Taking time for "Slow Quilting"

While the early October weather is blissfully pleasant outside and there is still daylight after the work day, take a break from the machines (sewing and computing) and relax with some hand piecing... no wi-fi, chargers or electrical cords required! 

Hexagons, or "hexies" are so in vogue these days. Remember the Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern? This is it all over again—but with fresh, new fabric prints. These hexie bits are going to be part of my Samsara quilt project.

Contemporary fabrics + English paper piecing = Slow Quilting Fun!

For most quilters, quilting is as much about the process as it is about the project. So, savor every stitch with English paper piecing and get your retro groove on with a few hexies... and a little slow quilting.

Note: You can get the hexagon paper templates at Paper Pieces [www.paperpieces.com] or plastic ones called Quilt Patis.

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.

What's inside Brown Bag #5...

This is the final rotation of the Brown Bag Challenge before the grand reveal at the October guild meeting... in a few short weeks. This owner is partial to the inserted strip technique, batiks and fabrics that "read like solid," string quilts, and something with a flavor of the Gee's Bend quilts.

The final Brown Bag of the 2013 Challenge.

I think I"ll revisit my notes from a Nancy Crow workshop I took a couple years ago. Sounds like innovative free-form piecing is in store... what fun!

Working with the Samsara collection

I'm working with yardage from one of Blank Quilting's new fabric collections, Samsara. The word in Sanskrit means "the ever turning wheel of life." Here is the plum colorway that will be hitting YLQS (your local quilt shop) later this fall.

Samsara fabric collection by Blank Quilting.

The plum, aubergene, and eggplant hues are reminiscent of the wild asters and fall crysanthemums that are blooming this time of year. These colors contrast the goldenrod in the paisley print and energize the collection.

I chose the block from the Square Daze pattern by Robin Jones at Cottontail Quilts. It has a graphic feel and shows off the paisley print.

Blocks from Square Daze pattern by Cottontail Quilts.

The dilemma is whether to go for a rectangular or square layout. What do you think?

I plan to introduce a few other fabrics—both from the collection and from blender collections, Isadora and Desiree.

Samsura collection with blenders.
Botton, from left: Isadora (eggplant and lavender) and Desiree (dijon).

The Desiree (dijon) gives the palette a little brightness and snap! I've used Desiree for the setting triangles of Moon Garden. It's a versatile print.

But first, I need to settle on the layout. Thoughts?