Feathers Everywhere

I hope you've been enjoying quilting feathers!  Here is a photo of a portion of a quilt, "Twilight Rhythms," that contained lots of feathers, flowers quilted with the echo feather technique, and backgrounds on a hand dyed sateen.  The largest feathers are about 5" long, and the tiny ones are tiny. 

Once you learn the shape, and the spacing technique with the line of echo quilting, just about any non-continuous line design can be quilted this way.  Leaving a small space and echoing the line, then echoing the entire design gives it a tailored, finished look.

Here the flowers are quilted with the technique, as could be leaves, pinecones, sunflowers, whatever you choose that has petal shapes or parts hat all unite to form a unit.  The echo lets you travel to the next shape.

My sewing machine has been getting a tune-up and soon I'll be working at it again.  I have reached the physical boundaries in my sewing room with no more space, and I can't find anything anymore.  It's a dilemma, as I really want to keep everything, but must start downsizing to be able to function at all in the space. 

Oliver plans on helping me sort and organize.  Ha!

Hope spring is in the air where you live, it is here in the north, with longer days already.  Time to plan a spring trip to a quilt event!

Keep quilting, keep feathering, don't let what you've learned fade away.

Diane

Feathers on One Side Only!

I have been looking at the FMQ Challenge results that many of you have posted, and they are fabulous!  There are feather plumes everywhere, all over the world, looking individual, unique, lovely.

Practicing drawing, quilting, going back, trying again, all of you worked so hard and came up with some spectacular results.  The best thing?  You are quilting them already in your quilts. 

They look terrific, and of course, the more you do, and keep at it, and try new things with them, the easier they will be, the better they will become.  Try different threads and needles.  It's always fun to experiment, and yes, it is a process, a journey, and seeing improvement so quickly does keep you going.  I am really happy so many of you are doing quite well with this tutorial.

The echo quilting background I did is more difficult and takes a long time to do.  Simple echoes that repeat the design are easier, with more spacing.  If you use a contrast color thread that shows for the feathers, choose one that matches background for echoes or other background design so the feathers are highlighted, and your "oops moments" in echoes are not as obvious.  But echo quilting is a fabulous technique to learn, so keep at it, love seeing your results.

The hardest thing in doing echo quilting is having good visibility in your home sewing machine.  Some machines make it truly difficult, others are great because of the foot placement, no big thumb screws or added hardware getting in your line of vision.  Big thick plastic feet are hard to see around, as are feet that are not offset from the central post but block your view at "noon."

Time for another idea for your feathers.

The photo, above, is a variation of the feather plume that you can try.  It works placed around anything, other designs, applique, open spaces. 

I used the Perfect Spiral tool by Anita Shackleford at www.thimbleworks.com to trace the spiral lines that became the spines of the feathers as they radiate outwards.  I only traced one line, quilted it out from the base at the echoes around the pile of Headbands (directions in my Quilt Savvy book).  Then at the outer edge, and just as in the spine in the tutorial, I echoed it back to my starting point and then feathered it.

It's easiest to feather on the outside curve, the edge that is like the outside edge of an inflated balloon.  Here I quilted on the left side of the spine and it was the Dreaded Inside Curve, but it is so gentle it is not a problem. This side can be tricky and more difficult as so many of you found. 

This design lets you quilt on either side, pick your "best" side and do that. If you found it was always hard to do one side, but the "other" side was good, pick that side and quilt it in this design. 

You can also quilt this design in plumes, so each line has feathers emerging from it.  Be sure and double the spine so you don't get thread pileups going to a single stitched line.

The feathers also fill the background space, no need for any other quilting that can be so tedious. 

I loved reading someone saying that she decided to quickly add a few more feathers as it decreased the amount of echo quilting!  Something I discovered years ago too.....:-)!

The center part could be an applique, and actually this spiral technique was devised by Anita as an applique block background.  Feathering it is just a way to make it more interesting and give more excitement to the central area.

You could divide a border space with these curves and do areas of this design like a fractured design.  It would not be difficult, it would give you areas to quilt and take a break, and would look new and fresh and interesting.

Yes, you can use straight lines for this if you like, but the soft curves  look so flowing and natural.  And yes, you can sketch these yourself without a tool, give it a try.

