Mastering The Art of McTavishing

Mastering the Art of McTavishing Expanded & Revised is a new edition of Karen’s most popular book.

OUT OF PRINT – NO LONGER AVAILABLE – All sold

Expanding on the original edition of Mastering the Art of McTavishing, Karen showcases her signature stitch on Modern Quilts, Appliqué, Art Quilts, Apparel, Wholecloth and Pieced quilts. The book includes TWO detailed DVDs of Karen teaching the process, step-by-step, of adding and using McTavishing in your quilts. Contributing quilters are longarmers (stand up quilters), domestic machine quilters (sit down quilters) and hand quilters.

Karen states in the book intro,

I started to use this style of “free-flowing, meandering movement of long lines and shapes” in my customer quilts. I found that using this style of background filler looked really good in conjunction with contemporary appliqué. I was active on an email chat group for longarm quilters and some of them had seen my quilting style and began to talk about what it should be called. The term “McTavishing” was suggested by a group member. I was flattered but also pretty embarrassed. The name stuck and now I receive emails from all over the country asking how to do this “McTavishing.”

The author’s namesake stitch makes a quilt look and feel as if it has motion and texture. The inspiration for this style of quilting comes from Art Nouveau artist, Alfonse Mucha. Author, Karen McTavish, adapted Mucha’s curvy, stylized art form into a free-hand background filler quilting design. The effect was electric on the quilting community and in judged competition.

Mastering the Art of McTavishing instructs the quilter on adding this technique to any quilt or garment, from traditional wholecloth to contemporary art quilts, for use by hand, domestic machine, or longarm quilters.

Lessons from the author combined with interviews of accomplished hand and domestic machine quilters on the DVDs* give the reader an unparalleled view of the quilting process. Every aspect of how to use McTavishing is compiled in the book and in the accompanying DVDs*.

The book is softcover, full color, 128 pages, includes TWO DVDs,