McKenna quilt kits

I finished making a top for another McKenna quilt.  (That's not really true as I have to put some purple ribbon fabric on the border... but no time to do that today.)

You have seen this quilt before because one of my patchwork friends made the same quilt last week.  As our group had two of the same kits (an error on the McKenna shipping process) I purchased the second kit and have put it together for... I don't know.  Maybe the hospital, maybe for my own wall this Christmas.

I realized that I've actually made  A LOT of McKenna quilts this year.  That's thanks to Liz in Canada who sent me a wonderful stash that she had and wasn't making.  They have been fun to make and they are so beautiful when finished.  I've also helped friends make some of the McKenna quilts... at least 8 people and I thought I'd write a bit about doing McKenna quilts in this post.

I consider McKenna quilt kits; which are quite costly; a quilter's collage rather than a quilt.  They don't really take much sewing knowledge or skill when putting them together.  (A bit of patience though...)  Thanks to my blogging friends I've been gifted with quite a few McKenna kits and I've bought a couple for myself and I've also been given just a pattern.  I have a feeling that McKenna quilts have evolved through time...  I don't know if this is true but here is how it comes across to me.

1)  There are the McKenna quilt kit patterns.  Those aren't too expensive.  They have the whole picture printed on paper and then each separate collage piece (for example a flower will have a stem piece, a leaf piece, petal pieces and a center) will be reversed printed on another instruction paper.  This is so that you can trace the pattern onto fusible paper (which you have to buy separate and is a necessity) and then iron on to your own fabric.

The McKenna kit instructions are very detailed and you can figure out fairly easily which pieces use the same colors. You have to mark each piece with a letter-number code so that you can put it all together later.  However, it is a lot of work to choose enough fabrics for the whole collage (McKenna uses A LOT of colors) and with some colors you only need a inch or two of fabric so unless you have a grand stash, you're going to be buying a lot of cuts of fabric that may never get used again.

2)  Then there are the McKenna Ryan quilt kits.  I assume that originally these were kits sent out with the same instructions as in the patterns but McKenna added her OWN choices for fabric so that the quilter can make the exact same quilt as on the pattern package.  Here again, you've got to trace all the pieces onto the fusible paper and their code numbers and cut them all out, but the cuts of fabric that McKenna sends in the quilt kits are VERY generous!  I almost thought I could make two quilt collages with the included fabric (provided I wanted to do all that tracing again).  Of course the fabric included in the kits (and the fabrics are gorgeous) are quite costly.  (But worth it!!)

3)  And lastly there are the pre-cut McKenna quilt kit patterns.  Somewhere along the line someone must have decided they could die-cut all those itsy-bitsy pieces (yes itsy-bitsy!) and send them to the quilter with the original instructions and then the quilter would only have to FIND which piece was which on the instruction sheet (there is coded sheet included...It takes a bit of figuring but it is not that confusing).  Snip, snip, snip and the pre-cut pieces can be collaged by number.  Really sort of a paint-by-number in fabric mentality.  Do it in the right order and everyone has the same thing in the end!

Again, the fabrics in the McKenna kits take your breath away and if you've got patience you can hardly go wrong.  (But don't forget to mark those code numbers.  And do your collaging with the windows closed.  You don't want everything to blow away!)  Definitely working with a friend makes the whole process one big game.  Like putting a puzzle together. Of course the pre-cut quilt kits are the most expensive.

What is left is the free-motion quilting.  Unfortunately this does take skill.  And a free-motion quilting foot on your sewing machine.  It looks like an impossible task but remember, one gets better with practice!  By the end of the quilt you'll be a pro!  All of my friends who are beginning machine quilters and have tried it have said it wasn't as hard as they thought it would be.  It just takes a bit of courage to START!  (You are thinking, "Oh my gosh.  This is so beautiful!  And if I try to sew it all down I may RUIN this gorgeous, expensive work of fabric art!")  IT CAN BE DONE!

So those are my thoughts on McKenna quilts.  I got an e-mail this morning saying that there is a new series called  Snow Buds.  SOOOO cute!!!  No, no, no Tanya, you still have some undone quilts left in your cupboards.