Is it just me or are feathers becoming too common?
 

I have been a fairly consistent reader of late and noticed that IMHO too many quilts, sent out to be longarm quilted, come back with a feather motif and then their careful piecing or well executed design elements get overpowered in a thousand swirls. I understand that many of us do not have the skills or mindset to do intricate/complex quilting and few can compete with computer generated near perfection, but are quilts becoming less personalized and too often being stitched with a puppy mill mentality and feathers are just in...for the moment? Do you leave it mostly to the "experts" and then hope for the best or do you google/bing, or whatever, the type of machine being used and then shop for a design that suits you, their machine and your quilt top and ask them to buy it and work it into your quilt?

Please no hate mail from you dedicated long arm quilters, I get feathers are both historic and some quilts scream for their use...but for those of you who think "outside the box"...what is your approach and when does a quilt stop being yours and become a canvas for excess?

I agree with you. As someone who has been lucky to win many awards with my quilts, I always went back telling myself how a hand quilter would quilt it. I am a firm believer that the piecing should take center stage and the quilting should enhance the quilt top. Please take no offense if you are a different quilter. There is no wrong or right way and there is a need for variety. Some people may prefer a heavily quilted quilt. I do not. Maybe you need to speak up gently to your LAQ and give her suggestions if you can. It is just my opinion.

I had a quilt that, even though we discussed the simple pattern I wanted done on it, the LA ruined with all the feathers and swirls. Her design took away from the beauty of the piecing.

I have quilts quilted by different LAers and I chose them based on what I wanted done. Some needed feathers, others line work, and one needed freehand--plus price is always a consideration. Everyone I have worked with has been wonderful to listen to my wants and ideas and then have executed them beautifully. I also always ask what THEY think, since they are the experts. I am not disappointed, and I do want the piecing to take center stage. What I don't care for so much are the pantos, unless the quilt is so busy or utilitarian that it won't matter. Nor do I want them stiff as a board. I just want a beautiful quilt when it is finished. I get tired and I am sure they do, too, but I am not being paid for what I do.

I do like feathers. There are so many different ways to stitch them that I just can't help but enjoy putting them on when suitable. Often they just fit. Several years ago everything was leaves if you'll remember. McTavishing is also popular now. I like to experiment with all and when in doubt go back to hand quilting which can be controlled.

I ALSO agree that quilting should not take away from the quilt. I prefer not to quilt real heavy but I do like feathers mine are not perfect but they are fun to do. I mostly do free hand on my longarm but have done a few pantos too.

Some people like dense quilting, some people like lots of open space, and some people love tied quilts. There's no reason why you can't have your quilt the way you want it. Folks need to have a discussion with their quilter BEFORE they leave the top so that the quilting will be done to their satisfaction. Something in writing is always the best. Maybe a picture from a magazine of something they like. The more detail you provide about what you are looking for the better. Look at some of their other work to get an idea of their style.
Personally, I like the look of hand guided quilting with lots of texture. Bring on the feathers & swirls!

I'm a long armer and I firmly believe the quilting should enhance the piecing, that when you look at a quilt, the quilting should not be the first thing you notice.

What is the mctavishing?

The one that drives me nuts with its utter lack of artistry and assembly-line look is the large stipple that mows over the entire quilt without regard for the piecing. I assume it's a pantograph. I see them all the time at KQ, and it's hard to look past it to the quilt top.

Charlotte

I would have had her redo it the way you asked

Unless a quilt is custom quilted, pantographs and computerized quilting will just go over everything. Some people look for pantos or computerized quilting and others like custom quilting. Custom quilting is generally the most expensive, then computerized quilting and pantos or all over stippling and such are the cheapest. Many people like feathers so that might also count for its popularity. I myself enjoy feathers and leaves both as an overall design or custom quilted to fit the blocks. You should talk to your long arm quilter and let them know your preferences and dislikes. Generally they will have some samples for you to look at or pictures of panto or computerized designs to choose from. I belief a long arm quilter should bring out the work the customer did and not over power it, bury it or make the quilt stiff from all the quilting unless the customer is looking for that.

McTavishing is a background filler which employs long swooping lines and curves. It can be made very densely to pack down the background or it can be made loosely to add motion and interest to the quilt top.

This link shows some examples ..... http://www.designerquilts.com/gallery5_mctavishing.html

Mctavishing is really pretty - would love to learn how to do this on my Tin Lizzie.

She'd still be picking stitches if it were mine!

I don't mind feathers if they fit with the piecing pattern. What I don't like are quilting going all over in straight groups with no re guard to the piecing.

The quilting should be the icing on the cake.

My quilts don't have too many feathers because I don't know how to do them yet. :D

Wait, so by saying that I don't have the skills or mindset to accomplish anything to your taste, you weren't actually slamming me or my work? And by calling peoples work a puppy mill and a canvas for excess you felt that was necessary to your question?
IMHO the different choices we make in our work is why we are interested in seeing each others work. It is a pleasure to share ideas and projects here because of the support we get and the veried ideas and styles.it is sad to hear peoples skills and efforts being insulted like this.
By the way I think feathers look soft and traditional and I like them.

As my work is all free hand I spend time with the owner of the quilt to see what they had in mind. Feather's do seem the rage but I also find about half of those who request them do so because they don't have that motif represented in their personal collection of quilts. When quilts go to a computerized operator the different sections need to be discussed as the default is an overall pattern. If you say "some" feathers you might just get all feathers. Its fast to do a single motif.

