Breaking free at The Fabric Shop with free-motion quilting

Nestled between the CPA and law offices on South Main Street across from the Robertson County Courthouse in Springfield, Tennessee is The Fabric Shop. I find this is an amusing juxtaposition—balance sheets, tax forms, regulations, and the black-or-white absolutes of the surrounding businesses versus the fluid, creative and colorful aspects of textiles and stitch. But, it's good to have diversity, right? And no doubt the courthouse has its share of "colorful" characters cross its threshold as well.

The Fabric Shop, 508 S. Main, Springfield, TN

Miss Donna talks with a customer.

The Fabric Shop's owner, Donna Sandidge—or Miss Donna as she is called at the shop—has a degree in textiles, a background in sewing and fitting, and extensive experience in garment making. Donna invited me to her shop this past weekend to teach a free-motion quilting class to her quilting customers so they could "Break free and get out of the ditch!"

The Fabric Shop is located in a historic 1900s building off the courthouse square. The soft, textural fabrics and trims are a lovely complement the exposed brick walls and high ceilings of this older building. In the store, Donna blends several "stitching disciplines" through the products offered in her shop—woven and knit textiles and fashion and specialty fabrics for sewing garments as well as quilters cottons for quilting.

Here is a little shop tour…

Scattered throughout the store, styled vignettes such as this one feature garments, fabrics, supplies and kits.

Garments and aprons are displayed with baskets of fat quarters.

A comfy, oversized upolstered chair shares space with zippers, buttons, ribbons, thread and spooled and packaged trims.

Sewing notions, zippers and trims.

A wall of notions (left) and a cupboard with various trims and lace.

Spinner racks display books on sewing, patchwork and continuous line quilting designs. Patterns include quilts, bags, totes, aprons and other projects.

Books and patterns.

For the free-motion class, Donna asked me to bring samples of my work to hang in the classroom area. I love this juxtaposition too—the exposed brick walls with the vivid colors and tactile qualities of the quilts. The classroom is ready for tomorrow's class… warm and inviting.

We set up a gallery of my quilts in the classroom.

The students in the class were very inquisitive and their questions ignited good discussions and learning opportunities. 

Drawing continuous line patterns.

They made great progress learning continuous line quilting motifs and quickly got up to speed at their sewing machines.

Free-motion quilting.

Sew what ya know!

At the end of the class, I asked the students what their light-bulb moments and take-aways were. Here are a few comments:

• Free-motion quilting is not as hard as I thought it would be.
• The drawing and watching you draw the designs really helped.
• I have a direction and know what to do now.
• I'm happy to get out of the ditch.
• Seeing your [Show and Tell] quilts and the discussion on how to find quilting inspiration was so helpful.

Do you know the secret to successful free-motion quilting?

Donna (left) and students in the free-motion quilting class.

Thanks to everyone for coming out and dropping the feed dogs with me! I had a great time.

Intro to Free-motion Quilting class, January 2015
at The Fabric Shop, Springfield, TN

The Fabric Shop will be participating in the Row by Row Experience, a nation-wide shop hop, again this year. I was able to score their 2014 fabric license plate—to add to my collection.

2014 Row by Row collectors plate from The Fabric Shop.

So, if you're on the road this summer for Row by Row (or any time!), drive to the revitalized historic area of Springfield and stop-and-shop at this quaint fabric shop. You can't miss the courthouse on the square—and The Fabric Shop is directly across from it.

Robertson County Courthouse, Springfield, TN.

And for your noshing pleasure? A few doors down from The Fabric Shop you'll find Burdette's Tea Shop & Trading Company from where our lunch was catered. 

Take-out menu from Burdett's Tea Shop.

I had the Salad Jumble Plate and can highly recommend the ham and cheese scones and the frozen strawberry salad. Word has it the brownies are also yummy and one of my students told me they have a vast, must-try selection of unique Rosehaven Gourmet Loose Tea. Unfortunately, the shop was closed by the time my class was over. I'm putting it on the agenda for next time...

Free-motion quilting: A Peppered Feather

"Peppered Feather" 18" x 24"
Made with Peppered Cottons by Pepper Cory
for StudioE Fabrics.

Hey there, Quilters! Have you tried Peppered Cottons? This is a line of shot cottons, designed by quilting icon, Pepper Cory, for StudioE Fabrics. It's one of the new fabric lines I'm representing and I wanted to get my hands on some yardage to try free-motion quilting with it. I used a few Peppered Cottons in my guild Challenge piece, Blue Rhino Moon, and was pleased with the result. Now here is my free-motion foray with them.

The dark green is Jungle 29 and the red violet square is Magenta 42. The other fabrics are from Blank Quilting Corp's Splash and Crushed blender lines with a piece of Watermark from StudioE. The red binding is Fusion Illusion [Blank Quilting]. See how they all play well together?

If you're not familiar with the term, shot cottons are 100% cotton fabrics that are woven with 2 different colors of threads—one color for the warp, and another color for the weft. The weft thread is on the shuttle with is "shot" through the shed [the opening between the threads on the loom] as the textile is woven.

