thepolyparrot

Attagirl! Get back in there and fight!

I was stuck on feathers, so I traced feathers, then doodled those feathers on paper for days. I drew feathers in squares, circles, diamonds, triangles, narrow rectangles - all kinds of feathers. I got a Dry Erase board and some fine point Dry Erase Markers. I drew feathers until I was sick of them.

Then I made a "Wickedly Easy" king size quilt for the purpose of practicing feathers. I used the block and patch boundaries for putting in feather motifs. It wasn't easy, because it was a huge mass of quilt, but at least I wasn't hesitating after every inch, wondering which way to go next. It was already in my memory where to go.

That was the fanciest and most heavily quilted scrap quilt you've ever seen when it was done. But it gave me a lot of confidence.

So you doodle loops and meanders until you're sick of them and can do them with your eyes closed. Then go do them on a "sandwich" - if you use fusible batting or thread baste it together, it'll keep pins out of your way and give you one less thing to worry about.

You can totally do this!