I have been reading over Natalia's book, Visual Guide to Free-Motion Quilting Feathers trying to build up my free motion quilting feather confidence and practicing on some little pieces. I just love the way feathers look in a project, and when it came time to quilt this one, I knew feather's would be perfect. But the design called for more of an all over Feather, and that's when I remembered . . .
This fun little video tutorial that Rebecca Silbaugh did over on Instagram for Loose Feathers using her wee ones manga-doodle. It was the perfect design!!! I practiced on some paper a few times and then choose a thread that was a perfect blend with my quilt and just went for it ;) And oh my goodness, it was so much fun!!!!
This is a different approach to feathers than I have done in the past as you quilt from the bottom to the top of each feather. Once I got that down, I figured out changing sides of the feather and more importantly, when not to change sides when you wanted to curve at the bottom of the quilting frame. Sounds a bit tricky, but honestly, I was feeling pretty good by the end of the first row and I knew that this was going to be a new favorite quilting design!!! It just flows so well and the traveling became so fun once I got the hang of it. And yes, a few times I got myself a little stuck, wedging myself in a tight spot, but I just traveled out and reminded myself that the thread color blended well and no one will ever find those few little spots ;)
This Loose Feather quilting went relatively quick as well, especially as it was my first time trying it !! This is a giant queen size and I would guess it took me somewhere between 3-4 hours to quilt it. So fun and fast, double bonus!!! I am just so excited I gave these beautiful loose feathers a try!! What a wonderful reminder to me to just go for it, because hey, by the time you get to the end of the quilt, you will be a master at that particular design ;)
I hope you have a very Happy Quilting Day and maybe try something new for you too!!