71. Free Motion Quilting Wired Feather, #416

I’m in the mood for a beautiful feather design today and the inspiration for this design is coming straight out of my love for beadwork and wire jewelry. What happens if we stitch a spiral “wire” into the middle of each feather?

After stitching this design, I was suddenly reminded of Patsy Thompson’s beautiful hyperquilted feathers in her book Feather Adventures. The cool thing Patsy adds in her hyperquilting is multiple thread colors. So she would quilt the feather in one color, then the spirals in another color of thread, creating an awesome two color effect!

No matter which way you stitch it, this design is going to be a lot of fun and a great way to practice feathers. Let’s see how it’s stitched:

In the video I talk a lot about visually estimating space to line up the feathers and start the curves at the right point. Simply put: this takes practice! I definitely struggled with feathers for awhile until I stitched them so many times, I memorized exactly how to make that smooth shape line up and curve out at the right place every time.

One thing I’ve learned from watching Josh learn to quilt is the importance of marking. Grab your marking pencil or pen and mark this design on your fabric if you can’t visualize it to start. After a bit of practice, you’ll get the hang of how everything is supposed to line up and you’ll be able to quilt without marking.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day