These fabrics have a chambray, somewhat iridescent look to them. From a distance, they look like solids, but up close they have more richness and spice and aren't flat like solids. Here is a blog post by Pepper, the designer, with info and tips. A PDF for download provided by StudioE is here.

Detail of free-motion quilting.

The 50 wt. cotton thread [Aurifil] used for the free-motoin background fills melds beautifully with the shot cottons.

Detail of free-motion quilting.

The aqua thread used for the feather is a new (to me) cotton thread by Floriani. It is a variegated 40 wt 3-ply cotton (color Oceanic). I needed something to contrast the dark green background. The Peppered Cottons provided a luscious background to set off the contrasting color of the thread.

Floriani 40 wt cotton (aqua) and
Aurifil 50 wt cotton quilting threads.

The backing fabric is a small piece of Candy Dots 108" [Blank Quilting Corp.] and Botton Line [Superior Threads] 60 wt. thread is what I used in the bobbin. Yes, I did change the bobbin thread colors.

View of quilting on the back.

You may be familiar with other shot cottons on the market. Westminster makes a line designed by the ever-talented Kaffe Fassett—and we all know Kaffe's fabulous color sense! Quilters will notice that the Peppered Cottons have an equivalent weight to the quilting cottons which they are used to. The Westminster shots have slightly more drape and a finer/thinner hand.

"Peppered Feather"
18" x 24"

I'm working on another piece that combines Peppered Cottons and a black/white charm square collection from Blank Quilting. All the fabrics have the same weight and drape. This makes piecing easy and very manageable.

In-progress: quilting cottons and Peppered Cottons combined.

The Peppered Cottons collection has 50 basic colors and a whole line of "fancies" that include stripes, a small check and a jumbo plaid in lush color combinations. If you want a geometric, modern or masculine vibe for a quilt or home dec project, give these a try!

A January drive

This is what it looked like earlier this week.

Interstate 24 driving through Monteagle, TN.

Although the sun was bright and the sky was electric blue, the temperature was in the single digits. These photos are not motion blur photography. The icicles were formed from the run-off water that drips from the cliffs of the Cumberland plateau.

Frozen run-off water from the cliffs of the Cumberland plateau.

When I arrived at my first sales appointment, the quilt shop owner had a steaming cup of hot chocolate and a chicken biscuit waiting for me. We love our quilt shop owners! They are the just so thoughtful and considerate towards their fabric reps as well as their customers.

A field in middle Tennessee dusted with a light blanket of snow.

At mid-week, we were excited to hear the temperature was "getting up to 20 degrees."

My Fabric Rep Trek: Pickleweeds Quilt Shop

There's always room for one more! One more quilt shop, that is. Joan Orsi, the owner of this shop, and her husband had a life-long dream of opening a quilt shop and the time finally came to make Pickleweeds Quilt Shop a reality.

Pickleweeds Quilt Shop, Douglasville, GA

Pickleweeds is located in Douglasville, Georgia (west of Atlanta) right off I-20 in a shopping plaza with plenty of parking. The store is spacious and, listening to the excitement in Joan's voice as she talked about all the plans for Pickleweeds, it's being filled with fabrics, notions, threads, classes and fun activities ("Elegance" Block of the Month, Mysteries, Sit and Sews) for quilters and sewers of every level.

Here are photos from my recent visit while the shop was still being set up. These shelves are now filled and ready for the Grand Opening Celebration this weekend (October 12). Check out this expansive color wall.

The color wall is being stocked.

There are color-themed collections like patriotic, holiday red and green, and black and whites...

Patriotic prints and black and whites.

neutrals and tonal prints for backgrounds...

Neutrals in several shades and tones.

classic geometric prints like chevrons, argyle and stripes...

Chevrons, zig-zags, argyles and more...

novelties and juvenile prints in bright, happy colors, as well as flannels, batiks, and my can't-live-without favorites, wide backings.

Cute prints for kids quilts and baby accessories.

These pumpkin placemats, hanging above the wall of notions, are the project for an upcoming class.

Notions wall.

There are calendars, pre-cut 2.5" strip and charm collections, zippers and buttons.

Calendars, buttons and pre-cut fabric collections.

Pickleweeds also offers convenient "Take It and Make It" quilt kits. 

Quilt kits.

Class samples adorn the walls...

Class samples 

in the lounge and book preview area...

Lounge area where quilters can sit, relax and peruse the books.

and behind the cutting stations.

Two large cutting stations are located at the back wall.

What a great idea for a fabric panel or scene print! This sample is hanging in the huge classroom...

Looking through the window at a winter scene.

that is set up with individual tables, ironing stations and white boards! (A teacher's dream classroom!)

Large, spacious classroom.

Joan offers machine quilting services on the two Gammill long arms at Pickleweeds. A very cool thing that she has build into the shop's web site is the waiting list for quilting services. You can monitor the progress of your quilt... 25%, 50%, 75% ... through the web site. She is also a Gammill dealer.

Gammil long arm quilting machines.

