué with Sandra Mollon at a week-long quilt retreat on Lake Tahoe. So I thought I'd share some of the beautiful scenery along with my projects from the book, which is filled with projects made from 1 to 10 fat quarters.