Straight lines would be perfect to give an architectural look or more geometry to the feather design. 

The lines control and contain your feather shapes.  You have boundaries for your feather exuberance!  Here you quilt the feathers to fill the space, so deciding on how big to make them is so easy, and they graduate nicely in size too.

I'll keep checking your results on SewCalGal's blog, and ....

Keep quilting!  Your work really does get better every day!

Diane

FMQ Challenge Feather Plume Part 2

Thanks for all your enthusiasm and comments about my upcoming tutorial for SewCalGal's Free Motion Quilting Challenge!  I know many taking part are beginners, and also many are experienced quilters, so I had to aim for all levels in my explanation of quilting a feather plume.

The sample, above, is done with #100 YLI silk thread on silk dupioni, Hobbs wool batt, and I made it about 10 or more years ago when I first started quilting feathers freehand after years of drawing and tracing my own feather designs, and before that using stencils. 

It still looks fine.  I would do it a bit differently now (the spacing on the spiral at the base of the spine is too close, should have more puff to make it stand out from the background), but don't be afraid to learn this technique and use it right away on your quilts.  The only way you'll improve and be smooth and confident is to quilt tops.  Repetition on a real quilt is the key.

Some things we should remember:

Feathers are unique to the quilter, but they do have some basic things in common.

The "flow" of the feather or elegance is based on the angle that is formed as it touches (yes, it must touch) the spine, or central line.  My feathers have a narrow angle, maybe about 20 degrees or less, depending on the curve of the spine.  You will find many stencil feathers come to the spine at a much bigger angle, more than 45 degrees.  I call this angle the "tilt" of the feather and like to keep mine very tilted.  I'll try and find a stencil that has chunkier feathers for you to see, and show it in a future post.

I include both long, fat, thin, large and small feathers in a plume to make it look more interesting and natural.  It's not necessary to do this if it is easier for you to make them all the same, but many quilters like the "no restrictions" of feathers in all sizes.

Avoid straight lines.  If there is one straight line in 40 feathers, the eye will go right to that.  Always try and curve the lines gently, not abruptly.  It sounds easy, but all of us tend to see "home" and head straight towards it.  In my tutorial there is one straight line feather - you'll probably see it right away, but I left it in and continued.

The echo space between each feather needs to be very consistent and even, as if you have a twin-needle in the machine.  This looks really hard, but in reality it is a resting time as you quilt, as you don't have to think about where you are going. 

A nice medium speed is good; too fast and you get out of control, too slow and the line isn't smooth.  Look ahead of the needle, create the space and make that even.  Don't look at the stitches.

There will always be some "odd" feathers in your design.  Don't worry about them!  With all the swirls and curves, one strangely shaped feather won't stand out.  If they are all strange, perhaps you have invented an entirely new design.....!

If you quilt one side of the feather better than the other, start on the good side first the next time.  Take a break, just a few minutes, before doing the second side, and really think about where you want to quilt, the shape you will make.  Concentrate!

It's ok to stop, needle down, take a breath, then proceed.  This isn't quilting where your life or income depends on it; this is fun.  It will go faster as you get better and more experienced.

Be very careful when you resume quilting, start slowly so the needle doesn't jump to a new spot.  I usually begin by raising the needle and then starting so I'm sure the needle is in the right place.  On my Bernina I do this by touching my heel to the foot control - needle is raised, or lowered with that action.

Make small plumes for practice, with a spine about 5" long.  Make several.  Take a break, start a new practice sandwich, then make some more.   If you do one incorrectly and then try a new one next to it, your eye will see the bad one and reproduce it one more time.  Get a new sample so you start fresh.

Remove thread tails so they don't get in the way or distract you.

When you reach the spine don't keep running the machine if you are not sure where to go next.  A knot of thread will build up top or back or both in about 3 stitches, so stop the machine, readjust hands, figure out your plan, then proceed.

I hope these tips will help you, even if you are not in the Challenge.  Quilting feathers is a beautiful thing, something that not only is relaxing but also fills your quilts with lovely designs and gets them finished before you know it.

Snow here in Wisconsin, beautiful flocked trees, blue skies and sun.  Time to quilt!

Diane