As a Longarmer, my personal preference is not dense heavy quilting unless the project is for a wallhanging. I think the quilting should not be the first thing that is seen unless it is a handquilted whole cloth. Quilting needs to highlight the piecing and the fabrics in my opinion. I speak to my customers and we discuss their ideas, my capabilities, (I quilt freehand, no computer on my longarm) my ideas and then we listen to the quilt too ! So far this process seems to work for me.

It was so overquilted the top would have been ruined trying to redo it.

I had never heard of it, not really familiar w/ a lot of quilting types, but I like that a lot better then the traditional all over meander.

I love feathers, wish I could do them but I pretty much only meander because that's what I'm good at.

I'm not a long arm quilter, but I find the tone of your post condescending. There are lots of quilts other people do that are not to my taste and I'm sure the reverse is true, but I don't feel the need comment on it or pass judgment on what somebody else likes. Quilt fabrics and styles go in and out of fashion just like everything else. No, I don't have a single feathered quilt...

As a longarmmer, I prefer that my customers give me some type of direction on the quilting that they desire. However, so many of them do not even though I ask. Sometimes, feathers are the best thing to fill in an area. With that being said, I do think sometimes that feathers are overdone.

She has books on how to........Karen McTavish is the original designer of this technique.....

There are many books, CDs, tutes on how to do feathers....just some scribble paper and a pencil, and some doodle time and you will do them......think half heart..........

I really don't read any condescending or judgmental comments in this thread......we are expressing opinions.....and isn't that what this board/ thread is about........this is just a written conversation.......someone threw out a scenerio and these are the responses......pro and con

I am a hand quilter and belong to the school of "less is more" when it comes to the quilting. I see so many quilts that are, in my opinion, over quilted and so many times I can't see the quilt for all of the quilting.

There are times when I think that the heavy quilting works....especially when it's used to high light an applique, etc. but for the most part I'm with you on the "too many feathers".

Any LAQ that I hired, that used her own idea, instead of what was agreed upon, would either be taking it out, and redoing what was requested OR paying me for the fabric and time lost, and NEVER USED AGAIN. She/he was hired by you, to do a job you were paying for, how dare she/he even think to go off on something else. Inexcusable in my book. I love seeing all the wonderful quilting here, especially the ones posted that enhance the piecing. I do realize that some of us can be a little unrealistic (you can quilt that out right?) but if I agree to pay you to stitch straight lines all over a quilt, I will not be paying for anything else, however I am open to better suggestions during the negotiations process. I think of it this way- If I pay my mechanic to fix my Kia, I will not be paying for any Volkswagon parts "used" instead!

Depending on the quilt and the preferences of the person whose quilt it is, sometimes the quilting needs to be front and center. Other times, it should enhance the piecing.

Here's an example: I built a labyrinth quilt, I didn't use the 10 colors or whatever the pattern called for, I did it in three marble batiks without prints on top of the fabric. With only three colors, the huge expanses of fabric needed something to make them interesting. That quilt became a quilting canvas with lots of feathers.

A friend gave me her beautiful red French braid. The fabrics were so interesting that I had a hard time not just SITD the whole thing and giving it back to her. I wanted to see all of the fabrics and no quilting. She insisted she wanted my custom work though because she'd seen the labyrinth. There's not a single feather on that quilt. I actually put Asian looking fans on it, curlicues and swirls and because I did SITD all of the braids, I was able to keep it really sparse for the rest of the quilting. Of course, that also means I did the hardest thing. SITD on a LA is not the easy job it seems like it should be. It's easier on a domestic machine.

I am pleased that most people understand that I am not on a crusade against feathers, those who love them, do them, advise their use or even sleep on them...in fact my first quilt has a plethora of them as a dominant motif and it still pleases me. What I was attempting to do is adding a posting that gives a forum to others as to how they choose a design, seek others to interpret their indecision, how the professionals view both their artistic responsibility and financial obligation and allow others to simply add their two cents and not have some caustic reply drive them back to using private messages to express their opinions... so as not to bruise an ego.

McTavishing is four curled spikes together and the next four taking off in another direction. It's a filler pattern invented by Karen McTavish who specializes in whole cloth quilts.

Ha! I'd rather do feathers any day than SID on my longarm - you're so right about SID being the most tedious and difficult on a long arm!

True, its all a question of taste. Thank goodness we are all different.

Hers was one of the first fills I liked. She says she came up trying to mimic traditional hand quilting but on a machine. I think that's perhaps why a lot of her work resonates with more traditional quilters so much.

Exactly! I think the SID took me 3 full days on that braid. I think I narrowed it down to having to anticipate when you were going off course before it happened, and manage to not over correct all the while trying to manage any wave from the fabrics too. There's really no such thing as a long straight line to follow. :) That might be why sometimes LAers will "pull a face" and charge heavily if you want a lot of SID.

I really like feathers and am drawn to them when I look at quilts. I haven't done much quilting myself yet because we had custody of my granddaughter for the past 15 months and I didn't get much of any hobbies done. She's back with her parents now. Maybe 2015 will be better in this wayj.

Vertical and horizontal straight lines on l/a are easy...can do freehand, but diagonal..need the ruler.......