Karen Kay Buckley

Yesterday was quite a day! I learned a LOT and met a lot of really nice quilters. Of course aren't all quilters really nice?

First thing in the morning I took a class from Karen Kay Buckley. It was a lecture/demo class. She talked about the equipment and supplies she uses for machine and hand appliqué, and how she gets and stays organized. She says she couldn't accomplish very much if she wasn't organized, so she gave us a lot of tips on that and showed slides on how she organizes everything in her sewing room.

Here are a couple of the many tips she gave us:

1. She uses Downy Wrinkle Releaser when she initially irons all her fabric. She said it gets the wrinkles right out all the time.

2. She uses a Microtex 60/8 needle in her machine for machine appliqué with invisible thread in the top and bobbin. This way you cannot tell her machine appliqué from her hand appliqué.

3. She does not have a phone nor take her cell phone into her sewing room. She said she makes it up there so rarely that that is her time and she doesn't want to be interrupted.

4. She put Daylight light bulbs in her sewing room and it makes a big difference in how truly the colors in her fabric read.

5. She cuts templates from Templar plastic and uses an Emory board to make the edges smooth.

6. She made her own ironing surface with Luan plywood with Drill fabric wrapped around it and duct taped.

She also has a lot of products on her website that I have used and love such as Perfect Circles, her whole line of Perfect Scissors, and I just bought her Square Up Ruler yesterday (more on that later). I encourage you to check out her website. I don't have the link handy but if you google her name I'm sure you'll find it!

All of these quilts were made by Karen and these were all hand appliquéd. She has patterns available for them all! I'm off to another day of quilting!