Did you know that Gammil now has a sit-down machine, called the Charm? To all my free-motion machine quilting students: notice the orientation of the head in relation to where the operator sits... just like your domestic sewing machine!

The Charm sit down machine quilting machine by Gammill.

There is a play area to keep kids occupied while parents and grandparents shop.

The front counter (left) and the play area for kids (right).

If you want to enjoy the beautiful October weather this weekend and you're looking for a quilters road trip... Pickleweeds' Grand Opening Celebration is this Saturday, October 12. I've heard there will be prize drawings every 30 minutes, great 30% discounts, a raffle quilt and a grand prize drawing at the end of the day.  

If you can't travel, you can still enjoy the savings through the Pickleweeds on-line shop. If you go in person, tell them Veronica reminded you to ask about the "key fob." With this, you'll get extra savings. Joan has thought of everything!

Pickleweeds Quilt Shop, Douglasville, GA

My Fabric Rep Trek: Persephone's Creations

Persephone's Creations, Soddy Daisy, TN

Through the woods and over the bridge at Soddy Creek [a tributary of the Chicamauga Lake and the Tennessee River], quietly tucked within a small town north of Chattanooga is Persephone's Creations, an on-line quilting supply shop. This in-home quilt shop, owned by Betty and Jon Wojtowicz, might be small on space, but it's big on selection--quilting fabrics, precuts, wide backings, threads, patterns, notions and more.

I know many of my fellow Chattanooga area quilters follow my blog (thank you!) and have had the opportunity to personally visit the local shops I have blogged about on my Blank Quilting Fabric Rep Trek. For those who follow my blog from afar, Persephone's Creations maintains an excellent (and quite organized!) web site from which you can "peruse and procure" fabrics by type (various pre-cuts), collection name, manufacturer, color and holiday as well as items in other categories such as notions, needles, patterns, thread, and of course, Specials. And here is a peek at what's behind the scenes.

Pre-cuts—such as Blank Quilting's Fabrications 2.5" pre-cut strips and Fat Quarters—are quite popular at Persephone's Creations.

Pre-cut strips and fat quarter fabric collections.

Betty sells pre-cuts on site, through her on-line shopping cart, and on Ebay. With so many patterns, books and ideas available for these ready-to-sew collections, it's no wonder quilters can't get enough of them.

Fat Quarter bundles are available on-line at Persephone's Creations.

From the bolt, the selection of fabrics include beautiful prints in both vibrant and soft tones, florals, blenders (such as Splash) and inspiring modern prints like RaNae Merrill's Radiant collection. [See my blog post about what you can do with Radiant, here.]

Florals, blenders, and prints.

There is a good selection of batiks, including Sumatra ...

Batik prints.

 ... and blender batiks ...

Blender batiks.

... a variety of the cutest children's prints, funky stripes, dots, bubbles, bugs, dinosaurs, and coordinating prints ...

Cute juvenile prints with bugs, dinosaurs, dots, bubbles and stripes.

 ... and quilters' cottons for the dog and cat lovers ...

Dogs, cats, collars, bones and paw prints!

... metallic and Asian prints, such as the Mariko collection ...

Honeystone Hill metallic bledner prints.

... reproductions and coordinating solids.

A selection of reproduction prints and coordinates.

Persephone's Creations is ready and stocked for the seasons and upcoming holidays. 

Fall prints, coordinates, holiday collections and holiday blenders.

I've used her Christmas Joy panel (with 8 different motifs) to make holiday placemats.

Make placemats with the Christmas Joy panel.
Service for 8!

And, to jump start your creativity, there are patterns for quilts, bags, totes and more. Two of my favorites are "Easy as Pi" by the Franklin Quilt Company and "Oasis," designed by my friend, Chris Hoover, of Whirligig Designs.

Patterns for quilts, totes, table runners and more...

Oh, and if you are a thread connoisseur (or thread junky) like me, you'll love the selection of threads by Superior, Auriful and others. I like both Superior's Masterpiece 50 wt. and Aurifil's 50 wt. cotton for piecing and free-motion quilting.

Masterpiece and King Tut by Superior Threads

For you machine quilters—and all of my free-motion quilting students!—Persephone's stocks King Tut on cones (more thread for your buck!). And, one of my latest, can't-do-without quilting staples is 108" wide cotton backings.  There are several colors available in Splash, and Sparkle. (Yes, I even use wide backings for wall hangings, long table runners and bed runners. Oh, I'm so spoiled!)

Left: King Tut threads on cones.
Right: packaged battings and wide backing cottons.

Speaking of wide backings... just in time for those holiday quilts and festivities, Persphone's has the new Sparkle Christmas red (cherry) color and a black metallic wide back (black with gold swirls). Are you thinking holiday table cloths? See this blog post for my write-up on "Wide Backings and their Many Uses." 

Sparkle cherry and black metallic wide quilt backings.

I hope you visit Persephone's Creations—either virtually through their web site, or in person. The shop is open Monday, Friday and Saturday (see their web site for hours) or contact them for a drop-in. They also offer embroidery services. The shop's tag line is, "Making quilting affordable." So, check it out and tell them Veronica sent you.