Feather Examples

These are a couple of examples that may help you as you plan out your feather designs.  To encourage those of you with machines without stitch regulators, both of the quilts I’m showing today were done before I had a stitch regulator.

This is a corner from my Glistening Rose Garden quilt.  If you look closely at this quilt, you will see that the feathers aren’t perfect but this quilt won 5 or 6 ribbons, including a first place at the Vermont Quilt Festival, Founder’s Choice at MQS, a ribbon at Quilters’ Heritage in Lancaster, PA.  The feathers were trapuntoed with a whole lot of tight stippling around them.

For the border, I calculated the amount of space each “arc” should take up and then I drew the spine.  I did a kind of a “shadow” template that had the outside edge and the inside edge.  I positioned that over the spine and marked the outer and inner lines of where the feathers would go and then I quilted the feathers to those lines.

This was a Stack & Whack^R   and the main fabric was a leaf print so I wanted leaves in the border but I quilted them exactly as I do feathers and instead of making rounded ends, I made pointed ends and stuck the little “stem” in the middle", which changed feathers to leaves!

For the corner, I didn’t want it round so I had it just run off the edge of the corner. 

This quilt won first place at the AQS Expo in Nashville in 2004 (or maybe it was 2005 . . can’t remember).

You can do anything you want to do on your quilts.  Don’t limit yourself to whatever stencils you can find.  Stencils are great and I have plenty of them.  I’m not knocking stencils and I’ve seen gorgeous quilts that use lots of stencils but it’s nice when you can use stencils or freehand . . whatever suits you.

Keep practicing and if I can help you, please send me an email.