Feather Quilting

[jakrnsewing]

I have been admiring quilts that many of you have done just takes your breath away I can view them for hours. My question is and I know everyone may do them differentlly but are these all freehand or is there a lot of marking that goes into the precision of these feathers? Especially the round or square feather motifs? I have been quilting since february and am now just starting to put feathering on quilts I am happing with my begining technique but want to advance and just don't know if I should be marking before feathering.. I did purchase Formal Feather 101 and know many of these feathering tehniques are practiced in this workbook but even tracing and drawing feather has been chanllenging. Thanks Jackie

[JudyL]

Jackie:

Remember that most of us don't show you our goofy looking feathers. I find it so much easier to do freehand and not have to re-size motifs or draft perfect designs. When doing a bunch of feather wreaths, I wish for the CQ but so far, I've managed to get by without it. Probably 80% of what I do is freehand. Some things just have to be marked though. Even the freehand feathers usually have some type of registration marks so I don't get them too wonky.

We all learn in different ways but I find that loading the machine with a muslin sandwich and practicing with real thread works best for me. When I got Formal Feathers 101, I'd been making feathers for years, even though mine didn't look like Sherry's! I loaded a muslin sandwich and began practicing. The first few were just awful but with a bit of practice, they looked pretty good! It was encouraging for me to see them go from awful to acceptable in a short amount of time and I now have that practice sandwich to look back on when I need encouragement.

Good luck with your feathers!

[dtreusch]

Jackie,

I've only been quilting since last October. I started putting feathers on quilts about March after several months of practicing on paper and a white board. When I first started putting feathers on quilts, I drew them with an air soluble pen. It helped me to keep the feathers a consistent size.

When I was comfortable with that, I started drawing just the top arc of the feather and leaving out the tail. Again, so that I could keep the feathers a consistent size.

Now, I have progressed to the point where I just draw containment lines and feathers where a change of direction occurs. I draw these lines for feather borders, wreaths, etc. I don't draw anything for overall freehand feather designs.

I still have some difficulty doing formal feathers that retrace the top arc. They are getting better though. Right now, I am most comfortable with feathers that do not touch each other, or feathers that retrace the tail. I recently put a pic in the Fons and Porter topic where you can see some feathered curliques that are used all over the quilt. The picture is towards the bottom of the topic. These are all feathers that do not touch each other. Very easy to do, and best of all, no marking or drawing involved.

Keep practicing. You'll be whipping out those georgeous feathers in no time at all!!

Debbi

[Guest Linda S]

Jackie - Judy is right - we don't post the pics of the things that don't look so hot. I generally mark the spines of my feathers and then freehand the feathers themselves. Occasionally, I will just freehand the spine. Sometimes, when a customer wants something very traditional and hand-quilted looking, I will use a stencil, meaning I mark the whole thing. That's pretty rare though.

Linda