Perfect Feather Quilt Block – Feathered Hearts #231

I think I’ve stitched the perfect feather quilt block – with beautiful Feathered Hearts!

After looking at it again this morning, I think this quilted block is pretty festive. Maybe that’s just what feathers do to any shape? They add that touch of elegance and movement that just makes you want to reach out and touch them.

Maybe this would be a good design to try in a Christmas ornament or quilted project? I think it would look terrific! And wouldn’t you know, my future self did quilt perfect feather blocks in a Christmas tree quilt. Let’s learn how to quilt it:

Inspiration – I’ve been playing with feathers a lot lately trying to find ways to make them easier to explain and maybe easier to stitch. I’ll also admit that I sometimes like complicating feathers: adding swirls, arches, and echoes to make them even more complex!

Difficulty Level – Intermediate. As I say in the video, to start this design try marking a cross shape in the center of your quilting space as a guide for the hearts. Once the hearts are formed, the feathers just build off them so really it’s the hearts that are most important to get right.

While quilting your feathers, try many different angles and directions for quilting. This is one of those shapes that is stitched differently by just about everybody, so play with it and find what works best for you.

Design Family – Center Fill. This design starts in the center and works out, so you do want to place this in an open area where it has room to branch out. You could keep it small for a flower shape or you can continue to expand the feathers to take up more and more space.

Directional Texture – Center Focused. I love starting in the center of the block and working towards the edges with feathers because as you get more space you can start expanding your feathers and making them bigger and more eye catching with every pass.

Suggestions for Use – I keep thinking about beautiful wholecloth quilts that go over the top with feathers of all shapes and sizes! If you already have all your quilted presents done for the year, why not try challenging yourself with a small wholecloth project? I promise it will be both challenging and fun in equal measure!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day