Question on doing feathers
 

I purchased a sketch pad from the dollar store last week so I could practice doing feathers. I have tried (tried is the operative work here :eek:) numerous times to stitch feathers and wanted to improve my performance. LOL My question...when you do feathers the length of the quilt in the border, do you stitch one continuous feather or join several? If several are used, how do you join them? Oh, another question...do you try to make both sides of the feather symmetrical? Mine come out rather wonky.

the wonkiness could be disguised by curving your feathers... then the [petals] on each side would not be expected to be symmetrical. as to the length, i'd do it in sections.

My feathers are never exactly symmetrical, but they still manage to look fine on the finished quilt. If you truly want symmetrical feathers, Westalee makes several different sizes of feather rulers that can be used with a ruler foot on domestic machines--they end up looking so regular that they resemble ones done using a pantograph or groovy board with a long arm.

Rob

I went through a video series called Feather Boot Camp and she has you do a LOT of drawing. You might like it.

I'm no expert, in fact I'm taking a class next week to work on this, but I've seen people do the length of the quilt and join then in the centre, making the curve of the spine match on either side.

For myself, I find the "bump back" feathers tend to be more symmetrical when I do them than others. But, they are never really perfect and I think that's good.

Watson

I found that by doing the doodle practice, a certain style of feather emerged as one that I tend to gravitate towards. If you want a symmetrical one, then keep practicing that style. Instead of just marking the spine, maybe you need to give yourself some guidelines (like outer edges) to help contain your feathers.

I think totally symmetrical, straight spine feathers are way too formal! Plus I like the look of a curvy spine. I usually like to wind them around a corner and meet in the center. That way the feathers are various size and can fill the border better.

Qiltingshorttimer, so do you have upside down feathers on some part of your border or do you change direction on the sides after you go around the corner?

You can do one Long feather down each side. Or two that come out from the corners to the center, with a small gap between. You can even do a lot of smaller feathers. If you curve the spines you can tuck the beginning of the next feather below the end of the former feather. Lots of ways to do it.

Watson, oh my goodness, thanks for the information about Feather Boot Camp! I just watched the first lesson. I am excited to go through this course. Ready to draw! I am brand new to longarm quilting and will take a lot of time to practice the techniques. This is just want I need to get started.

I start with a curvy line, spine around the entire quilt, then do 'bump back' petals on the right side, all the way around, and once I've come all the way around, i do the left side the same. Occasionally, I'll add a swirl or something to fill in a gap, but mostly just differing sizes of petals to fill the sides.
On one quilt, I worked out making two ropes of feathers intertwine. It was fun, but nerve wracking. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/535083999460677467/. It's a wide border on a Radiant Star quilt.

It took me a long time to grasp doing feathers, but my biggest breakthrough came from Judy Woodworth. I was taking a class from her when she passed on a tip to imagine going over a coin for the top of the curve before going down to the spine. It was priceless!

Where did you find the video series called Feather Boot Camp? I didn't find it on youtube.

I can’t seem to copy the link here but recently there was a discussion on feathers in borders. In search, I typed in feathers in borders and it came to the link. There is a great YouTube video.

It is Tips on Feathers started by Watson.

Angela Walters has a U-tube video on this--she says you don't have to do one long feather. Google her as she has lots of good ideas.

The link to Feather Boot Camp is:

http://www.suzanneearley.net/feather-boot-camp/

I don’t remember where I saw this idea, but this is an idea to do feathers that I found on a blog, that even I could make work. Start with a piece of tissue paper the size of the area (border, block,etc,) that you want to fill with feathers. Draw a “spine” line where you want the feathers to go, then using a coin (or something round of the desired size), trace coins down both sides of the line, and one at the terminal end of the line. See first example. Now, using another color pen or pencil, retrace the coins but terminate the lines in the top of the next coin. See second example. Please remember that I sew because I can not draw. Now pin your tissue to your quilt section and follow the second set of lines only. Feathers made.

yes, I try to start at the half way point of the sides and go to half way of the top/bottom--it frames the quilt and on larger quilts I personally think it's more interesting. and that does put some head "south" I've also done Angela Walters' "wild feathers" and gone from the side of the main part of quilt and go out to the edge of border (remember to leave your 1/4" for the binding) and then done straight lines to fill in the spaces. (this was a customer quilt that had 10"borders!)

Here is a link to the feather boot camp you mentioned, I believe. http://wp.me/PqREJ-1Lu