Want to make lovely feather motifs like this one?
I decided to write a simple “how-to” for quilting basic feather types. This post is also for the students in my class yesterday who had questions about simple feathers, “continuous curve” quilting, and how I would quilt a wedding ring quilt. If you scroll down to the bottom of the post, you will see the difference between a feathered “flurry” quilt and a “feathered meander.”
Here is my simple tutorial for drawing and quilting freehand feathers:
Ever struggle with your feather shape? Here is a helpful page to print out and practice. HInt- if you print it out and laminate the page, you can practice with dry erase pens over and over:
Here’s my how-to for Heirloom Feathers:
Here is the order for the Continuous Curve quilting in a 9-patch:
I also mentioned the Wedding ring quilt on my table at the moment- and how I take photos of the quilt and send suggestions to the friend who owns it. Suzie, this is relevant for you since you will be teaching a Wedding Ring class. Here are the 4 suggestions I drew for this friend:
The first two examples are stencil inspiration, the last two are my own drawings and ideas. My friend, the quilt’s owner picked #2, by the way, so I am busy implementing it. See the finished quilt here:
(Click on for larger view)
I also mentioned a technique called, “The Flurry,” a design created by my good pal, Jamie Wallen (thanks Jamie!). Flurrying a quilt is fast when you have the design down pat. Here is what is looks like quilted on a quilt:
If I were to draw it out, it would look like this:
Here is what Megan Best spine method looks like used on a quilt:
and the back:
I do hope this is helpful for all you beginning quilting students our there! Happy Quilting!
Regards, Carla
PS: Here is the link for the finished wedding ring quilt shown above. Some other great posts about quilting are shown here and here.
Carla Barrett 