This quilt – Feathers and Pinwheels was primarily a practice quilt. I can see that practice is taking my free motion quilting to the next level. In this quilt, I really wanted to practice different shapes of feathers.
In each brown square, I drew a line with wash-away marker. The lines were different shapes – heart, square, horseshoe, etc. That line I used as the spine for the feather. I didn’t mark the fronds of the feather, but tried to fill in the space that was available in the square.
I tried as many different shapes as I could think of.
The pinwheel blocks I didn’t mark, but just eyeballed the curves and stripes. If this had been for competition, I would have wanted to mark them as you can see some are a bit wonky, but it looks fine if you don’t look too closely.
In the triangles on the corner, I just did loops to go with the feather, even though it isn’t exactly a feather.
The border fabric looks like it is pieced, and I love that little detail.
I am really pleased with how this turned out and am getting much more confident in free motion quilting. Practice is paying off!
Elizabeth DeCroos
designer, teacher, speaker
Elizabeth enjoys doing all types of sewing and needlework and teaching others new techniques. Find out how to take a course or workshop.