How to Quilt a Flower Feather

I know I have said this before, but I LOVE feathers—all kinds of feathers. This flower feather was one of the first ones I learned and just like the hook feather. It is a great beginner feather as there is no backtracking. There is no magic fairy dust it just takes practice. The best thing to do is doodle, doodle, doodle! This will create muscle memory so when you move over to the machine your muscles know what to do.The wreath tends to be the hardest element to do because you are creating feathers in all different directions. So while you are practicing your feathers, make sure you are creating them in all different directions. This will help make your wreath easier to execute. As you can see from the picture below this feather doesn’t just shine in a wreath! And if you add a little stem in the center and some swirls on the outside, this feather can certainly take center stage on any of your quilts.

Drawing here is key! The more you draw the better you will get. In the above picture, I added a little stem in the center of the feather which really adds to the feather. Give it a try!

Ok, you are ready to move over to the machine and you are going to rock this feather! You will notice in the drawing picture above, there are three circles. The center circle is the one that you will stitch out. The larger and smaller circles you will mark on there with chalk. These are just guidelines for you to know how far to bring your feathers too. This will give your feathers a little uniformity.

One of the biggest problems that my students run into, is their first feather comes in to the spine at a shallow angle, this will give you a very awkward “last feather” when you try and come around the wreath and match it up. So make sure you practice it. Starting at 9:00, stitch your feathers around till 6:00. Stop and estimate how many feathers you might be able to fit in the space left and finish it up. The other struggle point are the inside feathers. Feathers on the inside of a curve are lazy and lay on the spine longer than the outside feathers. Practice makes perfect.

Here is a quick video of me stitching out the flower feather on the BERNINA Longarm Q 24!

Well, how’d you do?  I’d love to hear!