Rettie V. Grama

Yes, it is possible. I'm making my first Scrappy. The first segment center just yelled out to me "Butterfly". I found a feather in a quilting book, copied it onto paper, cut out the pieces, pinned them on the piece representing a butterfly. Quilting it and (behold) a Butterfly.

Hope this is the correct picture.

azwendyg

It's TOTALLY POSSIBLE to create wonderful FMQ feathers without a long arm! Here are some of mine done on a domestic machine; no stencil. I just mark the spine of the feather, if any marking at all. The white one was marked throughout the design though, because I wanted it symetrical/mirror image. I started learning FMQ a little over 2 years ago and only spend "hobby time" at it since I work full-time.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-108751-1.htm
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-135369-1.htm
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-140069-1.htm
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-95479-1.htm

So, go for it! It takes practice, and I found the quilting feathers on a domestic machine DVD's from Sharon Schamber to be very helpful in improving my technique.

Don't expect great results at first. After over 2 years, I'm finally getting more comfortable about doing feathers. Now they're my favorite/easiest design to do because I've practiced them sooooooooo much!

Wendy

hcarpanini

Use Golden Threads paper (available at quilt shops). Trace design right on the paper, and then stitch through. Set your machine stitch length a bit smaller so then it is easy to rip the paper away.

quiltbuddy

I was just looking at one of my books called "Feathers That Fly" by Lee Cleland. A whole book devoted to designing, marking, and quilting feather motifs. What a great resource! I agree with what others have said, it just takes practice to do on a domestic machine. Have you seen the Day Style Designs videos (free, online)? Leah Day is now testing less expensive machines using her techniques.

humbird

Your work is beautiful. You are a true master!!

grammysharon

Ricki Timms has a DVD out on feather quilting and he is using a older shortarm domestic machine. :D

Holice

i strongly suggest using a stencil to make the design. it will be easier and more flexible for you and you can manulipilate the design if you need to. Unless you have a design that is especially designed for machine quilting then it is helpful to look at the design and decide where you will overquilt a line here and there. It is difficult to see but my avatar is quilted with domestic machine and they are all feathers.

GGinMcKinney

On home machine do you free motion over the drawn lines of a feather or use walking foot? For beginners. I would imagine one day you would hope to do it FM with no lines drawn.

kwiltnutt

I like this product but it is a B**** to remove the tiny pieces of paper that will get stuck in some of the stitches. Just my 2 cents!

azwendyg

You can do either, depending on the design you choose.

You need to use the FMQ foot or darning foot for feathers, and do as much marking as you fell need. Just be sure to test removal of your marks on a scrap of material first! (Ask me how I know this!) When you've had enough practice, you may only want to mark the spines of the feathers, or not mark at all.

A really fun design to do that is easy for beginners is to use the walking foot to stitch a grid of gently wavy lines all over the quilt. To kind of guide the lines of stitching, you can either mark with something easily removable, or, my favorite method-use 2 parallel strips of blue painters tape spaced 2-4 inches apart and keep your wavy lines of stitching between them. Then just pull one of the tape strips off, move it over, and repeat stitching until you've worked your way across the whole quilt top. There's no marking or paper to remove, and the tape just peels right off because you do not stitch over it.

It turns out looking really cool, especially with a contrasting but coordinating thread and you can space the stitching lines however is needed for the batting you are using. To make it a little more fancy, you can do double lines of stitching using the edge of the walking foot along the first stitching to guide the second line of stitching. This is a great confidence builder for beginners!

My daugher used this technique on one of the first fairly large quilts she did on her new machine: http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-134082-1.htm

Wendy